SHOOTING ON BASE-Gilze-Rijen 7ties, 8ties...

[Jonathan]

Amazing squadron rotation, with so many aircraft! Awesome CC109 too. Thanks again Gerrit!

[GerritsFinest]

Beginning June after a long Whitsun weekend flying went on with the rotation and local NF5 traffic, also the first S11 were flying out to Belgium, like birds from their nests…
4 June 1974: CT133 133345, 133069, New CF104 104865, departure of S11 OOPCH, OOMCH, OOLMS. Alo3 A217 in yellow Grasshopper markings.
5 June 1974: Alo3 A550
6 June 1974: CT133 133345, S11 OOLMC 6216 ex E25 seen outside hanger
7 June 1974: T33 RDAF DT490 which I missed due to another long weekend…
11 June 1974: CF104D’s 104653, 104656
12 June 1974: CC130H 130327, CM170 MT32 (289) Red Devils, TF104G 2792 (5922) MFG2

[GerritsFinest]

plus the nice Alouette:

[GerritsFinest]

More shots June:

[GerritsFinest]

13 June 1974: Harriers GR3 (or were it still GR1/GR1A's then? see rmks Erwin &Erik below))of nr 4SQ XV782C, XV784D, XV806H, XW924L. S11’s PHHOH 6275 (ex E39-199K), PHHOL 6270 (ex E27), PHMSH 6269 (ex E26). F104G KLu D8294, D8288,D6655,D8104 all 322/323SQ.
17 June 1974 F104G KLu D8138 306SQ Alo 3 A515 Grasshoppers ylo markings
18 June 1974 Hunter T7A XL568
21 June 1974 CF104 104713, unknown Belgium Army Alo2
28 June 1974 PHHOH and PHHOL left for Seppe (EHSE)

[GerritsFinest]

:

[GerritsFinest]

The holiday season started… and this very boring time lasted to my idea till the end of the year! Time to make up my mind for my future. As a rookie those days I wanted to become a GCA-controller. (Ground Controlled Approach) but I had to wait another 15 years to reach that goal because seats were limited and fully occupied those days. Fortunately I met colleagues doing the Area Radar Training at the Ground School ATC on the base. So Nieuw-Milligen became my goal! So in September 1971 I was transferred to Dutch Mil Area Control Centre together with Air Defence Bandbox a very operational unit (AOCS-NM), internationally orientated which widened my horizon to the max! The best choice of my life really especially for the hobby as well, shooting on any base was ‘never’ a problem. Heavy metal in de Dutch skies every day during the cold war, glad I was part of that up to the end of 2004…
A few visitors during the last period:
July 2 1974: CT133 133393 (again)…
July 9 1974: Alo3 A-407, plus on July 25
July 10 1974: Alo3 A-281
July 26 1974: Alo3 A-260
Between 19-22 August 1974: CT39 0-10679*, anyone the correct date? *see remark Key below!
August 29 1974: Formation overshoot Lightnings nr 5 SQ
Sept 2 1974: Beavers S-1 and S-5 last flight, wfu KLu
Sept 4 1974: Beavers S-7 and S-9 last flight, wfu KLu
Sept 6 1974: Beaver S-3 last flight, wfu KLu
Resuming retirement dates KLu Beavers:
S-1 02-09-74, S-2 crashed 23-04-68 Speuld, S-3 06-09-74, S-4 21-03-74, S-5 02-09-74, S-6 21-03-74, S-7 04-09-74, S-8 10-05-74, S-9 04-09-74

[Soesterberg1954]

Great to see Gerrit

[Key]

Mighty fine shots as always, Gerrit, and a great narrative too. Thank you for sharing these memories, including your personal choices!

I notice you write "o-10679" for the CT-39, giving the impression you regard that first symbol as the letter o. You may be interested to know it is actually a zero, as per the original USAF Technical Order from 1964. That can be seen on the Oldwings website, together with a lot of background info. Those seeking the quick answer go directly to 'The answer' on that page.

Erik

[GerritsFinest]

Thanks Key for this very valuable information. I always thought oh- for obsolete... So very intertesting, i have to change my oh numbers in my archive to zero's now! In those days the registration was indeed on the cockpit panel above the instruments, to be used as a callsign. I remember old flightplans having the reg as callsign, super of course for us spotters... Later on that connection was not used anymore because he use of other callsign types. MAC used the last three of the reg for a long time like 'MAC123' . I took a shot of a MC131 at Soesterberg 25806 which always had the 0 in front, however not that time. Because they came very frequently in the sixties and beginning seventies I forgot to write down the date, as I can read now the 0 prefix was dropped suddenly after 24-4-72! This helps a lot to find the correct date, thanks!! Same story for the 0-25787: no prefix at Frankfurt 9-74...wow problem solved!

[Key]

Thanks for your reply, Gerrit. Great to see I could help, and I know the researcher behind that webpage will be happy too!

Cheers,
Erik

[Stephan Lodewijks]

Hmmm, to my knowledge the O was for Obsolete, for aircraft/helo's older than 10 years... It never was part of the actual registration ofcourse, but it was part of the serial presentation on the aircraft/helo.

Steef

[ehusmann]

Given that the planes with that 0- in front of the serial are still flying (at the times the pictures were taken of course), it is a little strange to call them already 'obsolete'. As that world in itself implies 'no longer needed'.

Anyway, other question. I see the Harriers have the short noses, not the long noses. I always though the long noses were GR.3s, while the short ones were GR.1s. Is that incorrect, was the long nose a modification given to Harriers already at GR.3 standard?

Erwin

[GerritsFinest]

Erwin you could be right that by that time it were still GR1's and later became GR3 after their nose modification. I'm not that familiar with the variant of this type. Thanks for the remark!
Gerrit

[Key]

Steef,

Hmmm, to my knowledge the O was for Obsolete, for aircraft/helo's older than 10 years... It never was part of the actual registration ofcourse, but it was part of the serial presentation on the aircraft/helo.

Read the page at Oldwings.
Apart from that, there is no logic in designating operational aircraft obsolete, is there? I have always wondered why that theory was so wide-spread in the first place.

Erik