Out of This World

Video by Courtesy

Belgian F16’s Guard the Baltic Skies, B-Roll

Natochannel

Feb. 17, 2016 | 2:34

Four Belgian F16 fighter jets take on the role of guarding the Baltic skies.

The Belgian air force deploys its F16 fighter jets to cover the Baltic skies during the 40th rotation of NATO’s Baltic air policing mission.

Four jets have been deployed, operating out of Amari airbase in Estonia, with 50 personnel backing up the mission. The operation will run until the end of April.

Cockpit footage from Belgian F16 fighter jets showing barrel rolls and patrol flights. Exterior footage of F16’s taxiing and taking off. Footage of Belgian pilot scrambling to his jet.

SHOTLIST

1. (00:06) GO PRO LOOKING INTO COCKPIT AS PILOT CLOSES CANOPY IN HANGER.
2. (00:23) PILOT RUNS TO AIRCRAFT, CLIMBS LADDER, SITS DOWN AND CLOSES CANOPY.
3. (00:37) TWO F16’S TAXIING ALONG RUNWAY.
4. (00:53) F16 WITH AFTERBURNER TAKING OFF.
5. (00:59) COCKPIT VIEW OF F16 PERFORMING BARREL ROLL.
6. (01:04) COCKPIT VIEW OF PILOT PERFORMING BARREL ROLL IN THE CLOUDS.
7. (01:16) F16 FLYING ALONGSIDE WITH CLEAR BACKDROP SLOWLY PULLS AWAY INTO THE DISTANCE.
8. (01:25) F16 FLYING ALONGSIDE WITH RUNWAY IN BACKGROUND SLOWLY PULLS AWAY INTO THE DISTANCE.
9. (01:34) COCKPIT VIEW OF F16 PERFORMING BARREL ROLL.
10. (01:56) SOUNDBITE IN ENGLISH – CAPTAIN DAVY BLANCQUAERT, BELGIAN AIR FORCE.
‘Our mission here is to guard the Baltic skies. It’s a NATO commitment we have. The plan is that we can take off very quickly to intercept aircraft which cannot fly into the NATO territory, in this case we are talking about the Baltic territory or the Baltic skies.’
(02:31)
‘I guess every pilot in the Belgium air force he wants to be an F16 pilot. You’re alone with a very powerful aircraft, it has about 60,000 horsepower so compared to a car it gives and incredible feeling. You might encounter cloudy skies from the ground but once you take off you climb on top of the clouds and you always have the sunshine every day so it’s actually the flying itself, once it grabs you it never lets you go any more, its kind of an addiction.’