N281SD was built in 1980 and has seen service with Heliservicio in Mexico as XA-SZD till early 1996. It continued with Air Logistics as N24HS, just to be registered in Mexico again as XA-AAC sometimes later. Became C-FTXU with Eagle Copters Maintenance in March 2004 and from November 2005 started to serve with it's current operator SDFD as N800DM. It appears to have been re-registered to N281SD on January 14, 2020, just a few days before very friendly staff at this SDFD Air Operations base did let me take a picture of this beautiful bird.

CHAIR Airlines was formed in June of 2019 out of Germania Flug (Switzerland). The name of the airline is a pun, as CH is the latin abbreviation for Confoederatio Helvetica (meaning the Switzerland) and at the same time it reads "chair", the piece of furniture every household has. In regard to this, the company states: "A company needs a strong foundation. A chair has stable legs‚ a load-bearing seat‚ and a strong backrest to support you - and as an airline‚ we offer you a place to sit back‚ dream‚ and fly away."

Air Canada operates a total of sixteen A330-300 Series, among them C-GFAJ (YOM 1999) captured here on approach to Geneva in front of the snow covered Jura mountain ridge. What a positive difference this blueish basic color makes versus an all white airframe. Stored since August 2020 due to the Covid-19 situation.

This Herk was supporting the Al Fursan Display team visiting Payerne. Since 1975, the UAE Air Force has operated 10 different Hercules aircraft. Among them were two C-130H taken over from the Abu Dhabi AF and four new C130H's like 1213 shown here. Three L-100-30 came 2nd hand from Air Gabon, Schreiner Airways and the Dubai AF. The last aircraft - a C-130H-30 - was also merged into the fleet from the Dubai AF.

Besides helicopters, Air Glaciers did also operate a few fixed-wing aircraft, such as three PC-6 Pilatus Porters and this beautiful Cessna 206, which has since been repainted to a different - less colorful - livery though.

Built in 1996, this airframe first went to China Airlines as B-18676, from where it went to Virgin Express Ireland as EI-TVB in December 1998, and then to Virgin Blue Airlines in Australia as VH-VGE in February 2001. It became OO-VES on February 20, 2003 and was merged into the Brussels Airlines fleet in March 2007, where it remained till November 2012. It was converted to be a freighter under registration N493AC and was leased to Ethiopian Airlines as ET-AQV in September 2013. It was written off after a runway excursion at Accra (Ghana) on January 10, 2015.

Built in 1980, this Blackhawk is ex US Army 80-23499. It was registered as N160BQ before joining Coulson-Unical as N60CU. Being an ex military UH-60A, this airframe is in the FAA "Restricted" category and as such is limited to aerial firefighting, forestry work and pest control, all of which are in the interest of the general public (public service). The two companies Coulson & Unical joint forces in 2019 and created a joint venture to market and operate UH-60 and CH-47's, mainly in the fire fighting business.

Gstaad-Saanen Airport is always in for surprise visits of private business jets and helicopters, as many celebrities spend their vacation in that region, many owning their own swiss chalet.

A total of 55 Mirage 2000 were delivered to the Greek AF in two batches. The first batch was for 36 single seat aircraft of the version EG/EGM plus four dual seaters BG/BGM introduced as from 1989. In the year 2000, additional 15 new aircraft were ordered, this batch being of ten Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 and five Mirage 2000-5B Mk2. Aircraft "506" shown here was among the 2nd batch and is based at Tanagra AB some 70 kilometers northwest of Athens.

435 was delivered new to Israel in May 1976 under the Peace "Bata IV" Foreign Military Sales Program (US FY # 75-0536). The civilian registration 4X-FBT was sometimes applied for international trips. However, this was most certainly not the case when it took part in a clandestine operation called "Kadur Ra'am" in hebrew (Thunderbolt) on July 4, 1976, a bare two month after being delivered. On that day, an israeli "delegation" of four C-130's and an undisclosed number of IDF special forces paid a surprise visit to Entebbe, Uganda and rescued some 100 Jews held hostage by terrorists.

Nabire Airport in Western Papua probably hosts - after Balikpapan on Kalimantan - the most civilian helicopters throughout Indonesia. Besides smaller helicopters such as the Bell 206 and Airbus AS-350, a few bigger machines support the local mining activities. PK-HMB was built in 1970 and has first been registered as N2227W before being sold to Indonesia, becoming PK-DBY and later PK-HMB. In November of 2017, it was sold back to Bell Helicopter Canada and became C-FYWV.

Besides it's shorter C208 Caravan 1 5R-MKD, MAF Madagascar operated this Grand Caravan for just over two years between December 2007 and January 2010. However, it proved to be too big and was therefore transferred to MAF's flight program in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has been registered there as 9Q-CMZ. Initially and after being built in 2000, this airframe was on the FAA register as N805AA.

Nörvenich AB is usually closed on Sundays, but to allow the Israeli AF to rotate / exchange some 60 personnel between the two exercises Blue Wings 2020 and MAGDAYS 20-3, an exception was made on August 23, 2020. Consequently, this "Shimson" arriving from it's homebase Nevatim near Beersheba was the only movement on that cloudy day.

BHI² is a Florida-based joint venture between Brainerd Helicopters Inc. and Brown Helicopter. The company is a major player in the 2nd hand market for used ex US Army UH-60 Blackhawks to be used in the firefighting business. This refurbished Blackhawk - now designated H-60X - can be seen here taking-off with a 925 US Gallon (3500 Litres) internal foam / water tank, which could quickly be removed if need be.

Arkia's DC-3/C-47's helped keeping Israel's southernmost city - Eilat - connected to the rest of the country in the late 1950's / early 1960's. However, the airframe shown here never carried the registration 4X-AES, which did exist though but had c/n 11923 (USAAF FY 42-92154 > RAF FL562 > HB-ATO > NC74136 > OO-AFB > to Israel DF) and then to Arkia between April 2, 1957 and June 26, 1966. The history of the airframe shown here is best described at http://www.dc-3.co.za/dc-3-individual-aircraft-history/cn-6223.html . "4X-AES" has since been moved a few miles north to the new Eilat Airport LLER.

SAS is not known for any spectacular livery on its airplanes, so this special scheme commemorating "70 Years of SAS" (founded in 1946) was a welcomed change. LN-RGI - built in early 2014 - wore this livery between August 2016 and December 2017.

The serial of 281 is derived from the last three digits of the airframe's US FY number, which is 78-0281. This particular aircraft was licence built by Fokker in the Netherlands, as were the other 59 F-16A and 12 F-16B ordered by Norway in July of 1975.

Built in 1989, N208JW was leased by MAF Madagascar from Greystoke Engineering Inc. Flagstaff (AZ) for about 2 years in 2002 / 2003, after MAF's Partenavia 68C suffered a landing accident and was out of business for a while. Previous registrations were N9743F and F-OGOD. Still current as N208JW with Maxim Aviation Llc Summerland Key, Florida.

47-6901 was the first of 14 Recce Phantoms originally acquired directly from McDonnell Douglas for the JASDF. In the 1990's, 17 F-4E's were modified to RF-4EJ in addition. This airframe entered service in 1974 and remained in flying condition till the squadron ceased operations on March 9, 2020. It was one of at least three RF-4EJ painted in this blue Marine camouflage.

A total of twelve A109 SP "Da Vinci" entered service with REGA as from 2009, of which 10 remain in service at the time of upload.