Planes and stuff

Esta semana circulava de automóvel, quando dei por mim, com uma formação de 4 F-16 passando ao lado a relativa baixa altitude...apesar de ter preferência pelas "ventoinhas" da 751, 502 e 501, é impossível ficar indiferente a uma visão daquelas... :) Fica pois um  registo de um par de F-16 por cá, em 2010, durante as Comemorações da Força Aérea Portuguesa, para foto da semana: 15133, 15126 e o C-295 16705

Air Base 5 - Monte Real celebrated this week its 52nd Aniversary. Beeing the home of the Sqn.301 and 201 that fly the F-16, decided to share a few more unpublished pics of these birds at Madeira, taken during PoAF Celebrations, back in 2010 . They're quite rare around here so, it was a nice oportunity for some shots. (You can check a few more pics of the F-16's at Madeira, including flight pics, HERE ). This time, only apron shots.... It's not everyday you get to have some F's at Madeira's apron.... Although I must admit that other PoAF Squadrons, like the Sqn.552 (Allouete III) or the Sqn.751 (EH-101) do level up my interest... Backlight can be a good thing, somethimes... 15133, 15126 and C-295 16705 A small paintjob on the tail for the Tiger Meet...

Today, BA5 (Air Base 5 - Monte Real) started to follow me in Twitter , so decided to post a few unreleased shots of the F-16's (based at Monte Real) during the PoAF Celebrations 2010, at Madeira. Hope you enjoy it... 15133 on the late afternoon of June, 26th, after arriving from BA5 15133 lining up for the return to BA5 - June, 27th (Thanks for the correction, Inácio) 15133 lining up on rwy 05 for the departure to BA5 - June, 27th    15133 high-speed low pass on the good-bye...

Like I said before, F-16's weren't my favs this PoAF Celebrations but I must admit it's nice to have these birds around here. It's definitely not every day (not even every year) you have the oportunity to see a couple of F-16 operating at LPMA... After Static Display, 15126 and 15133 were caught here, lining up to return to Monte Real AB (AB no.5) and what a loud departure it was....my ears kept "ringing" for a while... After take off, they made a circuit for high-speed low pass over the runway... More on that later....

I guess it's time to share some stuff on the F-16's at Air Force Celebrations ... Despite the fact that they're noise and quick, I'm not exactly a big fan of "flame-throwers". Also, it's really nice to see these around here as rare birds that they are on these neighborhoods but besides the departure after the static display, the F-16's didn't make anything that I found really thrilling...not even on the Air Show day (they were specially disapointing on that day....) Anyway, for now, the arrivals for the static display... They arrived on the afternoon of the day before the Static display, after a passing at Funchal, during the inauguration of the Air Force statue on Avenida do Mar. Was expecting to see the 50 Years Falcon  but instead we got 15126 and 15133.... The 133 has quite an interesting story and it was rather nice to have it around. You can check it's story on a f antastic work made by the Pássaro de Ferro team, HERE  (in Po...