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The Royal Netherlands Airforce’s F-16 display team will be based at Airforce base Volkel for the 2007 and 2009 2010 demo season.
The team comprises of personnel from 313 Squadron, the F-16 squadron based at Volkel. This years team contains one displaypilot two coaches seven technical specialists and three advisors. This years displaypilot will be Captain Ralph (Sheik) Aarts.
Although it looks spectacular the show of the demoteam contains manoeuvres which can occure during normal operational missions with the F16. The spectacular part of the show is that al of these manouvres are linked together in a smooth looking show. That is also the extra strain for the demo pilot to execute all these manoeuvres in a short period of time. During these manoeuvres the body of the demo pilot is exposed to enormous positive and negative G forces. The dutch demo pilot gives an impression of the manouvrabillity of the F16 in general and also the skills which every Royal Netherlands Airforce F16 pilot has mastered.
Teamwork
"One Team One Task" is the motto of the Royal Netherlands Airforce, this motto applies to the Royal Netherlands Airforce solo display team as well.
The team around the display pilot contains two coaches who are also F16 pilots, seven highly skilled technical specialists and 3 advisors. This team offers all conceivable support to the demo pilot during the approximatly 30 shows during the demo season, the team also receives the necessary support from there home base Volkel and its staff.
On Thursday the 19th of June the whole technical team drove from Volkel to Leeuwarden for our annual Airforce Open Days. This year Leeuwarden was the host.
Bitch flew the spare jet in at Leeuwarden and together with Omelet they waited for the arrival demo of Sheik. Unfortunately the weather was below our minima so we had to cancel the rehearsal show on Thursday.
Later that afternoon Sheik Hitec was invited by the Frecce Tricolori to fly with the leader in the backseat. Last year Frecce nr 2 (Jan Slangen) flew with Sheik in the backseat in Fairford and we invited them to our Open days since they were last in Holland in 2004.
As the weather got better they flew a flat show at the end of the afternoon.
Sheik was impressed and had a beautiful flight with the Frecce Tricolori.
After the team united (including our webmaster Ron) we got our passes and hotel info and drove to the welcome party.
Always good to see the other teams and have fun with them.
After that the team went to the hotel for a good night sleep.
On Friday we started at Hangar 3 (the place to be) as our recruitment team transformed this hangar into a beautiful "Airforce experience".
Sheik wandered around talking to people and shook a lot off hands.
In the afternoon Sheik flew a high show and got a lot of compliments.
After a long day the team got together at the pr-stand for a nice glass of champagne and set of to the mess for some dinner.
Saturday is usually the busiest day. This year was the same as the police estimated more than 100.000 people visited the Airshow.
The technical team made sure the planes were in perfect shape and the pr stand was up and running. Bitch and Omelet were busy getting Sheik to all kinds off places to shake hands and do some interviews. As on Friday, short before our demonstration Sheik flew a heritage flight with the B-25 Mitchel from the Dukes of Brabant Airforce and the Hawker Hunter flown by former F-16 Demo pilot Patrick "Spout" Tuit. Nice to see history come together.
The crew of the Mitchel took our bear Leo for a flight in their B-25. They made beautiful pictures and wrote a nice story in the book. Word goes that Leo became good friends with the bear of the Mitchel. We like to thank Mr. Edwin Boshof and his wonderful crew for their great effort with Leo.
After the nice formation Sheik started his demonstration. Bitch was in the narrator vehicle together with our DJ Sam Hayfield who wrote the music for our show.
He talked to the crowd and gave information about the team and the show.
In the mean while Sheik and the technicians took radio 538 DJ Frank Dane and his brother together with a friend of Omelet to the airplane. They got the opportunity to see the start-up up close. After the show Sheik went to hangar 3 again and explained our new helmet to the state secretary of defence on a big stage. After that Omelet and Sheik went to the VIP area to shake some hands. At around five o'clock in the afternoon the team finally was together and complete.
Everybody was tired of two long but nice days.
Micky and the rest of the Belgian F-16 team joined in for a nice glass of Demoteam champagne which meant the end of this years open days.
The team likes to thank Mister Ed de Bruijn and SM van Benten for all their hard work for the Open Days. Also Bommel and Hazes for the great support. The B-25 crew for taking care of our Leo.
A big cheer goes out to the Frecce Tricolori for flying in Holland at our show, great team, and great guys!!!
Last but not least we thank the always smiling team ladies for handling our pr again.
The team
The Royal Netherlands Airforce’s F-16 demoteam will be based at Airforce base Volkel Leeuwarden for the 2008 2010 demo season.
The team comprises of personnel from 313 Squadron and 311 Squadron, the F-16 squadrons based at Volkel. This years team contains one displaypilot two coaches seven technical specialists and three advisors. This years displaypilot will be Captain Ralph "Sheik" Aarts.
Although it looks spectacular the show of the demoteam contains manoeuvres which can occure during normal operational missions with the F-16. The spectacular part of the show is that al of these manouvres are linked together in a smooth looking show. That is also the extra strain for the demo pilot to execute all these manoeuvres in a short period of time. During these manoeuvres the body of the demo pilot is exposed to enormous positive and negative G forces. The dutch demo pilot gives an impression of the manouvrabillity of the F-16 in general and also the skills which every Royal Netherlands Airforce F-16 pilot has mastered.
Teamwork
"One Team One Task" is the motto of the Royal Netherlands Airforce, this motto applies to the Royal Netherlands Airforce solo display team as well.
The team around the display pilot contains two coaches who are also F-16 pilots, seven highly skilled technical specialists and 3 advisors. This team offers all conceivable support to the demo pilot during the approximatly 30 shows during the demo season, the team also receives the necessary support from their home base Volkel and its staff.
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