ALA de Combate 23 (Air Wing 23) was based at Base Aérea Eloy Alfaro near the town of Manta on the Pacific coast and operated three squadrons of which Escuadrón de Combate 2311 was the smallest with a handful of Cessna A-37B Dragonflies in the ground attack role on its strength.
Pilot boarding FAE 376.
FAE 377 freshly repainted in a gloss finish on the ramp and ready for take-off.
FAE 378 on the Dragonfly flightline.
This sequence shows FAE 378 during preparation for a flight.
FAE 379 prior a flight and as part of a four ship formation.
FAE 383 was the fifth airframe I photographed.
Unfortunately, the snowcapped peak of mount Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest mountain standing at 6263 meters was partially shrouded in clouds on that day. Flying around it at 20,000 feet did result in some reasonable pictures.
When circling the mountain, the sun is unfortunately not always in the best position.
Let me close with a group picture of the 10 pilots from Escuadrón de Combate 2311 and the ground personell keeping the Dragonflies flying!
A search with google showed that the FAE received a total of 28 A-37Bs over the year and operated them until 1998 and some airframes had been donated to Uruguay after retirement.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers, Peter
