Hellenic Air Force Open Days 2013

[Jinxman]

Here are a few shots taken from various bases last week, and a couple included of the guys from Volos (Βόλος) model stand displayed at the 111CW hangar display. All in all very interesting aircraft in very attractive colour schemes I think.

Thanks for looking.

[Radleigh]

Superb! Some lovely stuff in their inventory!

Edited November 12, 2013 by Radleigh

[F-32]

That F-102 is awesome!

[Paul J]

Very nice. Where? And is that a Blenheim in the pic of the wreck?! Others that excite me are the Albatross, CL-215 and S-55 helo!

[Jinxman]

Thanks for your comments - they do have some great stuff there - the only proviso being that you don't point the camera where you are told not too. The wreck is a Blenheim - the gun pack can be seen just below the nose. They also had a Ju87 and Hs126 at Dekelia but no photos allowed of these two.

The shots were taken at, (in order), Araxos, Kalamata, Larissa x 3, Nea Anchialos x 3, Tanagra x 3, Elefsis x 3, Dekelia x 4, & last three at Tanagra.

cheers

[Geologos]

Did you go to Agrinio A/B?

[Jinxman]

hi,

we didn't get to Agrinio on the Thursday as we headed up towards Lamia and it was a little too far for us to travel. (We did Kalamata, Andravida & Araxos on the Thursday).

All in all it was very interesting though, even getting stuck in Athens during the marathon on the Sunday,

cheers

[tonyot]

Lovely photos of some very nice aeroplanes and the models are not bad either! Is the A-7 Corsair II still in service? I remember doing Forward Air Control for these in Greece during the early 1990`s,.......fantastic pilots!

We spent some time at Sedes during my detachment and the base museum there was very interesting, as were the Dakota`s still flying from there and the huge Dakota scrap dump in the middle of the airfield, with some F-5 parts thrown in for good measure.

Cheers for sharing,

Tony

PS- I knew that there was a Blenheim preserved in Greece which had been recovered from the sea but didn`t know that it was so complete, nor that it was a fighter variant so cheers for the photo. Pity that you were not allowed to photograph the Stuka or Hs 126,....is the latter a German one or a Greek one? It would be nice if one of the well preserved Beaufighter wrecks around the Greek coast were raised some day too.

Edited November 28, 2013 by tonyot

[Jinxman]

hi Tony,

The A-7's are still operational - when we were at Araxos one was doing go-arounds - the sight and sound was fantastic.

Not sure what the provenance of the Henschel is - it was covered up and we only found out it was there when chatting to one of the local chaps.

cheers

[planeart]

Very nice presentation Jinxman! HAF is always interesting air force for the modellers and not only!!

[planeart]

Lovely photos of some very nice aeroplanes and the models are not bad either! Is the A-7 Corsair II still in service? I remember doing Forward Air Control for these in Greece during the early 1990`s,.......fantastic pilots!

We spent some time at Sedes during my detachment and the base museum there was very interesting, as were the Dakota`s still flying from there and the huge Dakota scrap dump in the middle of the airfield, with some F-5 parts thrown in for good measure.

Cheers for sharing,

Tony

PS- I knew that there was a Blenheim preserved in Greece which had been recovered from the sea but didn`t know that it was so complete, nor that it was a fighter variant so cheers for the photo. Pity that you were not allowed to photograph the Stuka or Hs 126,....is the latter a German one or a Greek one? It would be nice if one of the well preserved Beaufighter wrecks around the Greek coast were raised some day too.

Hello Tony,

I do not thing the Hs 126 is a Greek machine! Those airplanes were all destroyed or grounded due to lack of spare parts in early 1941, and as far as i know none is survived not even as scrap!! As for the C-47, there are rumors is going to be in flying condition in the near future! With this crap econic times HAF lacks the funds to keep the so many historic airplanes in flying status! My dream is to see the SB2C-5 Helldiver in flying condition! A dreamer? maybe, but i am not the only one!!! As the Great John Lennon sang in his magic song!!!

All the best!!!!

[planeart]

Very nice. Where? And is that a Blenheim in the pic of the wreck?! Others that excite me are the Albatross, CL-215 and S-55 helo!

dear Paul i am sending you some data concerning the Blenheim stored in the HAF's museum in the above pictures!!

The museum’s Blenheim Mk.IV F belonged to the 203 Squadron, whose aircraft were based in Crete and covered the British withdrawal from the island. It was accidentally hit by a British torpedo boat and crashed near the sea of Rethymno on April, 28th 1941. The three-member crew was saved by an unknown man from Crete, who fell to the sea to offer his help. The aircraft was brought to the surface and moved to the museum on summer 1996 by a mixed team composed of members of HAF’s special team of frogmen and museum experts.

[Paul J]

Thanks for the update 'Planeart' Much appreciated.

[planeart]

Thanks for the update 'Planeart' Much appreciated.

My pleasure Paul! It was held a reunion a few years ago with the pilot of that particular Blenheim, Gordon Hall his name was, and HAF precented to him suvenirs from his ex-plane plus other memorie pictures and items! He was really pleased and tuched! It was a great evening for all those who had the chance to be there!!

Have a nice day!!