What a luxury, today was Saturday so we slept in! Well, at least a little bit
When we finally got ourselves together we drove further south towards Kanoya, where we wanted to check out the museum. We planned to come back here on Monday, but we probably wouldn't have the time for the museum then, so this was our only chance.
JMSDF Kanoya
P-3C, 1 Kok:
5004, 5012, 5017, 5018, 5027, 5028, 5052, 5072, 5073, 5083, 5084
8226 SH-60J std, 211 Kyoiku Kok mks
8247 SH-60J (211 Kyoiku Kok)
8250 SH-60J 211 Kyoiku Kok
8254 SH-60J (211 Kyoiku Kok)
8966 UH-60J 72 Kok
6266 KM-2 std, 211 Kyoiku Kok mks
8081 HSS-2A std, 211 Kyoiku Kok mks
8762 OH-6J std, 211 Kyoiku Kok mks
8774 OH-6D std, 211 Kyoiku Kok mks
When we arrived we passed the museum, but we wanted to check out the operational stuff first. You never know.... Well, a few hangar doors were open, but there was no visible activity at all. But at least we got a decent amount of local stuff already. The five stored aircraft were seen from inside the museum, from the first floor. Three of them used to be preserved in a local park, but had been removed there only a few weeks ago (actually the day before the 4Aviation tour tried to find them apparently....). They are now in a corner of the airbase, together with a wfu Seahawk and OH-6, all looking rather sorry for themselves.
And then it was time to "do" the museum.
Navy Museum, Kanoya
4131 S2F-1 pr, 11 Kok mks, BuNo 136722
4618 P2V-7 pr, no mks
4770 P-2J pr, nose, inside, no mks (carries code only)
4771 P-2J pr, 7 Kok mks
4783 P-2J pr, 7 Kok mks
(6180) SNJ-5 pr, no mks
6263 KM-2 pr, 201 Kok mks
(6434) SNB-4 pr, no mks
6714 Beech 65 pr, 202 Kok mks, c/n LC-220
8074 HSS-2A pr, 211 Kok mks
8608 KV.107IIA-3A pr, 111 Kok mks
8753 B.47G-2A pr, no mks (carries code only)
8763 OH-6J pr, 211 mks
8941 S-61AH pr, nose, inside, no mks (carries code only)
9012 T-34A pr, 201 mks
9023 R4D-6Q pr. 205 Kok mks
9076 US-1 pr, 71 Kok mks
T-31 H8K2 Emily pr, no mks
- A6M5 pr, inside, composite, no mks
Apart from the two noses and the Zero everything is preserved outside, and all aircraft are in a good shape. With some effort it's possible to make some decent shots as well. As already mentiones it pays off to check every room in a museum, since that way we accidently found the dump at the airfield. A nice bonus!
When we were finished it was already rather late again, and we had to work our way back north for tomorrows open day at Takayabaru. But of course we included a few W&R along the way!
JGSDF Kokube (31 43 27.10 N, 130 45 14.90 E)
41652 UH-1H pr, EH mks
31062 OH-6J pr, I mks
51711 KV.107II-4 pr, WH mks
All three are preserved near the main gate and are easily visible from outside.
Nearby is the airfield of Kagoshima, which we quickly checked out. A few civil aircraft, and some Coast Guard stuff as well. But since I consider those civil I didn't log them....
So we continued our way north via Tsugawa.
Tsugawa (31 55 22.20 N, 130 33 53.50 E)
71-5253 T-33A pr, Hiko Kyodotai mks
This is preserved near a parking lot for some park or similar, and is accessible.
The next T-bird is further north again.
Okuchi (32 03 29.05 N, 130 35 55.60 E)
71-5244 T-33A pr, 301 Hik mks
This is preserved at a parking lot near a sports park, and again easily accessible.
And one more T-bird to finish the day!
Tsunagi (32 13 59.50 N, 130 26 18.30 E)
71-5315 T-33A pr, 6 Hik mks
And this one is also preserved at a sports park, and easily visible from outside.
That concludes the aircraft for today. We had dinner at the Joyfull Inn, nothing too special apart from the fact that they offered us regular cutlery here! Well, by now we were used to chopsticks....
As always additions, corrections and comments are very welcome.
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation