The final four T-37Bs pulled out of AMARC for the Colombian Air Force (FAC) left Marana Regional Airport on 11th August to join the 11 that have already been delivered and I was lucky enough to be invited to shoot the delivery.

After the T-37s were flown the short hop from AMARC at Davis-Monthan to Marana Regional (Avra Valley) the aircraft were fitted with VHF radios and checked over by FAC engineers before their long journey home which takes four days. A hangar was rented each time and further support provided free of change from Mike "Maj" McDougall from Fighting Classics, who over the last couple of years has has built up friendships with the engineers and pilots who have returned each time.

It seemed only fitting that we should set-up something special for this last visit so Maj arranged for an aircraft to enable to some airbourne photos to be taken. The departure was delayed by 24 hours due to the lead pilot being unwell, so we took the opportunity to have an evening of social beers and chat.

The original T-37s that the Colombian Air Force received were grounded after a wing separated in flight on 20th July 2006 which took both pilots lives, including Lt. Johana Herrera who was the first woman fighter pilot of the FAC. These aircraft had a service life of 17,500 hours but the aircraft pulled from AMARC have gone through a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) pushing the airframe hours to 26,000.

The aircraft will stay in their current colours with the addition of the Colombian roundel for a couple of months until being repainted in the normal grey scheme to match the rest of the fleet.

On departure morning one of the Colonels from the C-130 support aircraft came up with the idea that everyone should climb up on the C-130s wings so I could take some photos. That's the first time I've been up on top of a Hercules and with it being Colombian made it even more unusual.

The T-37s only have a 200-250 mile range so the time they would have orbiting the airfield would be limited as they needed to fly to Mexico to clear customs. I managed some nice shots of the first pair to form up, but by the time the second pair caught us up and formatted their time on station was at an end, so we only managed to stay close to them on the backlit side of the orbit.

We followed the formation for a while until we were unable to keep up and as we headed back to base the C-130 came over the airways to bid us farewell.