Ever experienced air-to-air refuelling? I can just tell you, it is just amazing!
I am a student in my first year of marketing and communication and currently working as a trainee at EATC’s Public Affairs Office. One of my first duties was to cover an air-to-air refuelling mission with photos. The best start into my traineeship!
We took off at 10 am with an A330 MRTT from the MMU* from Eindhoven airbase. First stop above the Dutch North Sea. Two F35 fighters from the Royal Netherlands Air Force popped up and got air-refuelled with the boom. Then we took off to Germany and were joined by two Eurofighter Typhoons from the German Air Force, who got air refuelled with the drogue. This was amazing because you see them get refuelled. It is truly fascinating how much skill the pilots have to pull that off.
“Air-to-air refuelling, it is just an unforgetting experience.”
Daan Clemens, trainee at EATC
It was a very cool and special experience for me. Sitting in a tanker above the clouds with a blue sky although it is raining in Eindhoven, two fighters just a couple of meters from me, almost to be grabbed, one fighter waiting for the other to be air refuelled, a scene like a total standstill, and then they turned and burned away.
I learned many new things about air-to-air refuelling and the different refuelling techniques. This was a unique and special experience for me that I will never forget. It is even more special because my goal is to become a fighter pilot in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Maybe I am one of the next generations F35 pilots that gets refuelled! I am truly grateful that EATC gave me this beautiful and unforgetting experience.
*MMU: Multinational MRTT Unit