Military Jets Photography: 2009 06 25 Basevisit at ETSL

On Thursday, June 25, Spotting Group Gilze-Rijen (GRAS) was invited for a base visit on the airbase of Lechfeld in the south of Germany. Lechfeld is the home base of Jagdbombergeschwader 32 of the German air force and is equipped with the Tornado ECR. There are currently about thirty-six Tornado's of this type at Lechfeld.
When we arrived at Lechfeld in the morning, the weather was gray and dull. Not the best conditions to take photographs of the light grey camouflaged Tornado's of the German Luftwaffe. After a short introduction by our guide, we were driven to the shelter camp of JBG32 by bus. After a brief period of silence the Tornado pilots started the first engines and the warming up of the aircraft could start. The first aircraft rolled out of its shelter fifteen minutes after the first engine started up. A total of six Tornado's passed us and they rolled in the direction of the main runway where they waited in the holding area. We were quickly driven by bus to the main runway where we were positioned halfway the runway into the grass. Soon, the first planes took off.
When all these Tornado's were airborne, we would visit a small museum which is located on Lechfeld. Photo presentations and reports displayed the entire history of Lechfeld in this little museum. After we visited the museum, we left to the workshop where the Tornado's were maintained. Inside this building we found an amount of twelve Tornado's and technicians were working on the aircraft. The first aircraft would return for landing to Lechfeld one and a half hour after the last Tornado take-off. We were positioned next to the head of the main runway from where we could photograph the entire recovery. In the meanwhile the sun appeared from behind the clouds and we had a nice summer sun over the incoming Tornado's.
After our tour in the morning at Lechfeld our visit was over. We went back to the main entrance of this German base by bus. On our way back to the entrance we passed another maintenance hangar. We asked our guide if it was possible to see the Tornado's inside this hangar. There were three additional Tornado's inside the building. It was a very nice visit to a great base of the German Luftwaffe