Tiger Meet 2009

Hard to be humble...

The Nato tigers appear to have found their origin in the early sixties when pilots from RAF squadrons met for a Whiskey (only one of course). This excellent idea grew to become a yearly social gathering of squadrons from all over NATO. The yearly Tiger Meet, originally organised completely informally, with the hierarchy turning a blind eye, slowly refocused to become a major military exercise where the abilites and fighting spirit of the squadrons involved are tested to the limit. Luckily, the social aspect has not been forgotten at all.

Tiger Meet 2009

This year's Tiger Meet (from 14 until 25 september) took place at the military airfield of Kleine Brogel In Belgium. Last friday, the gates of the KB Airforce base was open to the general public for a "spotters day". Not a regular airshow but an opportunity to see a variety of modern fighters of different countries starting up, take of on training mission, land and in between perform some interesting manouvring for the public. For someone interested in military aviation this is an impressive sight, also because the Tigers love to decorate their planes with impressive artwork. Conditions for photography were excellent and I could not resist sharing a number of pictures with you. I guess that this must give some of you inspiration for a few new projects.

Next year...

By the way, the next Tiger meet (2010) will take place in the Netherlands, at Volkel and the year after the tigers will roar at Cambrai in France. When loving airplanes and living more or less in the neighbourhood then you just have to be there! For more information on the Tigers please visit www.natotigers.org.