1 of former my belgian
collegues was a naval aviator on a Allouette 3.At the time he was
still working, now and then he had to make pratticeflights to keep
qualified to fly. I had asked him if it was possible to join him on
1 of these flights and he told me that it wasn't a problem. Due to
operational commitments on my part I hadn't been able to join him
before he retired from the service.Once in a while he still visits
us and he made me a promiss to arrange a flight with a fellow
aviator and all I had to do was give him a call to set a date.
The 24th of april it
all took place and drove from my station towards NAS Koksijde from
where my scheduled flight would take off.After the neccessary
safetybriefings and instructions we had to wait untill the belgian
UAV's(B-Hunter) had finished flying and our take-off was set for
2pm.Once in the air we circled the field several times to do
communicationchecks with the BNS Louise-Marie(F931) at various
altitudes and when those were completed we flew along the coastline
towards Ostend.
Arriving at Ostend we
changed our course out to sea to rendez vous with the belgian
frigate to do some more testing with the communication.When those
were completed we returned towards the coast heading for
Ostend.Passing by the flat I live in and over the barracks where I
work towards Snaaskerke to follow the canal that runs to Nieuwpoort
to bring us back to Koksijde. Back at the platform the sky opened
its fly to let go all the water it had been carrying lucky for us it
happened now and not during the flight.
