Strana 8
and colleague, Major K., who flew an E-3
AWACS early warning aircraft, a completely
unplanned encounter. He gave me his patch,
which became the basis of a collection of
mine. Our place of work was at the very end
of the apron, together with other helicopter
pilots. Our closest neighbors were, exotic for
us land lubbers, French naval aviators with
the Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye early
warning aircraft, from Flotilla 4F, operating
from the land base in Lann – Bihoué and at
sea during operational deployment from the
aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
Our mutual cooperation also began somewhat
unconventionally, about the third day after our
arrival. It was due to a defect in our external
source, which is used for pre-flight checks and
the actual takeoff of the helicopters. An error
message indicating a defect requiring the
replacement of the entire electronic block, put
us in a difficult situation. How would we carry
out further maintenance and preparation of the
helicopters in the following days, when there
were still about ten flying days remaining until
the end of the event? The gaze of our electrical
and special equipment specialists fell upon
a nearby external source, a somewhat larger
item, that belonged to our French colleagues,
with the idea that it could solve our current
problems. So, my colleague and I set off on
a ‘reconnaissance’ mission. Fortunately, their
chief technician, a young captain, spoke good
English, even the cable ends were appropriate,
and he obligingly lent us their source.
As a token of our appreciation, several cans
of chilled Pilsner beer and a few patches did
well to break the ice and subdue the initial
uncertainty due to the language barrier. But
that is jumping a little further ahead, as the
first day the exercise was officially opened
with the ceremonial arrival of all participants.
NATO Tiger Meets have certain specifics, it is
not just an ‘ordinary’ military exercise, but for
example, the personnel’s attire with specific
squadron tiger accessories is evaluated – in
our case it was a black T-shirt with the ‘Tiger’
motif and a large version of the emblem,
enlarged from the patch on the back, another
insignia on the shoulder created especially
for this exercise, a tiger scarf and a black
‘toreador’ hat with Spanish colors.
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INFO Eduard8
February 2026