The ‘Culopollo’ hunting retires after 40 years flying with the Eagle patrol | Spain

At 10.23 the rear ramp is opened from the imposing A400m From the Air and Space Army. The noise is deafening and in the device, which flies at 7,000 feet and a speed of 180 knots (333 kilometers per hour), the heat enters on Tuesday involved the air of the fields of Castilla-La Mancha. Suddenly, six C-101 They fly in parallel to the plane and throw red and yellow smoke to draw in the sky the flag of Spain. With this exercise, to which the country has been invited, it starts Air 25a series of acts that commemorate the 40th anniversary of one of the most emblematic units not only of the Air Force, but of all the Armed Forces: The eagle patrol.

Lieutenant Óscar Sanz Rillo, a 28 -year -old from Madrid, has been in the Eagle patrol and is the youngest in the group. « The most rewarding is to see that people enjoy, » explains this Eagle 2 (Right point, for the position of his formation) at the base of San Javier (Murcia) as soon as he finished his stunts over the waters of the Mar Menor. His favorite, and in which he looks most, he explains, is the Twister.

The Eagle Patrol threw the flight in 1985 in Murcia and its output in formation is one of the most emblematic moments of the October 12 Parade on the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid. The noise of the engines and the red and yellow smoke of the C-101 It is already a classic that, however, is about to change. This hunt, the Culopolloas the pilots who have handled it by the subsequent shape of the device, retire after air 25 giving way to the new Pilatus « With turbopélices in the front, among many other changes – that the Ministry of Defense bought Switzerland in 2023 for 250 million in a second lot in which 16 ships came. « He Culopollo It represents the success of the Air Force, ”says the Chief of the Staff of the Air (Chief), Lieutenant General Francisco Braco Carbó, who in a message says: » Do not worry, will soon release (the pilots) new machine … « , in reference to the Pilatus.

To his words are added those of the Director of the General Air Academy – where the Princess Leonor To finish their formation in the Armed Forces after having already gone through the Earth Army and The Navy-, Colonel Luis Felipe González Asenjo who – very proud and before military aggregates of India, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom and France, local authorities, media and even Influencers— He said that « the Eagle Patrol is an ambassador of Spain in the world. » Braco emphasizes that the group « has consolidated among the best military air patrols » in the international arena.

But « the comparisons are hateful, » the Benjamín de la Patrol laughed on the take -off and landing track, who admitted that, despite being considered the best, as his plane is not acrobatic, but of combat (a hunt), « there is a bit of lack of motor compared to other more important patrols », in allusion to the Blue Angels of the United States. « But still we get the most out of our plane to be at their level and fly with them, » he continues smiling. A unique and genuine exercise of these Eagles? The landing in formation, presumes Sanz; The six at the same time.

The Division General Antonio Guerrero Mochón remembers with love his passage through the Eagle Patrol – to which the pilots voluntarily combining their functions of teachers of the Academy of San Javier – when he was only 23 years old. The patrol was just working for four years, the fighters were not painted and the blue monkeys were those of the mechanics of the Navy American because they had not enough budget to order some their own.

One of the moments Guerrero still remembers with emotion is when he went from the reserve to be head of the patrol in an exhibition in Belgium, one of the 170 international (330 nationals) of the patrol. It was September 1989 and the left point lacked at the last moment, so the rest of the patrol chose Guerrero to occupy his position as headline. He until then had always flown in the rear booth and with an instructor. « I didn’t have 600 flight hours, » he remembers impressed because at least 1,000 is required. « I felt a lot show in which it premiered as eagle before thousands of people.

Guerrero, now deputy general director of Coordination and Plans of the National Institute of Aerospace Technique (INTA), is clear that its passage through the Eagle Patrol, in which it was until 1992, was its “professional flourish”, such as more than hundred pilots (two women) who have been part of it throughout its 40 years of history. And what he remembers with a certain nostalgia is to make acrobatics vertically, where one breaks the formation and is alone in heaven, seeing the landscape and people on the ground enjoy the show.

Acrobatics as an output gun

Flip flap, twister, plus ultra, Poker formation, mirror, slow barrel, heart, sacks, champagne formation … The acrobatics of Tuesday – a day to which the entire defense industry also attended through representatives of Isdefe, Airbus, Indra or notary – were only the starting gun of several activities that the Army of the Air and Space has launched to celebrate these 40 years of the Eagle patrol.

On May 20, a static exhibition on these four decades of history of the Armed Forces will be inaugurated in Madrid; On June 14, the base of San Javier will open its doors to the public; And the next day, the 15th, the Eagle Patrol will perform an aerial exhibition with the patrols of other partner and friends, such as Italy, with its patrol Frece tricolori; or Britain, with the Red Arrows.