On Wednesday 6 November a group of 10 aviation photographers gathered at Schiphol airport for a trip to a new 4Aviation destination: Brazil. For several months we tried to gain access to the base with a large group, but this only worked out for a few people in the end (despite promises and confirmations). Nevertheless, a group of 12 photographers went along to watch the exercise from outside the base. Two of the participants travelled to Brazil on their own.
This year was the first CRUZEX in three years that included aircraft, and the list of participating countries was very interesting: Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, USA, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela all participated with aircraft. Unfortunately, Argentina decided to cancel shortly for the start of CRUZEX 2013. Main goal of the trip was Natal, as all fighters were based there. Tankers and supporting aircraft were based at Recife.
Via a tank stop at Sal (Cape Verde) and Fortaleza we eventually reached Natal in the early evening of Wednesday (6 November). From the aircraft we noticed a lot of fighters outside, this looked promising! After picking up our rental cars we set out to our nice hotel at the beach, welcome to Brazil!
