June 26-27, 2009 - A busy weekend for the team as two airshows had to be attended. Both Reims, France as Zeltweg, Austria had the honour of receiving the Belgian F-16 Solo Display Team. No effort was spared to get the team flying on both bases. The good neighborship between the Dutch and Belgian teams as well as the cross-servicing proved to be a very valuable asset in such events.

There we go again. This time we have two air shows to deal with in one weekend. Zeltweg in Austria and Reims in France. The team is leaving in the early morning to Brussels to take its flight, direction Zeltweg. We have to make a stop in Marseille first.

About 40 minutes later we are taking off again from Marseille. Not long after that we are between the clouds and beautiful mountains of Austria and we start our landing to Zeltweg. Just landed we can see our F-16 on the taxiway at the other side. What to do now?

Well, no problem this time. Our friends from the Dutch display team are already on place and taking care of Mitch and Smurf. They are guiding our two F-16s to their parking spot and making everything ready while we are unloading all the equipment. Thanks guys!!

We can see this is not the first time for the people at Zeltweg. Everything is well organized. After all our equipment is on place and formalities are done, we can go for a quick meal. Having that finished we all went back to the planes because Mitch had to perform his training flight.

This rehearsal went well and very nice to see how Mitch is making his turns in a beautiful landscape with those mountains in the background. It all looks the same for us but not easy for Mitch. He has to keep those mountains in mind and also a difference in altitude makes it harder for him.

After the training we serviced all again for the show on Friday and went to our hotel for some rest. On Friday morning we all went back to the base. The weather is good and we can see a massive crowd. It's a nice air show with  a lot of nice demo's, nice helicopters and a lot of red bull action.

In the evening we went to a reception. After some words of gratitude and handing over some gifts we had a little surprise for Gerard. He didn't knew where to stand when his general handed over a nice picture to him in name of the whole Belgian team, so thanks again Gerard for the great support you gave us.

Saturday morning we are going back to base and again we see a massive crowd. After Sheik (Dutch pilot) did his display we all prepared the four F-16s for their trip to Reims in France. Mitch will take the lead of this formation and after some passes we can see the Belgian and Dutch fighters leaving Austria.

In the mean time we have to wait for our flight while David and TC are taking care about the F-16s in Reims. Mitch did his display and we all joined them in the evening.

On Sunday morning we are ready for the last display this weekend, planes are serviced and we can see how Mitch is taking care of his plane, cleaning all the dirt spots. Wondering if he does the same at home?

After that he is ready for his display and we can see how he is getting better show after show. After landing the Dutch pilots came to Mitch to congrats him for the nice display. People behind the fences are giving a big applause. Mitch went to the people to sign some pictures and everybody is happy.

We all can look back at a very successful but busy weekend. Thanks to everybody from Zeltweg to Reims.