Weeze Open House 2008

On April 30, Queensday in the Netherlands and May 1st (Labour day), Weeze Aiport held his 5 years anniversary. Not a large scale openhouse but always interesting and this year the roll out of a former 31 Sm/10 Wing Belgian Air Force F-104G in tiger colors was scheduled. So, time to visit this former RAF base just across the Dutch/German border.

The open house started at 11.00 but when we arrived around 10:45 the gate was already open. After parking our car we started with the first hangar; 2 Harrier Gr9’s were towed. The were in a very good position to photograph. The hangar near the entrance was very crowed and also there, 2 Harrier Gr7/9’s were pulled out. One of them was in special markings because 95 years No. 4 Sqn (1912-2007). The tail was painted in the squadroncolors of No. 4 Sqn; red/yellow and black. No. 4 Sqn was stationed at this former RAF base Laarbruch. Three of the four Harriers were stationed here in the past! One Harrier was promised but four arrived so not bad. After the hangars we visited the static near the runway. A Typhoon F.2 from the other former Laarbruch base, No. 3 Sqn, had just arrived and was good to photograph. A lot of warbirds like a B-25J Mitchell, P-51D Mustang, some AT-16ND Harvards, Fokker S-11’s etc. Also a former German Air Force OV-10B Bronco was present. This one is French owned and the demo was very nice. It’s very nice to see an old aircraft you don’t see much at airshows and the weather was great. During the demo’s the operational Ryanair B737’s arrived and departed. One of these B737’s was painted in the Boeing dreamliner colors. Very nice to see, even if you are not a civilian spotter.

FX-52, F-104

FX-52, F-104

FX-52, F-104

B-182, AT-16

99+24, OV-10

ZD438 / 50, Harrier

After the staticline we photographed a 208 Sqn Hawk T.1A and in the corner of the 20 Sqn shelterarea, were this openhouse was held, we saw a very nice F-104G ‘KG-101’. This F-104G is very nice and the first Fokker built F-104G for the (West) German Air Force. Very nice job. We saw this beauty during the first openhouse at Weeze Apt in 2005 when the restauration was just finished. During this day we also saw the FX-51 in Belgian Air Force colors. The condition was not good (…). Today, this F-104G was reveiled in his tiger colorscheme, like 30 years ago. Around 13:00 local time this beauty was towed out of his hangar. We had to wait for some sunshine but it was worth to wait! Very nice job they did. We spoke with one of the owners. He was very proud of their work and they like history and they find it important to paint the aircraft in the original colors and markings and no fake serialnumbers. The latest news is, two additional F-104G’s arrived at Weeze recently. The FX-69 and FX-70 and also 2 Fouga Magisters. One of these, the FX-70 will be painted in his original colorscheme, during his time in the Belgian Air Force. We cann’t wait to see the results (Weeze 10 years anniversary open housse?). For me, this F-104G was one of the highlights of the day.

Also promised for today were the British Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with one Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota. They didn’t show up but arrived the next day (weatherproblems). But, you can’t have it all.

At the end of the day, the Harriers were towed in their hangars and we decided to leave. A nice day and we hope to come again when their will be a photocall to photograph the F-104G’s in the shelter- (QRA) area. The date is not known yet but keep an eye on the Scramble forum and the F-104 Society.

Static

* also flying