Greece II 2024
After the successful first tour, in the first week of April, to Greece to observe the low flying around the Iniochos exercise, it was the turn of a large group to visit the first spotters day at the Andravida base.
There are few opportunities worldwide for aviation enthusiasts to photograph operational aircraft from various interesting air forces at such close range. We are grateful to the Hellenic Air Force for that.
Keep informed
Chances are that we will return to Greece for a comparable tour. If you want to be informed if we have details about this, please click the button to send us a message.
On Tuesday 9 April 2024, a large group gathered at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Just after noon, our blue Boeing 737 took to the air and landed at Athens International Airport three hours later. After collecting the luggage, we headed to the luxury bus that was already waiting at the terminal. Our driver took us to a supermarket for a few purchases for the coming day before we headed to the hotel in Patras. Around 8:30 PM everyone had checked in very quickly and the first beers and meals had already been ordered.
On Wednesday 10 April 2024 it was another hour’s drive to Andravida AB and we arrived there around 8:00 AM. There was already a long line, but luckily the Dutch were filtered out and we, together with the English, got our own table for check-in. The other nationalities in the group were strategically placed in the other long line and were also quickly given their turn. We took a number of buses to the southeast side of the base where we all arrived in time to see the first jets, Greek Mirage 2000s, line up and take-off. That’s a very nice start to the day. Spanish Hornet, French Navy, Greek and Qatari Rafales, Romanian and Greek F-16s soon followed and they all returned with very nice light on the machines.
Then it became quiet for a moment and the first buses arrived to take the photographers to the west side of the base, near the control tower, for the best light during the afternoon missions. However, there was also the sound of Phantoms starting up and the light on the east side was still better. The sound of the Phantoms was silenced by twelve Greek F-16s and a quartet of Eurofighters from Saudi Arabia taking off, after which it was the Phantoms’ turn to take to the air. Then we quickly took the bus to the other place where there was still plenty of time to enjoy a locally made kebab and a drink before the aircraft from the last wave landed again and the Eurofighters and Phantoms came to taxi past us again.
The day was far from over and now it was the turn of many more of the above aircraft for the afternoon missions. We were asked to leave the airport a little earlier than planned and we could look back on a very successful day with glorious weather. The coach took us back to the hotel where most enjoyed a delicious meal and a few also went into the city to see how things are going there.
Thursday 11 April 2024 was already the last day and we left around 8:00 AM for Athens to first visit the air force museum at Tatoi. This is also an operational base and we saw some M-18 Dromaders and, very special, a T-41D flying. When we asked the air force escorts, we were also able to visit the museum storage and restoration site, after which we headed to the international airport for the return journey. We were already quite ahead of schedule and that only increased as our blue Boeing left 2.5 hours later than planned. If we had known that earlier, we would have driven to the centre of Athens after the museum, but that was not an option anymore. We were now able to walk a bit from the terminal and view and capture the two Mildenhall KC-135s present and also two Saudi C-130s.
We finally left just before 8:00 PM and arrived in Amsterdam just before 10:00 PM. A number of participants had missed their flights due to the late arrival and they were helped on their way by us, as the KLM did not feel the need to do anything, before taking the train home.
It was another short but powerful tour, during which the Hellenic Air Force once again showed its best side. Very nice visitors for the exercise and access to some very nice places on base. Hopefully again next year, although there are rumours that the base will be temporarily closed for renovations surrounding the arrival of the F-35. We will see.
