Having learned rather by chance of the stopover of the Romanian MiG-21s at Erfurt in 2008, the author was this time in eager anticipation ever since it became known that Romanian MiG-21 LanceR were to take part in the RIAT at Fairford in the UK. As the direct route from Romania to the British Isles leads across Germany, it seemed only natural that there would again be a stopover in this country. However, all attempts to find out the exact route and above all the German stopover initially came to nothing. And when the open day at Câmpia Turzii on the same weekend appeared on the agenda, the matter faded into the background – after all, ten flying MiG-21s are simply more interesting than one or two, especially if they only land and take off again. But things took a new turn when, on the Monday before the RIAT weekend, it became clear that the open day would not take place. Now it was necessary to find out which way the MiGs would take to England after all. On Tuesday afternoon came the decisive message from Romania: "Stop on 18th and 22nd at Noervenich". Now everything had to happen very quickly. After a few phone calls and an e-mail exchange with the responsible Bundeswehr offices, it was clear that the time until the outbound flight was too short to organise the necessary access. So it had to be the return flight. After a short night and a longer drive, on the morning of July 22 the author finally stood at the gates of Nörvenich air base, home of Tactical Air Wing 31 "Boelcke".
As the journey went smoothly, the planned time reserve was available to ...
... mingle with the numerous onlookers at the fence before the official appointment and get a few impressions of the flight operations of the local Eurofighters.
A whole number of aircraft taxied onto the runway one after the other, ...
... formed up there for take-off ...
... and took off astonishingly quietly.
Hardly had the Eurofighters disappeared when an EC-135 of the Federal Police appeared.
With the author's arrival at the air base, the first Eurofighters also landed again ...
... and taxied back to their parking positions, ...
... including two-seaters, all of which were flown solo.
Shortly before noon the two LanceR finally appeared ...
... and touched down gently on the runway – unfortunately without a prior flypast.
As the support aircraft was considerably slower than the MiGs, the two aircraft were initially looked after by local personnel, who among other things provided the Tornado ladders, ...
... via which Daniel MOTANU Moise and ...
... Gheorghe GICA Stancu could leave their aircraft.
Immediately afterwards, souvenir photos of people ...
... and equipment were taken.
While the pilots completed their aircraft documents ...
... interested Bundeswehr personnel took the opportunity to inspect the aircraft in every detail with ...
... and without a camera.
With the arrival of the C-27J support aircraft ...
... the usual ground equipment was swapped in ...
... and the technical personnel, with local support, began preparing the LanceR for the onward flight.
Meanwhile the local airfield fire brigade used the stopover ...
... to familiarise itself with the foreign equipment ...
... and its handling in an emergency.
After about three hours on site ...
... the two LanceR took off, ...
... followed by the C-27, for their next stopover at Pardubice in the Czech Republic, from where they returned safely home the same day.
Afterwards, normality returned to the airfield, which also includes training flights by the police aviators from Bonn-Hangelar.
The visit to Nörvenich also offered an opportunity to see the military history collection of Tactical Air Wing 31.
The exhibits include the cockpit section ...
... and ejection seat of the Tornado, with which the wing was previously equipped.
Of its predecessor, the Starfighter, a cockpit section ...
... and the M-61 Vulcan cannon are also displayed.
Besides many other artefacts ...
... various flying clothing is among the exhibits of this well-made exhibition.
The author thanks Oberstabsfeldwebel Thomas Hohlbein for his friendly and competent assistance on site.
