The Hellenic Air Force hosted the first annual NATO Ramstein Flag 24 exercise over two weeks in October, with visiting air forces based at Andravida Air Base in Western Greece. I attended the second of two Spotters Days held on October 1st and 8th. Despite concerns about late pre-event registration, the check-in process was swift. After showing my passport and payment confirmation, I received a receipt and spotter’s pass, before the short coach trip to the tower and by 09:40, I had secured a spot along the crowd line, just 10 minutes after the published 09:30 arrival time. Unlike the HAF Iniochos exercise usually run in April/May, this Allied Air Command lead event had an afternoon and evening sorties so we were based on the west side of the runway all day with very limited flying in the morning and the sun ahead of us.
A pair of based F-4 Phantoms (71760 and 01518) took off as we waited outside, to return just before 10am as the first coach had arrived on the crowd line. Thankfully one of the pair 01518 was to return to the air around 11:45 for a short 30 min local sortie with a couple of wing drops on its run and break before a nice side on photo op on the taxiway as it headed past the photographers on its way to the south western pan with the sun steadily turning in our favour.
Whilst we waited for the afternoon action the squadrons had set up their merch stalls in front of the control tower and very cheap food and drink was available all day from the squadron mess building along with a BBQ on the rear terrace over lunch.
With the sun now over our right shoulder it was the USAF 493FS from Lakenheath that opened the batting with a 2 ship F-35 departure at 13:30. What little breeze there was had sneaked round to the south west so we were treated to departures from runway 16.
Steadily over the next hour, 35 aircraft from 8 nations were launched with plenty of pilots keeping it low as they passed us at just over tree height with the stunning mountains as their backdrop.
Shortly before 15:00 the aircraft started to recover roughly in order of departure with the majority taxiing past the crowd line before returning to their pan. The 4 ship French Air Force Rafale’s formed up on the taxiway before turning to face the crowd en mass.
The 3 ship Swedish Gripens were the last to recover and switched runways choosing to run and break over the airfield before recovering on runway 34. This meant a second chance to capture the Gripens on the taxiway with the pilots performing a full 360 turn for the crowd.
With all the aircraft down the HAF had one last treat for us. The Canadian CC-150T which had been on refuelling duty over the Aegean Sea came in low and perforated a long banked pass with its refuelling drogues extending again the stunning clear blue skies. This was a fitting end to a fantastic event and full credit to the HAF for a well organised day.
Serials in departure order (credit Slogen51 on Fighter Control).
USAF F-35
5594/LN 493 FS
5596/LN 493 FS
French Air Force
327/4-HZ Rafale B
344/4-FK
USAF F-35
5599/LN
5682/LN
5685/LN 493FS
French Air Force
107/30-HJ Rafale C
366/30-SO Rafale B
364/30-SM Rafale B
354/30-FU Rafale B
Swedish Air Force Saab JAS-39C Gripen
39-261
39-279
39-229
Polish air Force F-16C
4074
4068
4067
4073
USAF F-35
5485/LN “48OG” F-35
Spanish Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon EF2000
C.16-43/11-43
C.16-32/11-32
C.16-52/11-52 10001
C.16-46/11-46
Portuguese Air force F-16AM
15108
15107
15142
15112
Italian Air Force Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon
MM7322/36-40 Typhoon
MM7319/51-19
MM7348/37-24
Swedish Air Force Saab JAS-39C Gripen
39-823
Hungarian Air Force Saab JAS-39C Gripen
32 39-303
33 39-304
38 39-309
40 39-311
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