Kleine Brogel AFB (EBBL)
Kleine Brogel is situated in the north of Belgium very close to the Dutch border. This base has 2 parallel runways of which one is mainly used as a taxiway. Based here are 2 F-16 squadrons (smaldelen) which, together with the 2 squadrons based at Florennes, provide the quick reaction capabilities in the Belgian Airspace.
KeeBee (as it's called) is perhaps best known for its yearly spottersday when the base is opened up for photographers and spotters from a broad range of countries. It is possible to get very close to the taxiways and runway to take photos of military aircraft from several (European) countries. Almost every year the people organizing get interesting aircraft to participate and this year was no exception.
Participating in this years meet were a broad range of interesting aircraft. F-16s were present from Belgium (both local and Florennes), Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Greece and Portugal, the French Navy and Airforce brought Rafales, and the Air Force brought Mirage 2000s and an Alphajet as well. The Belgians provided almost every plane they have, apart from the A310 and an ERJ-135 while the Czech Republic came to show 3 Aero L-159s and 3 Gripens. More trainers were brought in by the Italians in the form of 2 MB-339s while Spain showed off an SF-5B. The British were present with 2 Pumas, 2 Eurofighters and their highlight, a VC-10 tanker!
It didn't end there, as Germany brought quite a few Tornado's, 6 to be exact, but the stars of the day were the Greeks (by far), with 2 F-4E Phantoms and 2 A-7 Corsairs! Not exactly something you see every day in this part of Europe.
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Around 1 most aircraft started their engines and slowly came taxiing towards us. As we (read: around 7000 spotters) were shooting all aircraft the Danish F-16s started their engines and made our lives quite unpleasant. The sound in front of an F-16 has a very high pitch, making earplugs far less effective. As their run-up took at least 15 minutes it wasn't the best environment to be in, but jets were coming by so you have no choice but to shoot. People who complain about aircraft noise should come listen on the next spottersday, what you have at home isn't that bad.
After the take-off rush was over we still had Greek and Turkish F-16s on the ground, they never flew that day. As our position at the end of the parking had no use anymore we decided to move towards the other end of the runway, where all aircraft had to exit. As we were walking to that place the Greek F-4E's came back so we had no choice but to shoot them on the taxiway. When the A-7's made a 'low'-over I started a sprint to get them where I wanted them. Although I was there a bit late I was able to shoot them in full sunlight, sitting on the crossing taxiway.
After that I walked a bit further to the spot I wanted to, where I found more people had the same idea. I was lucky I'm tall, as I had to shoot over/through a couple of rows of people. So in between all the partitially obstructed photo's I still got loads of the shots I wanted.
All in all it was a great day, shot lots of good photos, met some people I hadn't seen in years and got a pretty nice sunburn. Next year I'll be there for sure!
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After a very early start (I left home at 5:50) and a fairly uneventful drive we (a friend and I) arrived at Kleine Brogel around 8:15, only to find a 200 meter long and about 8 meters wide queue in front of the fence..... and the base didn't open before 9! We got on base around 9:30, but I heard there was still a queue of about an hour at 11:30. Unlucky them, but I was glad I left home early.
Soon after getting on base the camera got out of the backpack and we started shooting. after walking past the static we ended up at the taxiway crossing (yep, you could cross an active taxiway) and decided to stay there so we could shoot all the aircraft that would depart for the mission of the day. It turned out to be an excellent spot. We were a mere 2 meters from the edge of the taxiway and could almost touch the aircraft taxiing by. As you can see above, it was really close.
Of course, when you're this close to fast jets there is one thing that works miracles, earplugs. With the high pitch of a Fouga Magister taxiing by or the startup of an F-16 about 10 meters away. Several people, however, did not have any ear protection with them. I've seen several people unable to take photo's because they had to cover their ears.
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