JAPAN Air Shows 2018

[Stilwell]

So the Show at Hyakuri is on the same day as the show at Nyutabaru. I guess that means Nyutabaru is unlikely to feature the RF-4 pair display it has enjoyed for the last two years.

I just hope the lack of the Blue Impulse at Hyakuri will prompt them to fly the Phantoms more.

Jonathan.

[Uni]

JASDF will have joint training with 8 F-35Bs of VMFA-121(Iwakuni) from 9 May. to 24 May. at Misawa A.B..
4 F-15J/DJs, 2 F-2s, and one F-35A will take part in this training.

Uni

[ASh]

Hello, everybody.
Does anybody knows about ah-64 flying activity after accident in February 2018? Goin to visit Akeno in May.
And is there any information about Komatsu airshow 2018?

[Uni]

Hello, everybody.
Does anybody knows about ah-64 flying activity after accident in February 2018? Goin to visit Akeno in May.
And is there any information about Komatsu airshow 2018?

Hi Ash,

They stopped all the　AH-64Dｓ' flights since the accident.
I think it will take more time to re-start flying...
(Kawasaki OH-1s stop flying for 2 years, either.)

There are no announcement about the Komatsu O.H. by now.

Uni

[ASh]

Thanks for information.

[Stilwell]

The date for the Open House show at Komatsu this year has been announced for Monday September 17th.

http://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/komatsu/

The Blue Impulse site says they will be at the show.

Jonathan.

[ASh]

Hello, everybody.
Does anybody knows about F-18 in Atsugi? Goin to visit Atsugi this week. Or they never appear after relocating to Iwakuni?
By the way, 3 F-18 visited Misawa AFB yesterday. Maybe it was just one day visit.

[Uni]

14 F-22As from AK arrived at Kadena on 30 May, 2018.
They'll stay one month.

Uni

[Uni]

6 RQ-4Bs will stay at Misawa from 1 Jun. to 1 Oct., 2018.

Uni

[tbower40]

Question regarding the Dec 2nd Air Show at Hyakuri:

Is this air show just an F -4 phantom farewell to the 302 Squadron show? I can't seem to find any information on a flying schedule and what aircraft will be participating.

Maybe I'm too early looking for the information but I'm hoping someone might have some information they can share?

Thanks in advance,
Trevor

[Uni]

Hi Trevor,
The question is too much early.
Usually they will release their show schedule about 2-4 weeks before the show.

The Hyakuri air show will be "quite normal" Japanese air show, I think.
It will be;
Opening Fly by
One fighter sqn.'s show time
Rescue unit demo
Other flight sqn.'s show time (at Hyakuri, it is 501 sqn.)
Another fighter sqn.'s show time (please remember One Wing has two fighter sqn. and one resuce unit)
Blue Impulse

* sometimes there are some demo-flt. of the invitee.(ex. PACAF F-16 demo team, some helicopters etc.)

That's all today.

Uni

[tbower40]

Uni,

Thank you very much for your information.

I will keep my eyes open as it gets closer to that air show date.

Trevor

[Stilwell]

Trevor,
To follow up on Uni’s response, while the question is too early for a definitive answer, the shows at each JASDF base do follow a formula from year to year.

The last show at Hyakuri, in 2016 (no show in 2017 as they were scheduled to host the defence review instead) opened with a flypast by the base units- primarily a 9 ship chevron formation of Phantoms. Next up was a single ship demo, but that year it was an F-15J from 306 Hikotai at Komatsu. I suspect they were standing in for 301 Hikotai – as they had just moved in from Nyutabaru, they may not have had time to put together a display. Plus Hyakuri has a tradition of F-15 displays, even if it is no longer an Eagle base.
After that was a Phantom pair from 302 Hikotai. Their display took the form of repeated gun runs against the base defence guns, who were firing back with blanks. This tends to be a feature at bases housing aircraft types with attack roles.
Next came the Air Rescue demonstration, followed by a break for a few hours for lunch and to do the ground attractions.
Following a few hours’ break, the Blue Impulse display was limited to a series of low passes because of the cloud base.
After that came the 501 Hikotai RF-4 pair display, followed by a fighter Phantom pair display from 302 Hikotai to close.

The main difference this year will be the absence of the Blue Impulse, who are double booked with Nyutabaru. This will give the opportunity for a send-off for 302 Hikotai as a finale. Whether they take it is another matter.
At Nyutabaru in 2016, the departure of 301 Hikotai and the Aggressors was marked by a 4-ship diamond flypast be each unit, as a farewell to the base. At least, I assume that was the intent. They rehearsed it during the week, but come show day I decided I had had enough of the rain long before then and headed back to the hotel. But I heard from someone who stuck it out that the flypast didn’t happen.
302 may decide to do something similar in the closing slot. Personally I am hoping that as 302 (Provisional) is already working up on the F-35 at Misawa they send an aircraft down for a flying display (unlikely given the requirements of the work-up), or bring one or more aircraft down for a combined flypast with a specially painted 302 Phantom (if they don’t have at least one special I will be very disappointed) to pass the torch on from the F-4EJkai to the F-35A.
That is my hope. Either way, if 302 have a Phantom flying at the Misawa show, I expect there to be some form of F-35 activity at Hyakuri.

If you haven’t been to a show at Hyakuri before, a couple of pointers:
Most of the flying will be rehearsed on Saturday. But the area immediately around the base tends to get closed off to road traffic, so don’t expect to be able to park easily nearby. There will be cars going onto the base, but they will be by invitation only (families, etc).
The traffic on show day is insane. I was on the first train into Ishioka in 2016, and my bus still got stuck in stationary traffic with over two miles to walk to get to the base for the start of flying. And the traffic hardly moved while I was walking.

Jonathan.

[tbower40]

Jonathan,

Thank you very much for your information. I have never been to a Japanese Air show but I'm hoping to get over there to see all the Phantoms fly before they move out of that base.

During the air show is it possible to be located at the spotting towers or is it better to be on base on Sunday?

Thanks again for your advise and information.

Trevor

[Stilwell]

Trevor,

> I'm hoping to get over there to see all the Phantoms fly before they move out of that base.

Their departure will be more retirement and scrapping than “moving out”, unfortunately.

I would recommend hanging around the base for at least some of the week leading up to the show. I would expect them to rehearse the flying displays during that period, along with normal operations (such as they are nowadays). So probably an average of one rehearsal a day (base flypast; 301, 302 and 501 Hikotais, plus Air Rescue) during the week.
Visitor arrivals are likely to be on Friday.

Then most, if not all, of the displays will rehearse on the Saturday.

I would be surprised if the “Peace Gate” towers will be open on Sunday, or even Saturday for the rehearsals – I would expect it to be too much hassle for the people who run it. But I can’t say with any authority – I haven’t been there myself, although
I am tempted to try it on the Friday this year.

If you plan on driving, the gates will probably open at 07:00. But by then the queues will be miles long. In 2004, the group I was with hit the queues at 06:00, the gates opened at 07:00 and our coach was parked up at 08:00. Another tour group hit the queues at 07:00 and were parked up at 15:30. And it will have got worse since then.

If you won’t have a car, “Shuttle” buses will run from Ishioka and Mito railway stations. Foolishly the Ishioka service in 2016 planned to start after the first inbound train arrived, so they had already built up a queue of all the people living and staying in Ishioka when the influx of train passengers arrived. As the show organisers didn’t separate the buses and cars going into the show, I doubt the bus I was on ever made it onto the base – I expect everyone else bailed when the Phantom flypast went through.
As Mito is a larger city, and further away from Ishioka, they may start their bus service earlier.

Being a 03/21 runway, for photography you want to be on the east side in the morning, and on the west side in the afternoon, Assuming there is anything resembling sunshine. So the crowd area is pretty reasonable for the morning of the show day. There are some vantage points where you can shoot head-on down the taxiways, like you would from the towers, but on the perpendicular taxiways and from ground level, but these locations will tend to fill up quickly on show day. However, the same can be true of pretty much anywhere on base.

If you are clued up you could instead place yourself to get head-on shots during the gun runs – by the golf course in front of the fire station worked pretty well for me in 2016. That spot would also have been reasonable for catching the “Combat Break” during pairs take-offs from 03, if I had got there in time. And if there had been useable light.

I plan to head out of the base via the preserved aircraft in the north east corner after the morning flying.
Partly to photograph the preserved aircraft, partly to get to the other side of the runway to have the sun behind me for the afternoon flying (recognising the safety risks of being under the display area), and partly to be able to depart on the regular bus service from Ibaraki Airport back to Ishioka Railway station. It is a bit of a trek, and it won’t provide complete protection against the heavy traffic and congestion departing the show, but for the last three miles the scheduled bus service takes the dedicated bus route of the old railway line into Ishioka. The show specials buses can’t, and are stuck with the car traffic.

Jonathan.