Koksijde 2009

Koksijde : January - February

2009 started with three Royal Navy Sea King HC.4's that came-in on the 7th of January. Fog and snow prevented them to leave not earlier than on the 9th of January. In February we got more British guests as some Army Air Corps Gazelles and Lynx came in for fuel. On the 19th one French Air Force Alpha Jet came in for a fuel stop. On the 3rd and the 26th, Falcon 20 CM02 came to Koksijde for some training approaches.

Koksijde : March - April

On the 5th of March again two French Air Force Alpha Jets came to Koksijde for a touch and go. On the 17th of March all four Gazelle AH.1's from the 12th Flt. based at the Javelin Barracks in Germany, better known as ex RAF Brüggen, refuelled for the very last time at Koksijde. The base will be closed in the near future and all remaining Gazelles returned to the UK for storage. Mid-March the B-Hunter UAV's from Florennes arrived back at Koksijde for a new deployment. On the 15th of April four Netherlands Air Force Cougars made a low pass en-route to the UK for an exercise.

Koksijde : May

In May eight Marchetti's were deployed for ten days to fly missions from Koksijde. We had some nice busy days, and hope they will do that in the future again. On the day they left another six arrived with some crews for the deployed marchetti's. On the 5th and the 13th two Royal Navy Sea King HC.4's refuelled at Koksijde as well.

Koksijde : June - July

On the 3rd of June seven A.109 agusta's arrived for a small deployment of 2 days. The exercise had the name Quick Response. For the support of the Croatian "Wings of Storm" display team at the airshow in July, a very rare AN-32B visited Koksijde twice. The Croatian Air Force has two of these AN-32B's in use, based at Zagreb. For the support of a F-5M in the static display of the airshow, a Spanish C-295 based at Madrid/Getafe visited Koksijde twice.

Koksijde : August - September

September brought us some very special visitors. On the 10th of September one Rafale, based at Saint Dizier, came to Koksijde for one low approach! On the 16th one Hungarian Mi-24V refuelled at Koksijde during a CSAR exercise out of Florennes. On the 21th a Hungarian Mi-17 also made a fuel stop and afterwards it went to the "Romeinse Vlakte" in De Panne for a CSAR mission. This was very impressive to see this large helicopter flying and hovering in the dunes of De Panne. On the 18th and the 25th of September, a SW-4 and W-3RL helicopter of the Polish Air Force refuelled at Koksijde on their way to and from the Helitech show in Duxford.

Koksijde : October - December

The last three months of the year were rather calm again. From the 5th till the 15th of October an exercise with two A.109's and one German EC-155B was being held at the Belgian coast. On the 27th of October the Cobham Flight Precision Beech King Air came to Koksijde again for the calibration of the TACAN and PAR radar. To close the year on the 14th of December, the special painted F-16BM FB18 from the OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) based at Kleine Brogel made some nice short patterns in very nice weather.

Sea King - 2009

This is a selection of pictures taken in 2009 of the Sea King MK.48 of the 40th Sqn based at Koksijde. These pictures were made during normal training missions at Koksijde and surroundings.