Our crewmember Geert had the chance to hop on the Belgian Air Force A400M for an aerial photoshoot with the F-16 demo jet, ‘Dream Viper’.

Piloted by ‘Vrieske’, they took the formation over the Ardennes and coastline to have some nice backdrops. Of course there are a few ingredients present if you talk about an F-16 join-up when it’s in the hands of a pilot with 5000+ flight hours on the jet…very dynamic maneuvers, smoke and flares! The grand finale will always come with the famous inverted pose!

The A400M as a photoplatform is very different from the Skyvan photoship we fly during most of our projects. The enormous engines produce a lot of wake turbulence and heathaze, so the safety distance between the F-16 and Grizzly is much higher, interesting challenge for all photographers onboard! The weather could not have been better, it was a fun ride for everyone and hopefully you will enjoy the photo results!