In November 2024 I fulfilled a long held ambition to visit South America, albeit to just 2 countries – Brazil and Argentina.
The event which primarily attracted me was Cruzex 2024, held at Natal Air Base in northereastern Brazil, from November 3rd to 15th, 2024.
Cruzeiro do Sul Exercise (CRUZEX) is a multinational and operational exercise organized by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) since 2002, aimed at joint training in conflict scenarios and promoting the exchange of experiences among participating countries.
Participating countries incldued
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Chile
- Columbia
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Portugal
- United States
Cruzex is normally held every 2 years but was cancelled in 2020 and 2022.
I decided to join the 4Aviation group during week 2, to capture some images of aircraft not usually seen outside the South American continent.
The Brazilian Air Force extended invitiations to both the press and aviaition enthusiasts to attend the exercise, offering excellent opportunities for photography. They understood the desire to get a variety of close to the action shots and also the importance of the position of the sun.
Accordingly we were instructed to report to Natal Air Base at 7.00am each morning so that we could be bussed to one of 5 different locations on the base, affording different postions for take off and landing. We were tightly controlled in specific areas but none the less given ample scope to get the images we wanted.
The hosts were always willing to listen to request, so much so that a mini ‘night shoot’ was organised one evening, as well as the group splitting into two one afternoon, as some of us wanted to be nearer to the threshold end of the runway.
The weather was hot!! Heat haze was especially a problem for images of aircraft holding at the last chance checkpoint before departure or commencing their take off roll down the runway, as well as landing during recovery for the morning session. Happily, with our location being close to the runway, as the aircraft drew level with us, the heat haze ceased to be a problem.
Afternoons however were a different story. In particular the late landings which were almost all in that near perfect light which occurs just before sunset.
That’s not to say there weren’t clouds in the sky – it became a standing joke in the first two days that Embraer KC390 Millenium aircraft were not allowed to operate in clear sunshine!! Fortunatley this was disproved laater in the week.
In the weeks leading up to the exercise, some participants dropped out, whilst others changed their participation.
The most disappointing moment was when we were being bussed to our morning location on the second day, only to hear the departure of 2 jest before the morning launch. These turned out to be the pair of Brazilian Navy Douglas A-4 Skyhawks (designated AF1B/C following uodates by Embraer), based in Rio de Janeiro, which had steadfastly remained in their shelters on day 1.
However, overall, the experience was incredibly positive – the opportunity to photograph aircraft from the countries listed above, combined with excellent support from our hosts made the trip very worthwhile – I hope you like the images.
Just a note before you do – these images may not be as dynamic as some of those from airshows such as RIAT – but for aviation geeks like me they are very interesting!!
