Hi all,
And then is was the last day of our trip. As planned, we would have time to revisit an airfield where we hadn’t (fully) succeeded during our first attempt. We stayed in a hotel in Kaohsiung, near the Zuoying naval base, and while having breakfast we heard helicopter noise. A navy SH-60 came overhead low, unreadable of course. This was already around 7 AM, Hopefully the air force would be active as early as well.
Gangshan AFB
(?) C-130H overhead
Well, the air force clearly wasn’t! Or at least not here. The Hercules came overhead, flying from its homebase Pingtung to nearby Tainan by the looks of it. But there was no activity at all with the T-34s or the AT-3s that we came for, apart from a single one that was towed away from the flightline in the distance. We gave it until 10 and then gave up.
Air Force Military History Museum, Gangshan
“6190/44-78309” C-46A pr, 10 TAG mks (ex RoKAF unknown)
3190/51-8106 C-119G pr, 20 TAG, 2 TCS mks
0603 C-123K pr, 20 TAG, 101 TCS mks
C43536 DC-6B pr, no mks
1104/”69257” F-5B pr, see remark (ex 1104/69237)
5101/74-00958 F-5E pr, camo c/s, no mks
0001/63968 F-100F pr, 48 TFS mks
5660/41505 RF-101A pr, no mks
4241 F-104A pr, 8 TFS mks
2128 S-2E pr, see remark
Before starting our way North towards Taipei I wanted to give the outside part of the museum one more try, as we were at Gangshan anyway, hoping there would be somebody present who would be willing to give us acces. And actually it turned out to be even easier than that! The gate was open, and cars were driving in. Apparently there was some event going on and the area was used as parking lot. We asked and got permission to go in and photograph the aircraft, a very nice and unexpected bonus.
Two more unit markings questions. The S-2 has a badge on the tail (see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shanair/32819170087 ), which unit is that? And F-5B 1104 has a red finflash and nose, again which unit used these colours?
Zhaoxiang Elementary School, Gangshan
0720/67-3020 A-CH-1 pr, no mks
We passed this one on our way out of town. We had both seen it before, so didn’t stop, but it looked nice anyway. Which unit operate these T-28 lookalikes?
Aerospace Science and Technology Research Center, Gueiren
“0233/31612” F-100A pr, no mks (ex 0113/31610)
(4514)/46-8616 F-104J pr, all green c/s, no mks
We tried to get access here, as we had understood this was “just” another university, but no success at all. And when we saw the sign with the name of the institute, we were less surprised, it seems to be some kind of government installation. Both fighters could easily be seen from outside though, but the PL-1 that should also be here was not found unfortunately.
Tainanshiguirenquguinan Elementary School, Gueiren
2103 TH-55 pr, no mks, c/n 1270657, type H.2629C
This was the first (and last) Army TH-55 we encountered that is still in full original colours, very nice. It is visible from the street, but we went in and were allowed to photograph it. I noticed multiple databases refer to the type as H.269C, as it is on the c/n plate, but the chopper had TH-55 painted on it which makes me think the ROC Army referred to it that way. Can somebody confirm one way or another?
As we were so close by anyway, we took a quick look at Gueiren, hoping for some more Cobras and Chinooks.
Gueiren Army base
558 AH-1W no mks
7305 CH-47SD no mks
7309 CH-47SD no mks
Well, not much luck there. Only two Chinooks, that we had seen before, were present, and all AH-1s were inside. However this time we managed to read one off in the hangar, despite the bad light, and that was a new one. So it was not all for nothing.
The Affiliated Tainan Senior High School of National Cheng Kung University, Tainan
6306/113343 F-86F std, 2 TFW mks
0215 F-100A GIA, 2 TFW mks
(5840) PL-1B std, no mks
NA-511 UH-1H std, tail separate, NASC c/s
NA-518 UH-1H std, tail separate, NASC c/s
NA-201 S.76B GIA, NASC c/s, c/n 760334
The new name of this school is quite a long one! As the gate was open, we entered and tried to locate the aviation department. With the help of a student and Google Translate we managed, and again with the help of the translate app we finally got permission to have a look in the hangar. That looked rather shabby, but we were happy with all aircraft nonetheless. The Huey tails are inside, but both cabs are stored at the side of the building behind a fence. The PL-1 doesn’t carry a serial anymore, but call sign 5840 was stamped on the instrument panel and looked very original.
Because of the time we decided to head straight to Longtan next and skip the remaining W&R in between.
Longtan Army base
OH-58D: 602/31011, (607)/31016, (624)/31033
UH-60M: 903, 907, 909, 913, 915, 922
UH-1H: (331)/62-2031
The platform near the main road was already empty, but as the hangars were still open, the above could be read off. At the far platform a few more choppers could be seen, including two Apaches, but these were imossible to read as they were tail on. The Huey is stored or preserved against the wall on the Western side of the base, near the other two preserved aircraft (O-1 and U-6) that unfortunately can’t be seen from outside.
Fan Shu Vocational High School, Longtan
5215/60485 F-5E std, 46 TFS mks
NA-107 AS.365N3 GIA, wreck, ex NASC
Another school with the gate open and nobody there, so we entered and soon found the Dauphin that is on some kind of elevated platform. Getting the F-5 took a bit more effort, as it required a long walk uphill. On the top we found a guy working a vegetable garden and a very closed shed. Luckily this shed has some small windows on the side, and the F-5 can be seen easily. No sign of the two Birddogs that are or were here as well though (9313 and 9316).
This location was visited with last light, now it was getting very dark quickly.
Longtan Sports Park, Longtan
(5230/61625) F-5E pr, mks not noted
This park is currently being reconstructed, but the F-5 has already been put back. As the whole park is still fenced off and it was dark by now, we had to do with a silhouette, but at least we managed to see it.
Taoyuan Veterans Home, Taoyuan
5186/50359 F-5E pr, 46 TFS mks
Again our translate app came in very handy, as both the guard and the man in charge didn’t speak English. But based on the Chinese translation of our request we were allowed in and have a look at this beautiful F-5 in camouflage c/s.
We had hoped we could do one more location before we had to return our rental car, but that turned out to be too optimistic. So we headed to the airport, managed to find the right spot to return our rental car already on the second attempt, and were very much on time for our return flight.
And that ended our trip. We didn’t succeed fully in photographing all RoCAF types, but getting all but one helicopter type of the army and also most types of the navy and NASC made up for that. We also heard the news spotting might become much more difficult or even fully illegal coming year, so we were very happy with both the results and the timing of our trip. I guess time will tell whether another trip can be done in the future.
I hope you enjoyed reading our adventures. Before I end, there is one more update for those who keep databases. When doing the research while preparing our trip, I found a preserved U-6 at Hsinche army airbase, marked 8014. This is preserved next to a small side gate and is visible from outside according to Streetview from coordinates 24 13 18.6 N, 120 48 50 E. Unfortunately in the end we didn’t have the time to check it out ourselves, but hopefully this will help others.
That’s all folks!
Happy New Year, and keep on spotting and posting your sightings please!!
Patrick Dirksen & Stefan Jongen
Tristar Aviation
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