Yes, finally an English edition! It had to happen sometime! After previous publications by publisher Leeuwis Productions with Air Force pilot stories in Dutch, now finally a book in English. It contains almost 150 short stories by 62 Dutch Air Force pilots. And people, just to be clear, I really don’t have any shares in this publisher, but I have been a fan of this book format for years; just to the point, all kinds of stories about experiences with older and newer aircraft, sometimes serious or with drama or accidents, and so on and so on!
If you quickly browse through the book, you are already sold. All kinds of nice photos and drawings in color and black and white of fighter jets in all kinds of states. Accidents and craziness dominate everything in 
this book, just over 200 pages in A5 format. The stories have been translated from Dutch with Chat GTP.
I find that story of Starfighter pilot ‘Flim Flam’ juicy. He secretly did an aborted take-off with his wife in the back seat. Or Pilot ‘Eef’ who shit his pants all over when he had stomach cramps and then had to return to Volkel Air Base. A crash- alarm was made and all kinds of people were ready at the end of the runway to help. Yes, that was of course a bit of an embarrassing shit situation but hey, that can happen. It was that same ‘Eef’ who, due to technical problems with his F-104, made a flapless landing at 240 knots. Yes, you read that right; 240 knots. That is 445 km per hour! Since you are only allowed to pull your parachute at 180 knots, you are already halfway down the runway to really start braking. Fortunately, the plane came to a stop in time, but it must have been quite exciting.
I also loved the funny story of NF-5 pilot ‘Mot’. He lost his way above Northern Germany and suddenly ended up in the CTR at Hamburg airport . He apologized to the tower and the tower asked if he could make a low pass along the tower… of course he could! Days like that!
This book also teaches you why pianos were set on fire at squadron parties. Never knew! 😉 And yes, that story about the bullet holes in an F-16 above Northern Scotland in 1985. Unexpectedly ‘friendly fire’ that was. Humor? Not really, but it did create a special relationship between 322 and 323Sqn at Leeuwarden. And I could go on and on with some stories, from this more than nce book but I won’t. Get the book yourself! It can be ordered via www.leeuwispubli.nl. The last thing I want to say is that I really like the artwork on the cover that was made by Peter van Stigt. Cool!
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