Austria 2024
The Austrian armed forces received their first Sud Aviation Alouette III in 1967, a small versatile helicopter that has more than proven its services for the Austrian armed forces and population in the 57 years since. But all good things come to an end, so a farewell ceremony was held on 24 May 2024 at the Aigen im Ennstal base. In the months that follow, the Alouette will be used to a limited extent before it is completely replaced by the Leonardo AW169 Lion. 4Aviation organised a tour here and the trip from the Netherlands was by minibus, with of course a few stops in between.
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On Tuesday 21 May 2024, a number of people were picked up near Utrecht CS, after which it was Arnhem’s turn and in the German Ruhr area the last participant for the time being was picked up and set sail for Ingolstadt for the first overnight stay. In the nearby restaurant the first of many schnitzels and beers of the tour were consumed.
On Wednesday 22 May 2024, we first headed to a supermarket to take care of our foodsupply for the day, followed by a half-hour drive to the Luftwaffe base Neuburg on Eck, where around 9:30 AM the first Eurofighters took to the cloudy skies. Until the return of these three we were treated to a brand new civilian H145 that was on a test flight from Manching and also several cool passes from a German Heer Tiger attack helicopter. The fighters returned just before 11am, with the Tiger still making her rounds. The weather had now completely cleared and there was a nice change between clouds and sun.
We also changed our spots and tried our luck at Manching, which was about half an hour’s drive. A brand new H145M for the Cyprus armed forces immediately arrived there. Airbus has a small hangar and platform at Manching where they conduct test flights and also provide training to future Airbus operators. The Messerschmidt Me262 stationed there had just arrived and was now taxiing past, followed by a number of civilian movements such as an Embraer Phenom, Piper PA-46 Malibu and an Eurowings Airbus. Then it was the turn of the military with an A400 loaned to WTD61 for a local mission and a TLG51 Tornado. Almost at the same time, two Cypriot H145Ms and a red and future Polizei H145 took off. This was followed by a prototype EF2000 in special colours before we returned to Neuburg. Four Eurofighters had taken off there just before our arrival, one of which had a new tiger colour scheme. Two of them returned quite quickly, but the other two, including the tiger, were on a mission over the Czech Republic during the exercise Lion Effort 2024. After their spectacular return, we left for Munich airport to pick up a participant from Malta, after which a few hours’ drive followed towards our first hotel in Austria.
On this Thursday 23 May 2024, it was about an hour’s drive to the Fliegerhorst Leopold Figl – Flugplatz General Pabisch, better known to us as the Tulln-Langenlebarn base. Until recently it was still Flieghorst Brumowski, but he probably also has something up his sleeve that means it is no longer called that. Here we meet the last participant of the tour from Hungary. We had requested a visit here, but didn’t know exactly what it would look like. Apparently all school-aged youth from the region had also been invited for a kind of career day, certainly not optimal, but in consultation with our supervisors we were able to take beautiful photos in various places on the base. There was a small static with different types surrounded by a number of hangars from the school and a maintenance hangar with a number of Blackhawks, Kiowa and PC-6. There were also flying activities of PC-6s and OH-58s, as well as a brand new AW169.
After a few hours it was time to go and we went via the small Krems airport and the large Linz airport to the town of Liezen, close to Aigen im Ennstal, for our schnitzel and overnight stay.
Friday 24 May 2024 was the day everyone signed up for. It was less than a ten minute drive to the airport and we were already at the gate around 8:00 am. It all went quite smoothly, but the gate did not open until 9:00 am, but we did not have to be bored as a duo of PC-6s arrived, as well as a Diamond DA-42. The dozens of people at the gate were let in a little earlier and this allowed us to capture the arriving OH-58s and S-70s from a lot closer and with a fantastic background. Those fantastic mountains of course remained in the background all day, the weather forecast for the entire week was much better than predicted, it was going to be a great day.
The flight program included two Eurofighters and a PC-7 from outside the field for a nice demo, but of course we came for the Alouette. In the morning there was a flag parade and the official farewell ceremony that we were able to attend up close. Then it was a break until 2:00 PM and in the meantime you could enjoy the small static, display in the hangar and very large party tent where a kind of chili con carne was served for free and with your anniversary cup, obtained at the entrance, you could fill up with different drinks for free at various points..
From 2:00 PM, the Alouettes took to the air several times to show what tasks they have accomplished over the past decades and what they are still capable of. With a bambi bucket they lit a fire, with sling loads they transported several larger items, they were part of a rescue scenario together with the other helicopters present and they closed the show with a final formation flypast and an individual bow to the audience before they waved goodbye to their final resting place. We’re repeating ourselves, but it was a great day.
Now we had a long drive to our first hotel in Ingolstadt for the last night of the tour, but not before saying goodbye to our Hungarian friend and dropping off our Maltese friend at his hotel in Munich.
On Saturday 25 May 2024, we left in time for the long drive home, but the radio and our navigation app immediately showed and heard a significant delay. Rather than wait pointlessly in a long queue on the highway, we chose to take a short country route and happened to pass the US Army airfield at Illesheim. Here we could see a number of Chinooks, Blackhawks and an Apache, but unfortunately they could not be photographed. Then there was another traffic jam on the south side of Cologne and we visited Bonn-Hangelar airport via a small detour. There was a lot of activity there with civil light aviation, but a number of warbirds were also visible for an event and several more arrived. We saw, among other things, a German UH-1D and L-18 in a hangar and Swedish Sk12 (Fw44) and Sk15 (Klemm) as well as a Me108 and French-built Me108 (Nord 1002) and a few nice aircraft in the grass. A nice ending before we dropped everyone back at their place in reverse order.
It was a successful tour where we were able to be flexible again and visit a few extra airports, especially on the way back.
