Solo Display Team

Solo Display Team
The F-16 and AH-64 of the Solo Display Team in 2013
Active	1979–present
Country	Netherlands
Branch	Royal Netherlands Air Force
Role	Aerobatic flight display team
Aircraft flown
Fighter	F-16
Attack helicopter	AH-64 Apache
Trainer	Pilatus PC-7

The Solo Display Team (Dutch: Demoteam) is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and consists of three elements. The F-16 Solo Display Team uses the fighter jet F-16 and the AH-64D Apache Solo Display Team uses the helicopter AH-64 Apache. The PC-7 Solo Display Team flies the low-wing tandem-seat training aircraft Pilatus PC-7, but is currently inactive.

The F-16 Solo Display Team has been based at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Dutch province of Friesland since 2014 and consists of the pilot, two instructors and seven ground crew. The members of the team are always seconded from a squadron of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. The pilot, Kapitein (Flight Lieutenant) Jeroen "Slick" Dickens, flies with 323 Squadron. All members are operational military personnel and, apart from their tasks with the demo team, they perform normal operational duties.

The Dutch F16 demo team moves to another squadron and/or base every two years, season 2007-2009 being the exception. From 2005 until 2009 the demo team was based at Volkel Air Base. In 2010 the team consisted of members of operational squadrons from Leeuwarden Air Base. They took over the orange F-16, J-015. In 2012 and 2013 the team was based at Volkel Air Base and returned to Leeuwarden Air Base in early 2014.

The team was established in September 1979 with the first demonstration of an RNLAF F-16 during an air show at Twente Air Base (now Enschede Airport Twente). The team has since been seen at air shows in European countries and, in 2006, at Edwards Air Force Base in the United States, winning the prize for the best display team in the jet category at the air show held at Reims – Champagne Air Base in 2009.