Open door Melsbroek 2013

Gostar den Daas | October 2013

65 years 15 Wing / 40 years C-130

15 Wing organized an open door event to celebrate it’s 65th anniversary, and 40 years of C-130 operations. The whole Belgium Air Force utility, VIP fleet was present and lots of C-130s. The Federal Police which also uses Melsbroek Air Base also participated in this open door event.

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Melsbroek air base is in fact the military part of Zaventem International airport, located on the North part of the airport, Northeast of Brussels. The Belgium Air Force 15 Wing invited other C-130 squadrons, with English, Danish, Dutch and Canadian Herculeses’ present. Special visitor was the Canadian CC-130J, which operates as an Open Skies aircraft. The Belgium Federal Police also invited counterparts from France, Germany and the Netherlands.

We parked at Peutie military compound in Vilvoorde, with an excellent shuttle service to Melsbroek. The bus dropped us off at the Museum, located on the opposite site of the N21. A C-119 and Pembroke are on display, and currently the museum is restoring a C-47, which was freshly painted, but not yet assembled.

As runway 25R was in use for takeoffs at Zaventem, there was also the opportunity to photograph the civil departures. In the morning the Indian airlines departed. The most interesting visitors of the day where in fact two cargo flights. Ethiopian cargo arrived with a MD-11 and an all-white Nordic Global Airlines departed. See the end of this report for the civil movements.