The F-16 demonstration team “ZEUS” displays HAF’s airpower to the public and acts as ambassador for Greece, demonstrating the professionalism and the skills of all pilots in the Hellenic Air Force. The team’s goals is to Provide morale within the Air Force, sister services and to the Greek community, to Inspire and recruit Greece’s best to join the service, Strengthen and grow public trust and confidence in the Hellenic Air Force and Retain the quality force we currently have.
Team’s callsign during the Demo Flights is “Zeus”, representing the father of the Olympian Gods of the Ancient Greek Mythology. The aircraft used for the performance of air shows is an F-16C Block 52+ .
History
Continuing the glorious history of Hellenic Air Force’s acrobatic Teams “Carré of Aces”, “Acro Team”, “Hellenic Flame”, “New Hellenic Flame”, as well as HAF Τ-6Α Texan II Demo Team, an effort began in 2009, to create an F-16 Demo Team, trained at the well known and highly experienced “Viper West F-16 Demo Team” of the United States Air Force (USAF), headquartered in Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA.
Group consisting of Squadron Leader David Graham (Flying Instructor), Captain Steve Masek (Flight Safety Officer) & Chief Master Sergeant Kerry Clark (Ground Crew Instructor and Narrator) began the training of Captain Captain Emmanuel Karahalios from 340 Sq, Captain Dimitrios Kontoulis from 343 Sq and the ground crew support members.
A 28-days Training Program began on January 4th, 2010 and completed succesfully on February 1st, 2010, at 115 Combat Wing, in Souda Air Base.
After months of continuously intense training, at November 7th, 2010, the HAF’s F-16 Demo Team held its first official air show at 114 Combat Wing at Tanagra Air Base.
Air Show Maneuvers
The Demo Team’s F-16 aircraft has the capability, depending on the weather conditions and base height of clouds in that area to perform 3 different air show maneuvers programs, High, Low or Flat. More specifically :
High Show Maneuvers
- Minimum height of cloud base 7000 feet above the ground (AGL), horizontal visibility 5 km.
Low Show
- Minimum height of cloud base 2500 feet above the ground (AGL), horizontal visibility 5 km.
High Show
- Inverted Take off
- Barrel Roll Entry
- Cuban 8 and Cloverleaf
- High Speed Pass
- Jink Out
- Slow Roll
- High Alpha Pass
- Minimum Radius Turn
- Muscle Climb
- Falcon Turn
- Two Point Roll
- Inverted Pass
- Maximum Performance Climb with Rolls
- Spiral Descent
- Dedication Pass
- Tactical Pitch – Up to Landing
Low Show
- Maximum Performance Take off and Climb to Level 8
- High Speed Flat Pass
- Jink Out
- Slow Roll
- High Alpha Pass
- Minimum Radius Turn
- Falcon Turn
- Two Point Roll
- Inverted Pass
- Dedication Pass
- Tactical Pitch-Up to Landing
During the Show, which lasts approximately 12 minutes, the Demonstration pilot reaches 0.94 Mach, climbs from 300′ (100m) to 15000′ (5Km ) and is exposed to acceleration forces up to 9.5 G.The team uses an F-16 Block 52+ configured with Conformal Fuel Tanks. It is the first and only F-16 demo team to fly with this configuration. We fly the demonstration profile either with or without the CFT’s. The Hellenic F-16 is not painted with a different scheme, but maintains its original Aegean Gray Scheme, in order to demonstrate our combat readiness. Every demo flight is flown in accordance with all the International Flight Safety Standards which are defined by the NATO, the ICAO, the JAA and the FAA.
