Every year, the 'MarketGarden' parachute airdrop exercise is conducted in September at the Ginkelse Hei near Arnhem, in the Netherlands. However, this year, because of outbreak of Covid-19, the exercise was restructured and was held in two parts. Part 1: FalconLeap 7-11 September First part of this exercise involved the air dropping of cargo from various military transport aircraft above Deelen and Oldebroek training areas. But visitors were not allowed to witness this. For this exercise, a USAF C-130 and a French C-130 had flown to Eindhoven Airbase at beginning of the week to practice along with C-130 Hercules of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Owing to bad weather, no missions were flown in the first few days of the week, causing the American C-130 to return prematurely. The French C-130 left for France on 11 September after having flown several missions alongside Dutch Hercules aircraft. Part 2: FalconLeap 14-18 September Part 2 of this exercise consisted of dropping paratroopers from various military transport aircraft above training areas, again where no spectators were allowed. These practice areas include Renkum, Deelen and the Ginkelse Hei, all around the city of Arnhem. For this second phase of the FalconLeap exercise, transport aircraft from the Netherlands, Belgium, United States and Germany flew two to three missions per day. Overflight Eindhoven, 18 September On 18 September 1944, the city of Eindhoven was liberated by Allied troops.
Every year this day, there is commemoration in Eindhoven, where one or more C-130s of the Royal Netherlands Air Force fly above the city at 20:00. This year too there was a unique flight with number of military aircraft flying over Eindhoven. The “Fly By” is coordinated by the European Air Transport Command (EATC), with its headquarters at Eindhoven. Participants in the Fly By were a Dutch C-130, a Belgian C-130, a French A400M and a German C-160 Transall. Additional aircraft included a Supermarine Spitfire and a B-25 Mitchell, from the Dutch Air Force Historical Flight based at Gilze-Rijen AB.
Report by: Joris van Boven and Alex van Noije