My Belgian Air Force careera photo tour narrated by Philip AvondsI have also compiled a few pilot stories from my career. These can be read here. |
Pilot training |
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18 October 1976: my first day in the Air Force |
I'm the fifth from the left... |
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Elementary Pilot Training on Siai Marchetti SF-260 |
1977-1978 |
125 flying hours / first solo flight: May 5th, 1977 with ST-09 |
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Advanced Pilot Training on Fouga Magister CM-170 in 1978 |
also later 1982-1984 and 2003 |
150 flying hours / first solo flight: February 28th, 1978 with MT-16 |
(anecdotic note: I made 4 flights with tailnumber MT-48, the subject of my scale Fouga Magister model) |
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Graduation on Lockheed T-33A |
1978-1979 |
90 flying hours / first solo flight: September 19th, 1978 with FT-36 |
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I receive my Air Force pilot wings March 1st,
1979.
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76B promotion at wings parade March 1st, 1979. This was also the day of the official presentation of the Belgian Air Force Alpha Jet (seen at the back) |
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44 years later and the hangar of our wings parade can still be found on the Brustem airfield (near Sint-Truiden) |
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The only time I didn't land with the airplane I took off with... |
AFF jump from a Sea King above Koksijde |
Farewell party and last flight 22-24 October 2003 |
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Tour through the city of Koksijde with the squadron fellows... |
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...and lots of smoke and flares! |
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Statistics |
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Photo session before the last flight. |
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One more flypast... |
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...and my last landing as a Belgian Air Force pilot! (anecdotic note: the same day and at about the same time, the last official Concorde flight was landing at London Heathrow...) |
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A well deserved beer at the conclusion of my Air Force career |
presented by CO Erwin Deolet |
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Many years later: nostalgic ride in an SV-4b in 2014, read more |
Philip Avonds Scale Jets |
Doornhofstraat 6 |
B-8670 Koksijde |
Belgium |
Phone: +32-58-514451 |
e-mail: info@avonds.com |