CzAF L-159 aircraft fleet has reached 10.000 flight hours

30/03/2007 | “The Czech Air Force L-159 aircraft fleet has reached its first 10.000 flight hours (FH). The ten thousand’s FH was preformed by the L-159 s/n 6064 piloted by Capt. David Reha on March 23, 2007 on the prestigious NATO Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) in Florennes, Belgium.

“The Czech Air Force L-159 aircraft fleet has reached its first 10.000 flight hours (FH). The ten thousand’s FH was preformed by the L-159 s/n 6064 piloted by Capt. David Reha on March 23, 2007 on the prestigious NATO Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) in Florennes, Belgium. TLP is a program for the most experienced NATO pilots, who after succeeding in the exercise can operate as leaders in various tactical air operations of NATO,” said Colonel Jiri Verner, Commander of the 21st Tactical Air Force Base at Caslav on a press conference, adding that this year the L-159 aircraft should reach 3.000 FH, i.e. more than 120 FH on each of the 24 aircraft in service.

First two L-159 aircraft landed on the Air Force Base on April 10, 2000 and deliveries continued up to the year 2004. December 29, 2000 was the date when the 42. Squadron started equipping by the L-159 aircraft. One of the first events, where the L-159 aircraft were put to operation, was the NATO Summit in Prague (November 21 – 23, 2002). The L-159 aircraft regularly participate successfully in international exercises such as NATO Air Meet (2003 Poland, 2004 Turkey, 2005 Norway), TLP, Clean Hunter, Squadron Exchange, Brilliant Arrow or Flying Rhino.

“In spite of initial problems, which go along with any newly introduced aircraft as a very complicated system, the total achieved flight hours as well as successes in prominent international exercises show high quality of the L-159 aircraft. This aircraft have made great progress in the past years and rightly belong to the world top in its category. And this is supported by real facts,” remarked Colonel Verner. “The achieved results in the Czech Air Force line us among the top of NATO member states,” he added.