Email the Updaters

July Movements                   

Uk Mil Mode S Codes

Diary / Charters

GA Aircraft Fleet List

DTV Airport Official Site

DTV Airport News

FoDTVA


affiliate_link

Lakenheath AFB Tour (by Chris Smith)

The Cleveland Aviation Society had some spare seats going on their trip to Lakenheath AFB for a base tour and I was lucky enough to be included on the list of names who received a last minute invite. After hastily arranging a shift swap at work, I was good to go!

Everyone met at the Municipal Golf Club, Middlesbrough, where we boarded a coach for a 7am departure direct to Lakenheath. Arriving 90 minutes early (the tour was booked for 1:30pm), we parked up in the viewing area at the end of runway 24, where things got off to a slow start, an F-15 was already adjacent to the runway with it's engines running when we arrived, with several more heard starting up in the distance (they tend to engine run / waste fuel for about 20 minutes prior to taxiing). After about half an hour, business picked up with 10 or 11 departures, with aircraft only staying out just over an hour.

By this point we were ready to go on to base, so we headed to the main gate where we were informed we needed to be at Gate 8, where upon arrival our ID's were checked as was the vehicle itself. Lakenheath AFB is home to the 48th Fighter Wing, aka the "Statue of Liberty Wing", which itself is made up of three tactical fighter squadrons, the 492nd ("Bolars") & 494th ("Black Panthers") operating the F-15E and the 493rd ("Grim Reapers") operating the F-15C. Lakenheath also houses the 56th Rescue Squadron, operating the Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk, although they were hidden away in a remote corner of the airfield and never made an appearance during the visit.

Our hosts came in the form of two very nice blondes who boarded our coach - yep, this was going to be a damn good tour!! We first made our way over to the newish 'Strike Eagle Complex' which houses two of the three F-15 Squadrons, the building is symetrical with anything on the left hand side being mirrored on the right, the left being the blue side housing the 'Bolars' and the right being the red side, the "Black Panthers", who share a friendly rivalry. The Black Panthers were our hosts for this segment of the tour.

After the Strike Eagle complex, we made our way to the ATC Tower, where we split into two groups, with one going into the tower and the other into a building adjacent which houses the radar facilities, before switching over.

Our final stop was one of two maintenance hangars on base, Hangar 6 houses the 48th Maintenance Operations Squadron. We were given access to an F-15E and there were pilots and engineers available to answer questions.

For those unaware, the F-15 is similar to our Panavia Tornado in the sense that the 'C' variant is similar to the 'F3' and designed for air defence, whilst the 'E' variant is similar to our 'GR4' and designed for ground strike. Around 55 F-15s are reportedly based here, so we saw just under half with 24 F-15s logged (some did go begging sadly).

All in all a superb and very enjoyable base visit and my thanks goes out to David Thompson for the invite, Colin Fawcett the organiser, the many Yanks who were very friendly and accommodating, and last but not least the wider CAS membership for making this 'outsider' welcome!!

Lakenheath AFB (LKZ / EGUL)
03-10-2013

Aircraft Flying

REG A/C TYPE SQUADRON NOTES
84-0010/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0156/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0166/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0174/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
91-0303/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  
91-0307/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  
ZJ690 Raytheon Sentinel R1 Royal Air Force (5 Squadron) 2x overshoots

Aircraft Parked

REG A/C TYPE SQUADRON NOTES
42269 North American F-100D Super Sabre Wings of Liberty Memorial Park Gate Guard - marked 63319/FW-319
00-3000/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
00-3001/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
01-2004/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
84-0014/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0176/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0178/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
91-0313/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
91-0318/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  
91-0324/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
91-0329/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  
91-0332/LN McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  
91-0603/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
96-0202/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (492nd FS)  

Hangar 6

REG A/C TYPE SQUADRON NOTES
86-0164/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
86-0175/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle US Air Force (493rd FS)  
91-0326/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
91-0335/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  
91-0604/LN* McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle US Air Force (494th FS)  

* = required

Click here for my photos from this trip.

Thanks for reading!

affiliate_link