NATO Tiger Meet 2010
Volkel Air Base, the Netherlands
From 4 till 15 October 2010 the annual NATO Tiger Meet (NTM) took place at Volkel Air Base. For the first time since 1961 the NTM was held on Dutch soil and hosted by 313 squadron. With more then ten countries and 50 aircraft the NTM can be compared to exercises such as Maple and Frisian flag. Although during the NTM, all participants are from squadrons who carry a kind of cat as their mascot. On Thursday 7 October the Spotting group Volkel (SGV) organised in cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Air Force a spotters day. 750 spotters from all over Europe came to Volkel and witness flying activities through out the day. I volunteered by helping SGV with the registration at the beginning of the day, to get all people on base who purchased a ticket for the NTM spotters day.
Despite the weather that was far away from being blue all NTM participants flew a mission. During the morning wave a very thick haze layer and clouds made it almost impossible to get some descend shots. In the afternoon the weather did not change much, as only the light conditions got a bit better. The forecast looked very promising with blue skies and loads of sun, but it did not appear. During the morning I did a quick walk along the flight lines to check all the aircrafts. In the afternoon I situated myself on the north side of the airfield to capture the nicely painted aircraft in tiger markings. I was standing close to a taxi track where all aircrafts came taxiing by with some trees in the background.
