Touring the Netherlands.

Been to AMS to catch a Malaysian 737 that was scheduled for a delivery-flight. Unfortunately it was cancelled (next chance 03FEB and 11FEB, but those are work-days). After shooting the Open Skies 757 I decided to take a spin around the country. It was too cold to stand still at the same place. 😀

Schiphol

Rotterdam Zestienhoven
A few days ago I saw a picture of this plane on a Dutch aviation forum. Immediately I wanted to spot this plane myself, and this is one of the main reasons for taking the cross-country tour. This plane used to be operated by Base Airlines, an airline based at Eindhoven. This airline went bankrupt in 2001, but the Base stickers can still be seen on the nose. As you will probably have guessed airline was a franchise operation for British Airways.

Woensdrecht
Moving from the RTM corrosion-corner to the Woensdrecht corrosion-corner. Woensdrecht is the largest maintenance fascility for Fokker planes in Europe, if not the world. Of course this brings interesting traffic. For instance a Sonair (Angola) F.27, Jetsgo F100 and the complete F60 fleet. Most of the planes can not be photographed as the planes are parked very close by eachother, and there is a large concrete sound barrier around a large part of the dump.

The first photo is a long term resident. A F28 that has been parked here for at least 8 years as that is when I first spotted it. It seems they are cleaning out the long-term parking though, as the Lina Congo F.27 that has been here for donkeys years has apparantly been removed.

Two KLM Cityhopper F100s are here, both are retired. The front one is PH-KLG, the one behind is PH-KLE.

Another batch of retired planes, all four F60s ever made where operated by the RNLAF. They have all been retired, and are waiting at WOE for someone else to buy them. Only U-03 has markings the others are still in their original camouflage livery, but without markings.

This is the SOSTAR-X test-bed. Some new kind of radar surveillance device. The airframe is the original F100 prototype.

Breda

Two photos from Breda. The local scrap-dealer has managed to collect enough bits and pieces from the former Fokker factory to construct his own plane! The fuselage is a F100 originally destined for TAM. The tail is from a F70. The engines and nose gear are fake, and the wings are from another F70 that was never finished. It is used as a meeting room and staff-canteen!

Eindhoven