European trainers meet and Alpha Jet farewell at Beauvechain Air Base
In 2003 the French and Belgian Air Force decided to form “Ajets”, an Alpha Jet school. In this school both French and Belgian student pilots would follow the advanced part of their pilot training. Cazaux Air Base, in the South-Western corner of France, was chosen as the home base for the Alpha Jet school. Cazaux offered better weather year-round circumstances than Beauvechain in Belgium. Therefor all the Belgian Alpha Jets would move to Cazaux Air Base.
The Alpha Jet farewell
To give the Belgian Alpha Jets a worthy farewell, Beauvechain Air Base hosted a European trainers Meet on 15 September 2005. This year the European trainers Meet was merely a farewell ceremony for the Belgian Alpha Jets and a social gathering instead of a real exercise. The day ended with a symbolic fly-by from a formation of six Alpha jets. At their first pass, the smoke coming from the jets was in the Belgian national colors, at their second pass the smoke was in the French national colors.
Participants
All three European Alpha Jet users, Belgium, France and Portugal were present with two or more Alpha Jets. Besides the Alpha Jets the Belgian Air Force was present with almost every type in service. Other participants were:
The French Air Force with Epsilon, Mystère 20 and Embraer;
the Czech Air Force with L-159A;
the German Air Force with a Tornado IDS;
the Irish Air Corps with a PC-9;
the Italian Air Force with MB-339 and SF-260;
the Royal Netherlands Air Force with PC-7 and
the Royal Air Force with the Hawk T.1A and Dominie T.1