Helicopter pilots from the Netherlands have picked up multiple awards in British air displays this month.  At the Royal International Air Tattoo, held at Fairford, the Apache team won “Best overseas flying dipsplay”. The Dutch military also entered a Chinook in the Concours d’Elegance event, where an international jury awarded the title of Overall Winner and they were presented with the Hamilton Standard Trophy.

This followed the Apache team winning the equivalent “Best overseas flying dipsplay” at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton the previous week.

Speaking at Fairford, said co-pilot Captain Paul Wokkel, commander of 301 Squadron said “We are obviously very proud to have received this award. We’ve trained hard and this is a nice reward, “, Lieutenant-Colonel Gilliam Bresser congratulated the crew of the Apache demo back at home base Gilze-Rijen.

The last time the Apache Solo Display Team won prizes was in 2005. The team was reformed in 2010 after a break in connection with the operational deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com