F-16 Fighting Falcon News

November 22, 2007 (by Asif Shamim) - Four new PolAF F-16 block 52s arrived at Krzesiny, near Poznan this week as part of the Peace Sky Program.
Normal practise is to have American pilots fly the new jets to the country of delivery, but this time, for the first time in history, one was flown by a Polish pilot, Major Cezary Wiśniewski.

Major Wiśniewski said that the trip lasted a week because of bad weather conditions. The regulations for first flights are very strict and specify the conditions in which the planes are allowed to be flown very precisely.

Wiśniewski went on to add that the flights over the ocean weren't that different to training flights in Poland, but in this case pilots are provided with special equipment for survival in water in case of a water landing.

This delivery consisted of 3 F-16C block 52s (#4059, #4062 & #4063) and a single F-16D block 52 (#4085).

Presently, there are 31 F-16s to be based at Poznań and a further 16 are at Łask, near Łódź. Poland bought 48 machines in total.