Our golden years

Our “golden years of spotting” were between 1960 and 1990; this was the time we made many authorised visits to airbases to report on operational activities and weapon meets such as TWM, Royal Flush, Best Hit and the like. We also undertook spotting trips to Dutch and foreign airbases to look for the unexpected. This section gives an overview of our spotting efforts in those years.

Best Hit Weapons Meet 1972, Larissa, Greece

BEST HIT was a NATO competition in which the air forces of Italy, Greece and Turkey took part (…

Leeuwarden 1973

in December 1973A base visit to Leeuwarden AB, when the Phantoms of Soesterbergs 32TFS happened to be there because…

Tactical Weapons Meet 1976, Twente AB

The 1976 TWM (Tactical Weapons Meet) was the 12th edition of central Europe’s tactical attack competion. It was was…

Keiheuvel Air Shows (B) , 1968 – 1972

In the late 1960 and early 1970ties the Keiheuvel airshows (Keiheuvel is a dusty grass airstrip in the north…

Wiesbaden (G) USAFE Armed Forces Day , May 18th , 1969

It was raining and pouring when a group of Dutch aircraft-spotters (Hans was one of them) arrived at Wiesbaden…

BASE VISIT Goetsenhoven (B), April 1977

n April 1977 Frank was allowed to visit the Elementary Flying School of the Belgian Air Force, based at…

Base visit Bierset (B), May 1970

In May 1970 Frank was allowed to visit the Belgian Air Force base of Bierset, at that time home…

Base Visit Eindhoven , September 24th , 1966 (Super Sabres USAFE)

In the weekend of the 24th and 25th of September 1966 four North American F-100 Super Sabres of the…

Aircraft-Carrier Visit USS Nimitz, August 16 – 17, 1976

In August 1976 Hans had the opportunity to pay a two-day visit to the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS…

Rheine-Hopsten Open Day, June 1977

The Rheine Open Day of 11 June 1977 featured a somewhat poor static.