Military Jets Photography: May 2011

In the South of The Netherlands we can find Gilze-Rijen AFB, home to 298, 300 and 301 squadron. 298 squadron flies the CH-47D Chinook, 300 squadron flies the AS.532U2 Cougar and the SA.316B Alouette III while 301 squadron is equiped with the AH-64D Apache.
With the recently annouced defence cuts, 13 from the 17 Cougars will be retired from service by 8th May. Reasons enough for me to pay a visit to a base where spotting facilities are very good.
I arrived very early in the morning so I could make a recon around the base to see were I could take the best photos. In the morning I stayed at the end of Runway 28 (east side of the base). There was a eastern wind so the departing helis would take-off towards me. As the 298 and 300 plateforms are in the middle and at the end of runway 28, these choppers are already quit high for descent pictures. But the plateform of 301 is very close and when the Apaches depart you're able to take some nice head on shots. I saw 3 Cougars, one Alouette III, 2 Chinooks and one Apache take-off in the morning.
Once these were all airborne I went to the famous "slopes". And I was lucky that day. 2 Cougars, according to the locals this doesn't happens very much, came together to the slopes. This was my first experience with the slopes and I was sold immediately. After both Cougars went back to their plateform we had a Apache visiting the slopes. The only downside while being at the slopes is that you don't have a view on the base to see the further movements. Sometimes you can see a Chinook or another helicopter depart but you can't see if it's each time the same one or another one. The last movement on the slopes was again a Cougar. Unfortunately it was the same one as in the morning but he gave us all the angles we wanted. At the end he came very close to us and we all gave him a very nice wave back. In the afternoon the action at the slopes was over but also at the base the action was very quiet.
Being my first real spotters experience at Gilze-Rijen, I'm already planning a new in the near future.