We visited Fridays 10^th of October sortie. There weather couldn’t be any better, blue skies and a low shining autumn sun. Similar conditions as the day before, however, then the mission was cancelled. Bird migration was apparently the reason for that.  Not today. Although it took quite some time before we actually heard the engines starting up, they really went out.

As from 1 PM we witnessed the Italian Eurofighters and AMXs going up together with French Mirage F.1CRs, RAF Tornado F.3s and a single Tornado GR.4. As if two Hellenic F-16s wasn’t enough, two more arrived this day and on top of that two more are expected next week for the external assets. Top participator in this edition is the Spanish Air Force by far. Four Hornets, two of which from Gando, two Mirage F.1Ms and three EAV-8B+ Matador aircraft. The latter are rarely seen at exercises so very welcome on the TLP scene.

As said before the Greek will bring two more F-16s for the last phase of the exercise (although we are not sure whether today’s arrivals happen to be very early arrivals for the second phase). The Italian contingent will be expanded with two Pelican helicopters for CSAR. Both Spain and Germany will send two Eurofighters each.