Rare visit of US Army C-12S to Europe

On 21 May 2023, a US Army Beech C-12S Huron operated by the 164th Theater Airfield Operations Group / Air Traffic Service Command (ATSCOM) arrived at Wiesbaden Army Airfield (AAF) with callsign Flightcheck 27.

The C-12S, serial 12-00277 (c/n FL-769), departed Cairns AAF (AL), part of the Fort Novosel complex (previously known as Fort Rucker) on 18 May and made stops at Islip / Long Island MacArthur airport (NY) and Keflavik (Iceland).

This aircraft is specifically used for calibrating runways of Army Airfields (ILS, Glidescope etc) mainly in the Continental United States (CONUS) and is the only aircraft within the US Army equipped to do this.

The reason to arrive at Wiesbaden is that this airport is getting a new outer gate with a new bypass road on the 07 side of the runway. It is said that the old fens will remain indoors, so the airport will be double-fenced. A new ILS system will also be built in, hence the reason for the C-12S to do the necessary calibration work.

Although the data block says it is a C-12S, the specialised aircraft should be a model C-12R1. On 29 May it returned to CONUS.

Credit to Dalibor Ankovic / DA Photography