The Belgian Air Force General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon, registration F-87, resplendent in its special black and green 'Dream Viper' design and colour scheme, displaying at RAF Fairford, UK, on Saturday of The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) 2023. The special scheme has adorned the aircraft since early June 2022 and is inspired by the 'Viper'
nickname that the F-16 has come to be known by its pilots, due to its extreme agility.
The pilot is Senior Captain Steven De Vries, nickname 'Vrieske', who was the first F-16 Pilot outside the US to have surpassed 5,000 hours flying the F-16. Vrieske started his career on the F-16 at the age of 21.
His first introduction to the F-16 was in Beauvechain where he and his classmates received their conversion course at the OCU in 1994.
In 1995 he started his operational career in the 23 ‘Devil’ Squadron at Kleine-Brogel. Where he got introduced to the real deal. During his 7 year stay, until the disbandment of 23 Squadron, he worked his way up to Force Leader and became a weapon School Instructor in 2001.
His first milestone, ‘1000 flight hours’ on the Viper was flown from the backseat. A squadron management mistake, which they realised when he was airborne. They planned to reschedule him for his 1000 hours the next day but knew he was up for his 1000th flight hour in the Viper. When he returned from his flight he rang the squadron bell to mark his 1000 hours.
With 23 Squadron's disbandment in 2002, Vrieske and most of his squandron members went over to 31 'Tiger' Squadron.
As a Tiger he reached 2000 hours during a ferry flight returning from the Nato Tiger Meet in Turkey. During an Air to AIr Weapons School Instruction Flight he reached 3000 hours and his 4000 hours were documented as the first Flemish Pilot to reach this milestone.
In 2021 on March the 5th, as the first non-US pilot in the world, he breached the 5000 hour mark. However he is the only pilot to have done all of those hours while on an operational squadron as a Combat Ready Pilot ever since he gained this status in 1995.
In October 2021 he was chosen as the new Belgian Display Pilot on F-16 for the seasons 2022-2024.
On his First ever Display with his Dream Viper he got awarded the Bill Hartree Trophy for the most entertaining Flying Display at the RAF Cosford 2022 airshow and the aircraft won the prize for the best livery at The Royal International Air Tattoo 2022.
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