Heuberg, Germany - 07/07/2008

Our first day in Germany for Exercise ELITE 08 was spent at the Heuberg Electronic Warfare Range.

Though we were presented with a schedule of activity, none of us really knew what to expect, so when the first movement, a German AF C-160D Transall appeared and started to strut its stuff, our hopes were understandably high!

Quite a few of the foreign fast jet participants were scheduled over the next couple of hours, and while many of them were seen, most were either way off in the distance, or, like the Polish AF Fitters, above the cloud!

The German Tornadoes went some way towards making up for that though!

As per the schedule, the conclusion to the morning's flying was to be performed by the rotary players. First up the German Navy Sea King, followed by one of the Bo-105 utility helicopters providing overflights for the commanders and VIPs on the ground, and then finally by a CH-53GS - the thing that we'd been looking forward to seeing the most, solely because of the photographic opportunities they'd provided at past ELITE exercises.

It looked good from where we were but we couldn't help thinking that it would've looked even better from the ruins we could see on top of the hill in the distance!

The afternoon segment was kicked into life by the French Air Force Transall, who seemed to be on more of a familiarisation flight than anything else, before a similar pattern to the morning was followed, with a few noteable additions.

Again, while we were happy with what we'd got of the CH-53 this time, that spot, which we were told was called "Roskop" (or similar) looked like the place to be. We spoke to one of our hosts and with the knowledge that we would be returning on Friday for another crack at it, were assured we'd be able to get there.

Having been stood there for the thick end of nearly ten hours, for some bizarre reason, our fellow photographers decided they couldn't wait that final sixty seconds to make sure the Sea King wasn't going to put on a show for us. With me bent down putting my camera in my bag, that immortal word, "Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!" pierced the air. I looked up to see the pilot stand it on its tail and proceed to dump every single one of its flares in a Christmas tree effect... I could've cried...