Hi all,
We were still not really awake, but the Phantoms were waiting for us at Hyakuri! One problem: we didn't have stairs yet..... It took us much longer than hoped to find a place where they sell those, and then it opened only at 9:30! That meant we had to wait some time, and we decided to go and get a preserved KM-2 nearby, just south of the town Oarai. We thought we had found the location of this one, serial 6242, along road 51, but there was no sign of a KM-2 here or nearby unfortunately.
So a bit disappointed we drove back to the hardware store and bought our stairs. It turned out they only just fitted in the back, but they would be of great use the coming weeks. Hyakuri here we come!
Hyakuri
302 Hik:
F-4EJ Kai: 17-8302, 47-8330, 47-8342, 47-8345, 47-8352, 57-8355, 57-8356, 67-8390, 77-8394, 77-8401, 77-8402, 87-8404, 87-8415, 97-8426, 07-8435, 17-8440
T-4: 96-5618, 06-5649, 16-5664, 16-5670, 56-5735
305 Hik:
F-15J: 22-8805, 22-8813 (spec c/s), 42-8837, 62-8864, 62-8869, 72-8888, 82-8898, 82-8902, 92-8906, 12-8924, 72-8962, 72-8963, 82-8965
F-15DJ: 62-8089
T-4: 36-5694
501 Hik:
RF-4E Kai: 47-6901, 47-6903, 47-6905, 57-6909, 57-6912 +1 more (being towed)
RF-4EJ Kai: 67-6380, 07-6433
T-4: 06-5637, 16-5666
45-1073 C-130H 401 Hik
75-1075 C-130H 401 Hik
18-4551 UH-60J nn
78-4566 UH-60J nn
06-5641 T-4 Sotai Shireibu Hik
52-3001 U-125A Hyakuri Kyunantai
52-3026 U-125A nn
preserved at gate:
60-8274 F-1 6 Hik mks
04-8197 F-86D 204 Hik mks
92-7885 F-86F 305 Hik mks
(46-8630) F-104J 7 Kokudan mks
29-5175 T-2 Blue Impulse c/s
51-5629 T-33A 501 Hik mks
Wow, what an airbase!!
Lots of flying, all day long. When we finally arrived already two missions had been flown, and all three squadrons kept on flying till we left at around 19:00 h. And at that time still another group of Phantoms took off, and some Eagles were about to. We had our first check by security here, of which we would get many more during our trip. They hardly spoke English, and stayed on the inside of the fence, so communication was hard. But they took our pictures (through the fence....) and then left us in peace.
There is a hangar (near the 501 Hik platform) which contains at least another ten Phantoms (both regular and recce) which are stored or probably withdrawn from use. I guess nobody has serials for those?
We had planned to spend the morning here and then drive to Shimofusa, but since we arrived rather late and flying kept on going we ended up spending all day here. When we finally were satisfied we went hunting for some W&R. The collection of aircraft (H-19 etcetera) that should be nearby here was not found by us; it seems all aircraft have gone by now.
First we tried to find two stored helicopters that we had been told were along the road from Hyakuri towards road 144, but we failed to find them. So when we gave up we drove to the next stop, a nearby park just off road 355.
In park, Ishioka (36°10'56.07"N 140°19'19.00"E)
71-5242 T-33A pr, 204 Hik mks
This is outside and easily visible. There's also a sports park here, with a B&G swimming pool which we thought had two helicopters. The building looked closed, but a door was open so in we went. We found someone who finally understood what we were looking for, and he told us they were not here but at a nearby location. He gave us directions, and when following those we found that we were driving back to Hyakuri. Finally we found the two choppers, which turned out to be the two we already tried to find earlier this evening! In daylight they are hard to miss probably, but in the dark it's very hard if you don't have the exact location. Anyway, we found them along road 144.
B&G Swimming pool, Ogawa (36°11'15.50"N 140°22'21.00"E)
41648 UH-1H pr, EH mks, c/n 48
31100 OH-6J pr, V mks, c/n 6404
A friend of us visited this spot a few weeks before with a group of spotters, and afterwards they found out that different serials were noted for the UH-1. The doors have serial 41609, and on the tail is code JG-1648, so we checked the c/n plate to make sure we had the real id. It turns out that it has the doors of another example, which probably caused the confusion in the other group.
In park, Owada (36°05'13.80"N 140°18'22.00"E)
41587 UH-1B pr, EH mks, c/n 88
This is preserved in a park next to a sports field, and is easily accessible. A nice night shot was made with the help of a tripod again.
Ibaraki Flower park, Ishioka (36°12'39.90"N 140°10'18.80"E)
51803 KV.107II-A4 pr, mks nn
This is preserved in a flower park along road 150, and is visible from outside when the park is closed. When it's dark you have to look carefully though since there's not much light available.
And with this last catch it was enough for today, we continued to our hotel and crashed in bed. But before we could do the latter we had a nice challenge parking the car! Yesterday the hotel had a "normal" parking lot, but not today. This hotel, like most hotels we learned during our trip, had a parking "flat" with an elevator for your car. But to operate this you need a keycard from the reception, and then you need to push some buttons in the right order, drive your car in, remove all your stuff (while some computer voice is telling you a long story in Japanese), get out, push some more buttons, and finally you see your car disappear to the 14th floor or so. It took us some 15 minutes, and some stress when the car was inside (will it not disappear into the heights with one of us or our gear still in it??) but finally we succeeded. That's one of the nice things of travelling to other countries (and that's not even meant in a sarcastic way!).
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation
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