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  Chief.Adj. Pierre " Schaffy" Schaffrath (Ret.)

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Name Chief.Adj. Pierre Schaffrath (Ret.)
Country
Unit 349th squadron "Mace"
Crewing F-16s from 1978 until 1996
Contact schaffy Send me a private message
Website
1965-03 May 25 Jul: Chievres CMV Basic Training.
1965: 25 Jul 01 Sep: Kleine Brogel Smd Algemene Diensten.
1965 Sep - 1968 Feb: Technical Training School Saffraanberg- F84F
1967: Training DC3 Dakota in the 15th Wing, then we were assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing AWX at Beauvechain... where they had no DC3's but F-104 (probably someone in the Air Force Staff in Brussels didn't know the difference :-)
1968-69: F-104 Brakes & Tires shop
1969: MTU F-104: engine J-79-11A & crew chief -Twenthe (NL)
1969-1978: Crew Chief F-104 1st Fighter Wing Beauvechain.
1978: MTU F-16 USA. Mar 27-Jun 05: Langley AFB Va. Course P&W F-100,
Jun 06-Aug 10: Edwards AFB Ca. Course F-16 Power Plant.
1979: At last, 26 January, our first Falcon arrived. The FB01.
1979-1980: OJT Instructor P&W F-100 on Flight F-16.
1980: Crew Chief F-16
1985: Line Chief 349 Sqn.
1990: Deputy Comd Flight Line.
1993: Line & Weapons Chief OCU F-16
4th Mar 1996: Doomsday… thanks to the government decision the 1st Fighter Wing, home of our RAF Squadrons of the second world war; 349 and 350 is disbanded, 349 moves to the 10th Wing and 350 to the 2nd Wing…. and I move to the 15th Transport Wing. The DC3’s are all gone... :-)
1996-1997: Wing Ops Maint Contr.
1997, 1st October… good bye BAF, in “disponibility” wich means as much as pre-retired.
2001, 1st April: Retired and free as a bird but a little sad too: I found a home in the Air Force and enjoyed “almost” every day of it.

Current or Favourite assignment

will follow later

Deployments

1969 till 1996: Every year to Solenzara, Corsica, Air to Air 349/350 for a total of 154 weeks.
In 1966, I went on holidays there with the BAF Technical Training School, it was love on first sight :-)

1969: RAF Leuchars, UK, Sqn Exchange 349
1970: RAF Gutersloh, DBR Air Defence Competition
1971: Aalborg, DK, Sqn Exchange 349
1972: RAF Binbrook, UK, Sqn Exchange
1972: Solenzara, Airshow F-104 Acro team The Slivers.
1973: Bentwaters UK, Airshow Slivers
1974: Toulouse FR, Airshow Slivers
1975: Bitburg USAF, DBR, Sqn Exchange 349
1976: Leuchars, UK, Sqn Exchange 349
1977: RAF Laarbruch, DBR, Sqn Exchange 349
1978: 26 Mar-11 Aug: USA Langley AFB and Edwards AFB, MTU F-16
1979: Bitburg USAF, DBR, Tactical Air Meet.
1980: Bitburg USAF, DBR, Tactical Air Meet.
1980: RAF Wildenrath, DBR, Cold Fire.
1981: RAF Wildenrath, DBR, Cold Fire.
1981: Skrydstrup DK, Sqn Exchange 349
1981: Jever DBR, TLP.
1982: Jever DBR, TLP.
1982: RAF Wildenrath, DBR, Cold Fire.
1983: Leeuwarden NL, Air to Ground
1983: Ryge Norway, FWIT
1983: Soesterberg USAF, Sqn Exchange 349
1984: Yeovilton UK, MEWGS
1984: Aalborg DK, FWIT
1985: Bodo, Norway, Sqn Exchange 349
1985: Sola, Norway, FWIT
1985: Monte Real, Portugal.
1986: Skrydstrup DK, FWIT
1986: Decimomannu Sardinia, Italy, ACMI 1 and ACMI 2.
1987: RAF Leuchars, UK, Sqn Exchange 349
1988: Murted Turkey, Sqn Exchange 349
1988: Meknes Morocco, VLLF
1989: Orland Norway, FWIT
1991: Decimomannu Sardinia, Italy, ACMI
1992: Witmund Germany, TAM
1993: RAF Waddington, ACMI 1 and ACMI 2.
1994: RAF Waddington, ACMI
1995: RAF Waddington, ACMI
1995: Istres FR, DACT
1995 Zaragoza, Spain, OCU
… as they say: Join the Air Force and see the world,
I did my best :-)

My Jets & Assignments

Unit 349th squadron "Mace" [History]
Period 1969 - 1978
Crew chief on F-104, a beautiful jet and easy to work on. Never forgot he unique sound of the J-79, the sound of freedom. 11 July 1977 I had a 1 hr backseat in the FC06, Mach 1 and a low level in the Ardennes, beautiful and unforgetable. Pilot Cpn Leon Stenuit, 349 Sqn.
FB-01 [Detailed history of this F-16]
Unit Operational Conversion Unit "Vulture" [Unit History]
Period 1979 - 1996
Current: 136   RJAF 1 sqn F-16B Block 20 MLU [ act]
I was in the recovery crew when the FB01 arrived in Beauvechain as our first Falcon on 26 Jan 1977. Due to the snow, it arrived 4 day’s late, the 22nd was my birthday ;-) On 19 Feb 1993 I did my first and only backseat (at last) in the same FB01 in an Air to Air gunnery, Solenzara, Corse. Pilot: Cpn Hans van Maele, 349 Sqn. Movie clips Startup, Taxi out and Recovery on YouTube: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=HXeORX-JZdQ http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=PfAeTmkxoMo http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=KXLQ7-EwgP8
FA-29 [Detailed history of this F-16]
Unit 350th squadron "Ambiorix" [Unit History]
Period 1982 -
Current: FA-29   BAF 350 sqn F-16A Block 10 [ w/o]
1981: FA-29 didn’t have along history in the BAF, delivered on 12 Jun that year, I was crew chief of that plane for a week when on 22nd Oct, it didn’t come back from a night flight. Due to an engine flame-out it crashed near Soumay. It was a scary evening till the news came that Roger, 350 Squadron pilot, ejected safely and was ok. It was nice to see him back the next morning and we had more than a few beers together that night in 350 Sqn.
FA-03 [Detailed history of this F-16]
Unit 349th squadron "Mace" [Unit History]
Period 1983 - 349
Current: FA-03   F-16A Block 1 [ i/a]
The first FWIT took place at Ryge Norway in 1983, the first part of it was in Kleine Brogel. I crewed the FA03 with Cpn James Derouck from 349 Sqn as my pilot. It was nice to meet and work close together with the other F-16 EPAF crews from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway for the first time. Later I was happy to participate in the others at Aalborg, Sola, Skrydstrup and Orland. On the 7th of July I also had the occasion to get a 30min flight with a Huey Bell from the RNoAF, low level over the fjords of beautiful Norway arround Ryge.
Other aircraft/assignments F-84F - C-47/DC3 - F-104G
Visitor Comments
BAF
Walter M., Dec 09, 2007 - 01:13 PM

Join the BAF and make it your home!

Times are passing, memories stay.

Its nice to live with them!

See you Shaffy.

Collaert"de witte"Michel
mcollaert@hotmail.com, Dec 25, 2007 - 12:46 PM

Hoi Shaffy I remember the days at EBBE you at 349 and me at 350Sqn(the best fighter sqn in the world) those are the days I will never forget.

At Corisca your island in the sun,what we have fun.

What a live........

Live change,work change but not the memories the good and the bad.

Now a day the young crew-chiefs don't know the SQN life and

old sqn-songs like we did

La chasse bor.....toutes les rest mon c.................

DjQtRzpHywcaO
zxtqwvQRPGY, Mar 03, 2024 - 01:56 AM

jYmSEQZCPvb

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uUbvXyxGcAQn, Mar 13, 2024 - 02:34 AM

PlCRWpsbKSuTkqf

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msbIfBDplRH, Mar 24, 2024 - 09:41 PM

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