For years we had been thinking of going to Japan, but for different reasons (money.....) it didn't work out. Until this year! Last summer we decided it "had to happen one day after all" so we started saving and booked our tickets.Then came all preparations, and we discovered that a lot of information is available about active spotting but a lot less about wrecks and relics in Japan! Anyway, we spent many hours of searching the internet, and we also got help from many people. When the day came we had to leave we were by far not finished yet, but obviously we still were eager to leave.
Japan is a very different country from what we were used to, but let me tell you: it's definately worth the money! Spotting is easy, it's allowed, there's a hughe amount of flying, aircraft have beautiful colours and finally they have a lot of Japan-made aircraft which are never seen abroad. So if you are considering going: stop hesitating and go!
I will post my logs in the ususal way, one day at the time. Where known or useful I'll include coordinates, especially for the W&R we did find. All JASDF aircraft carry the last three of the serial on the nose, so I won't bother typing that out all the time. Same for the JGSDF aircraft, which carry the code JG-xxxx on the tail, where xxxx stands for the last four of the serial, and the JMSDF which carry the last two on the nose. Very handy for us spotters by the way; it makes it easy to identify an aircraft from many different angles.... Furthermore all JGSDF units have a code instead of (or sometimes next to) a squadron badge. I will list the code where read off, for a "translation" to the unit I recommend the Scramble Order of Battle webpage.
So here we go!
After our long and tiring flight we had to pick up our rental car quickly, since there were no less than 2 open days near Tokyo today. Utsunomiya was the first one we had included in our itinerary, but when Kasumigaura turned out to be open as well we changed the plan and decided to go there first. There's not too many helicopters based here, but we were hoping to catch something of the storage here. And this turned out to be a very wise (and lucky) decision!
JGSDF Kasumigaira open day
static:
73456 AH-1S SK
41846 UH-1J SK
52906 CH-47J SK
43113 UH-60JA SK
74505 AH-64DJP S
operational hangar (attached to storage hangar):
32607 OH-1 SK
32616 OH-1 nn
41818 UH-1J nn
31191 OH-6D SK
31201 OH-6D nn
31202 OH-6D nn
31204 OH-6D nn
31216 OH-6D nn
31228 OH-6D nn
31244 OH-6D nn
31255 OH-6D SK
operational hangar next to tower:
52918 CH-47J SK
52922 CH-47J SK
43118 UH-60JA SK
43120 UH-60JA SK
74508 AH-64DJP SK
instructional in front of tower:
31140 OH-6D SK
31152 OH-6D SU
31170 OH-6D SU
instructional hangar:
31199 OH-6D nn
There was also an OH-1 in this hangar, but it looked like a mock up. If someone can confirm this....
instructional hangar:
41675 UH-1H NEH
41677 UH-1H MH
41832 UH-1J SK
"52957" UH-1J nn, covered
31125 OH-6D V
31128 OH-6D EH
31171 OH-6D NEH
31207 OH-6D SU
23050 LR-2 SK
main storage hangar:
00001 AS.332L ST, "pigeon"
00002 AS.332L ST, "hibadi" (or so it sounded in Japanese)
00003 AS.332L ST, "seagull"
22010 LR-1 IHB
22014 LR-1 W
(22017) LR-1 IHB (thanks to Masanori, we both managed to forget writing this one down. I blame it on jetlag....)
73402 AH-1S IV ATH
73405 AH-1S I ATH
73407 AH-1S II ATH
73409 AH-1S III ATH
73410 AH-1S I ATH
73411 AH-1S I ATH
73415 AH-1S II ATH
73416 AH-1S IV ATH
41695 UH-1H NH
41697 UH-1H EH
41698 UH-1H NH
31158 OH-6D SK
31163 OH-6D MH
31164 OH-6D SU
31167 OH-6D SK
31169 OH-6D S
31172 OH-6D MH
31173 OH-6D XI
31175 OH-6D WH
31176 OH-6D IV ATH
31179 OH-6D V ATH
31186 OH-6D NEH
31189 OH-6D S
31190 OH-6D XII H
31194 OH-6D SK
31198 OH-6D SU
preserved barracks (other side of road):
41685 UH-1H WH
31187 OH-6D SU
61326 TH-55J SU
51815 KV.107II-A4 WH
stored outside with barracks:
6172 SNJ-5 no mks, in parts
Well, as you can see this was a great succes! Only bad thing was the weather, since it was very dark and cloudy and we even had to seek shelter from a few showers. When we arrived we almost immediately bumped into a mechanic who spoke English very well (which is very rare here, as we would find out during our trip). He walked with us for some time, showing the aircraft on display and in the storage hangar (which was open for public). But he also went into the operational hangar with the CH-47s to note the serials and unit markings of the helicopters there for us, since we could see them through a window but were not able to read most of them off. Nice! Great surprise were the three stored VIP-Pumas, which are currently for sale. And we didn't know that the Cobra-fleet is also partly being wfu already.
The OH-6 31199 was visible through a window in the hangar next to the entrance, the other instructional hangar was next to this one. This was not open to the public, which we only found out when we simply walked in (can't read those Japanse signs...), but we were allowed to have a quick look around anyway when we tried to explain what we were looking for (serials....). The UH-1 that was partly covered had serial 52957 on its door, which is a Chinook serial! Since we had only just arrived in Japan we didn't realise this, only later this we we found out this was rather weird. No idea about the real identity of this one unfortunately!
Parking was at the barracks on the other side of the street. When leaving you had to drive a rather long way through the barracks grounds, and the stored Harvard was found by coincedence. It is in a green c/s and had no markings, but the call plate in the cockpit read 6172 which fits into the JMSDF series of SNJ-5's.
All in all the visit here took much longer than planned, so we arrived way too late at Utsunomiya for the open day here.
JGSDF Utsunomiya
preserved gate:
41637 UH-1H NEH
31141 OH-6D SU
11366 L-19E SU
22006 LR-1 SU
preserved on base:
(41571) UH-1B nn
(31115) OH-6D nn
(61335) TH-55J nn
"82-7818" F-86F Blue Impulse c/s (real id 92-7883)
(60506) T-34A nn
preserved with Fuji:
11-5546 T-3 11 HK mks
stored on Fuji platform, covered:
1x T-3 or similar, is this maybe KM-2 6291 which should be preserved here?
The open day had long finished when we finally arrived, but we were allowed to photograph the gate guards which was still good. From the other side of the airfield we saw the five other aircraft, just visible through the trees.
We were going to start at Hyakuri the next day and had already booked a hotel nearby, and although by now we were tired as hell after missing a night sleep we did find some energy to do a few more W&R underway.
Children's Science Museum, Utsunomiya (36 30 43.34 N 139 50 17.89 E)
41524 UH-1B pr, no mks, no tail (as flightsim)
JA3725 T-3 pr, fuselage, prototype
The museum was already closed when we arrived, but since the side gate was still open we tried our luck. And it worked; we were taken inside and shown the aircraft. Thanks!
Just a few hundres meters further along the road we discovered a Bell 204 (JA9043, no mil history afaik), outside on a parking lot.
After this one more stop was made:
In park, Uchihara (36°21'44.50"N 140°21'27.30"E)
41621 UH-1H pr, NH mks
This is preserved outside, just next to the fire brigade station. It was illuminated nicely, and with the use of a tripod we could make some nice shots of it as well.
And that concluded our first day! Very tired but also very satisfied we hit our beds, only to get up again early for some active Phantoms and more tomorrow.
As always additions, corrections and comments are very welcome.
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation