OK, as not everybody is on MSF anymore, I'll post them here as well, even if only to have some "real" logs in this section
Ever since a first short visit in 2015, a longer trip to Taiwan had been on my wish list, but so far that never materialised. Until recently fellow spotter Stefan had to go there for work for a few weeks. Quickly a plan was made to extend his time in Taiwan with another week, and my flight was booked. Expectations were high, with lots of flying activities, even in the weekend, including some indigenious aircraft that you can only see in Taiwan. Combined with the fact that photographing aircraft in the air is legal inTaiwan, as long as there is no infrastructure visible, all ingredients for a successful trip were present. Our main goal would be to photograph every (sub)type of the Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF), but we would also try to include W&R where possible of course.
As always all information in my log is actually read off unless between (brackets). Names of places and locations are often difficult to translate by the way. I tried to use local translations if available, e.g. from street signs.
The flight from Amsterdam to Taipei was long and tiring, and I arrived around 6 AM local time. There Stefan was already waiting for me, with the rental car, so we could start our quest immediately. Although today being a Saturday, we were hoping we could catch some Mirages at nearby Hsinchu. But we had two W&R locations on route.
Military History Park, Da Yuan
5195/50368 F-5E pr, 8 TFG mks
This is preserved in some park that is actually UNDER the highway, so be careful us9ng coordinates to get here. First Tiger was in the pocket, and many more would follow.
Daxing High School, Da Yuan
4412/62-12342 F-104G GIA, school badge
(2112) H.269C GIA, civil c/s, c/n 980724
NA-515 UH-1H GIA, NASC c/s, c/n 18041, ex 341/62-2041
This school is near the F-5, so we decided we wanted to catch the aircraft here as well. The hangar with the aircraft was open, and as there seemed to be nobody present, we just graphed the aircraft and moved on. Efficient way of spotting!
Hsinchu AFB
Mirage 2000-5Ei (2 FTW): 2002, 2011, 2012, 2021, 2028, 2034, 2037, 2042, 2043
Mirage 2000-5Di (2 TFW): 2056, 2057
When we were nearing the airbase, two Mirages came overhead in the break. We would miss those two, but at least they were flying! And indeed soon after our arrival another pair came in. That was the moment the locals started packing up though, we had missed the rest of the morning wave. No more flying was expected, we were told. Luckily we managed to read off quite a few aircraft in their shelters, so numbers were still good. And we were very happy to have at least two Mirages in the sun!
China University of Science and Technology, Hengshan
(2723) B.727-109C GIA, school badge
3158/51-7971 C-119G GIA, school c/s
(5145) F-5E GIA, school c/s
(4195) TF-104G GIA, school c/s
NA-505 UH-1H GIA, white c/s , c/n 18013, ex 313/61-2013
(NA-508) UH-1H std, cabin, wreck, NASC c/s
(NFA-901) UH-1H std, cabin, wreck, NFA c/s
I had been here before, but since then two more UH-1s had arrived. And for Stefan this was a new location at all, so a quick detour was made. The guard let us in to have a look at the aircraft, but photography was not allowed. As we wanted to move on quickly, we didn’t try to get hold of a teacher who could give us permission and left when we had seen all we wanted.
We would spend the night in Chiayi, and had to cherrypick the W&R locations on the way there, as there simply are too many. First ones were in the large city of Taichung.
AIDC, Taichung
0802/(69-6002) AT-3 pr, no mks
67-5001 XC-2 pr, no mks
0701/62-3001 T-CH-1 pr, no mks
(10001/77-8001) F-CK-1 pr, nn
5823 PL-1B pr, no mks
317 UH-1H pr, no mks
These can be seen from a side gate, just around the corner from the main gate. They all look beautiful, too bad they are too much behind trees and such for photos. I thought the F-CK-1 would not be visible from outside by the way, but it turned out to be visible after all. The first of the type for me, nice.
Feng Chung University, Taichung
AP013 H.269C std, c/n 1090847, Police c/s
Thanks to the info in WMOOS we knew where to look for this one. However we didn’t manage to see it from outside and went in, to find it in the corner of a messy side room where three students were busy with some aviation related hobby project. A picture was no problem. When we went back outside and exactly knew where to look, we indeed could just see it through a window, but it’s very hard to see. Good that schools are almost always open on Saturdays here!
823 Campaign Memorial Park, Taichung
5283/00304 F-5E pr, 8 TFG mks
4193/63-8467 TF-104G pr, 48 TFS mks
A large open city park holds these two plus some military vehicles and such. Finding a place to park was the biggest problem, but both aircraft were digitalised in the end.
National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung
0234/31642 F-100A pr, no mks
(5804) PL-1B pr, no mks
Both are parked outside on two sides of the same building. Again good schools are open on Saturdays as you need to get in to see them.
Baguashanzhong Park, Changua
3183/51-8071 C-119G pr, 103 TCS mks
5125/74-0982 F-5E pr, 7 TFG mks
4417/63-13645 F-104G pr, no mks
The F-104 is on its own, the other two are on display next to each other. Two groups of people doing their afternoon walk, going in circles around the C-119 made taking a decent picture quite hard, much to the frustration of Stefan, but in the end we succeeded. This is a huge park by the way, but you can drive all the way to both locations, making them easily accessible.
Fuxing
7007 S-70C-1A pr, Air Rescue sq mks
This was high on our W&R list. From the outside it looks like it landed here in the small park and was left behind, brilliant. The c/n plate has been removed though, as have most instruments. With more or less last light (the downside of travelling this time of the year) it was photographed nicely.
National Formosa University, Huwei
3056/”561721” T-33A pr, no mks (tail of 3321/56-1712)
NA-202 S.76B GIA, NASC c/s, c/n 760393
NA-302 Be.350 GIA, NASC c/s, c/n FL108
NA-520 UH-1H pr, NASC c/s, c/n 18076, ex 376/64-2076
N1929P CT-39A GIA (ex 62-4495)
This really was a lucky shot. Although it was dark and we still had some driving to do, we decided we wanted to give this one a try. We were not allowd to drive into the premises, as the school was closed. However we would be welcome the next day or going in on foot. At least that’s how we interpreted the a bit confusing info we got at the gate. So we parked up the car, walked in and quickly found the preserved T-bird in a courtyard. After a bit of walking around also the Be.350 and UH-1 were found next to the actual aeronautics department. We then still needed the aircraft inside their hangar, and that was fully closed up with no way of seeing in. However in the office next to it a teacher was still doing some administration work, and when he understood what we wanted he was willing to open up the hangar for us, nice! It turned out he had worked together with the same company that Stefan works for, it’s a small world….
Dader International and Commercial Vocational High School, Dounan
(NA-512) UH-1H pr, NASC c/s
Although it was fully dark by nonw, we gave this school a try. Although it is visible with Streetview, things turned out to be different in the dark… The school was closed obviously, but we finally managed to see the tail of the helicopter. A bit more would have been nice, but at least we confirmed the chopper is still there.
And that ended the first day of the trip, all that was left was the drive to our hotel in Chiayi, get some dinner and a good night sleep.
As always, additions, corrections and comments are welcome.
That’s all folks!
Patrick Dirksen & Stefan Jongen
Tristar Aviation