Luxeuil BA116 (LFSX) - 2016 MIL

[paul-760]

Monday August 1st 2016
RTBA sections R45A-D in use 0800-1000z
Sunny, wind from southwest but almost windstil.

0930 local time take off 2 M2000-5F due west
Followed by another 2 at 0935.

0956L Armee de Terre helicopter GEM lands.
1015L M2000-5F return. First pair 2-ED + 2-FZ. Overhead break over the village of La Chapelle, (very short turn), then touch/go, back over La Chapelle and then final landing.

1028 second pair of fighters return. 2-MH + 2-EJ. The latter lands after overhead break over La Chapelle but MH goes into the "long circuit"'after touch\go and returns to land at 1033.

1035 helicopter GEM departs.

(long period of radio silence until 1143L when 257.8 approves taxiing to the runway).

1203 M2000-5F 2-FZ + 2-EJ take off due west.
After take off they remain quite low so afterburner take off pictures at the village of Breuches are very well possible.

[paul-760]

Monday August 1st, afternoon.
A bit more clouds but over all sunny. Some wind from the west.

1304L Nato tower 257.800 approves take off of a Mirage. QRA.
Luxeuil departure/arrival 397.025 then takes over and tells the pilot to line up for runway 29. At 1307 Mirage 2000-5F 2-EW is airborne. It has one centerline tank and four A2A missiles.

1340L The pair of Mirages that took off at noon (2-FZ and 2-EJ) finally returns. Luxeuil tower 141.9750 talks them to initial approach via ILS. Then Luxeuil tower 336.625 takes over and tells them to descend to 4000ft. The final part is handled by Luxeuil tower 250.2750: descend to 2000ft, break over La Chapelle and landing at 1350L

2-EW (QRA) is still in the air and flies high over the field twice. At 1400L Luxeuil tower 250.2750 allows him to descend, make an initial and final approach, overshoot, break, touch and go and finally it lands at 1415L.

[paul-760]

Mission times (departures) from Luxeuil during last week, as seen/heard from my campsite in Bonnal about 40km SE of Luxeuil, as well as landing and takoff procedurs heard over the scanner on different Luxeuil frequencies:

Tue 2 Aug dep 0930, 1220, 1430, 1730.
Wed 3 dep 0925, 1130.
Thu 4 Aug dep 935, 1335, 1557 and c.2200
Fri 5 Aug no flying (at least not SE of the base, but also scanner remained quiet). Heavy rainfall might be the reason. Or yesterday's night flying.

So every day they started around 0930L. Missions last 45-110 minutes. Only Mirage 2000-5's seen, one or two at a time.

[paul-760]

8 August 2016: Another Monday at Luxeuil and quite a busy one.

Wind from the west. Runway 29 in use. RTBA sections R45A-D in use 930-1200L.

943 A Rafale flies high over the field a few times.
949 dep M2000-5F 2-ED / back 1034.
1001 dep M2000-5F 2-ET , joins up with the Rafale seen before / Mirage back 1046.
1030 Armee de Terre Gazelle GBD lands.
1235 dep M2000-5F fourship "71 flight" 2-FZ2-EJ 2-EQ 2-EZ / back 1409 all with practise approches before landing.
1238 dep twoship M2000-5F "61 flight" 2-ED 2-ET / back 1402 t/g and approaches before landing.
1305-1315 St.Dizier's Rafale B 4-FI ILS approach downwind rwy 1 then four visual approachs rwy 29.
1320 another Rafale B 4-EB approach rwy 29.
1343 M2000-5F 2-EG QRA / back 1429 some approaches before landing.
1427 AdT Gazelle GBF t/g
1441 AdT Gazelle GAE lands/ dep 1515 / back again 1537.
1523 overshoot Nancy's green M2000D 3-XK.
1605 dep twoship M2000-5F 2-ET 2-ED / back 1710 approaches before landing.
1607 dep M2000-5F 2-EU / back 1719 but of course not without making a practise approach first

PS. Encountered no gendarmerie all day, not in La Chapelle nor in Breuches although there a farmer warned me to be carefull for them. Only military police patrols regularly behind the fence.

[paul-760]

Tuesday August 9th. RTBA R45 not active, poor weather. No flying observed or heard in the Luxeuil region.

Wednesday August 10th. RTBA sections R45B-D active 10-12h local time. Local missions with up to 3 of Luxeuil's Mirage 2000-5F observed/heard in the region:
departing at 0920
1005-1141
c12h-1348
and maybe around 1440.

Also St.Diziers Rafales flew in the area. One observed flying low in RTBA section R45D at 1048 and touch/goes at Luxeuil at 1618 and 1635, heard on the scanner.

[paul-760]

Thursday August 11th 2016

Nightflying day. Indeed RTBA R45 circuit was booked 17-24h local time. So in the morning no flying activity.

However already between 16-17h two Mirage 2000D were active in the region.

Heard and observed some night flying activity between 20-23h; single jets flying at medium altitude 3km or so). Amongst the jets must have been 2000Ds because of communcation on Nancy's air-to-air frequency 360.125.

[paul-760]

Friday August 12th 2016

No missions today, probably because of yesterday's night flying (same as last week).

Though at 1325 a Mirage took off and returned half an hour later. QRA?

[Tigerspoon]

Any information avbl on flying activities, currently? Thx