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Leeuwarden open day 2006,
On 16 and 17 June 2006, the Royal Netherlands Air Force Open Days Where held at Leeuwarden Air Base. This annual event is one of the largest happenings taking place in The Netherlands each year. In the span of
two days, the Armed Forces, and more specifically, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, present themselves to the general public by providing an informative look inside and demonstrations to match the information.
This year the show was dominated by the participation of the Bleu Angels display team of the USN and Marine corps. The team was in the Netherlands for the second time. The first time was in 1965. Displaying with the F-11F Tiger over the Rhine
near Arnhem.
The Open Days provided an excellent opportunity for a look at the Friesian F-16 Squadrons, the Friesian Search and Rescue Squadron and the other units of the Royal Netherlands Air Force at work. Over the past decades, these
fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft have been deployed to crisis response operations continuously, and these deployments are expected to continue during the coming years. This year a assault display was not possible due to the ongoing
deployments.
The Air Show, which consisted of a mix of demonstration teams from various countries and displays by fighter aircraft, helicopters and historic aeroplanes. The Royal Netherlands Air Force whas represented with
its two flight demonstration teams, i.e. the F-16 solo display team and the PC-7 Pilatus display team. This year there is no AH-64 demo due to all the deployments.
In the morning teams like Fokker Four and 2Excel started the flying display, followed by more show teams in the afternoon. It was like every team wanted to be there. A nice display was given by the English C-130 J. On the static front not
much exciting was happening, the interesting bits being the Polish MIG-29 and Czech JAS-39.
The day ended with the Bleu Angels, who as ever gave a stunning display. Starting with Fat Albert in a JATO take off. Followed by the display off the team itself, giving every body what they came for, a awesome display off flying skills .
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