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Worked with the Belgians - Impressed


damnpoor
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I just got back from AATTC where there was a Belgian 130 and a German C-160. The Germans seemed to know what they were doing, but since it wasn\'t a herk I\'m not familiar with the airframe. With the Belgians I could tell what they were doing. They run things more like our Navy, where they have airframe, powerplant, and avionics people. They don\'t have a zillion backshop specialists like the Air Force does. I watched two of their people change a pair of nose tires faster than I could even get the required TO\'s together. While the herks were out flying we talked about the planes and they seem to really know their stuff. They said there are now only 10 herks in the Belgian air force. Does anyone else have experience with foreign herk operators?

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During my years with SAT I worked many of the same projects, all over Africa, with the Belgians and they, along with the Canadians, were always extremely professional in everything they did, although they never let that get in the way of having a good time. I just wish I could say the same thing about some of the USAF crews, but that was years ago in Somalia and, hopefully, things have changed since then.

I did the CAE herk sim in Brussels last Feb and the instructors were 2 Belgian FE\'s who did a fantastic job. I have been doing herk sims since 1987 with Reflectone, Simuflite, and now CAE and these two guys were about the best I have ever worked with during that entire period. If the rest of their herkforce are anything like these two guys maybe the USAF should just hire them to do our trash hauling and we could save the taxpayers a ton of money.

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It is always nice to read positive things about my unit. After flying this aircraft for over 15 years, I think the strength of our unit is it\'s small size - with our 10 aircraft (at the end of the year it should be 11), we need to do all these nice missions like supporting our troops, training our para\'s, hauling stuff like any other nation, but everybody will do all the missions, giving us a broad view and large experience. Coupled with that we often operate in small detachments (typical 5 flying crew, 8/9 technicians and 3 cargo guys) which leads to people getting hands on experience in a lot of fields. The other side of this equation is that we need to train our crews far more ... A young pilot will have at least 750 hrs on type before he is being transferred to the left seat, and a further 500 more before he can act as captain. Our FE training starts with 6 months of ground technician training, before they even see the flight sim, allowing them to be selfsufficient for a lot of in the field repairs...

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I teach at the CAE flight Simulator in Tampa Florida. The Belgian Air Force is one of our regular customers.

I started a Belgian Initial Class today. They are always prepaired for class, and put quite a bit of effort into thier work. They are very well versed for initial students.

They are always fun to teach to.

Bill

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having spent 10 years on Aussie herks and having various nations passing thru / visiting, there were many chances to interact and discuss different techniques and styles of training. i would have to say that regardless of how the trades were split (engine/airfame and avionics in the RAAF)the standards were very high, although i was always amazed by the US system of specialist trades, making the assumption that this was a numbers game, our lack there of.

i have now spent the last 10 years in NZ working for a commercial airline where we have engeineers from all over the world and all walks of life, but the one thing remains the same, the high standards. there are guys here who have maintained herks all over the world, sure we all use diffent lingo and gargon, but it is oh so easy to to have technical discussions on our previous lives with great fondness.

cheers kevin:silly:

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When I went thru the Tac School we were in a class with \"20 Squadron\". They were really great folks. I remember talking to Fonzy about why they had all this Belgium beer with them. I told him that even in St Joe or Fort Huachuca you could get any beer you wanted, not just the US stuff. He said Durkle beer(spelling?) sponsored them on their trip. Seems that if they took pictures of a Durkle sign (they had with \'em) at famous American landmarks, Durkle would give them free beer. Our crew fell over at that one. Can you imagine the \"freak out\" the Air Staff, let alone the American Press would have if they saw a ANG/USAF/AFRC/NAVY/MARINE 130 crew being sponsored by Budweiser or Miller?

Herkeng

PS

hey Duncan, is Scotter Libby, \"Kunkle\" and Frank V still there in Tampa?

Herkeng

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In 1971, with Don Maw and Jack Jordan we demo\'d an E model to the Belgian AF and the King at Brussels. Great time.

My four favorite non US groups I worked with the Belgians, the RAF, and the Bolivians and the Brazilians. They were all great, different ways of operating, but all professionals.

Bob

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Thanks for the appreciation of us European Herk engineers. We tend to only have a few a/c so we are more highly trained to take care of everything. I have always been surprised that even in a war situation the Americans need so much support because they need so many specialists. I have worked with you guys so many times in the last 20 years and you are good. During the last Gulf war we provided a hangar in Muscat and it was funny when the towing team was bigger than the Brit staff.

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There is a commercial sim in Brussels near the airport. It is not used by the Belgian Air Force. They chose to continue to use the CAE program in Tampa.

It is owned by CAE but on the commercial side of the company. We here in tampa are under the Military Program.:laugh:

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