Japan III (2019)

Japan III 2019

In order to visit the Hyakuri air show 4Aviation sent two groups to Japan for a week in November-December 2019. This is the report of the tour that ended with the air show.

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23/24 November 2019

Mid-day on Saturday 23 November 2019 a group of twelve travelers (out of sixteen) met up at the new meeting point at Schiphol airport. We would meet four fellow travelers in Narita who made their own travel arrangements. Bag drop was a breeze, security took a bit of patience. Our KLM 777 flight departed on time and took us non-stop to Narita.

Arrival to a super-wet Narita (Sunday 24 November by now) was on-time, the customs formalities went efficient and soon after collecting our bags we met up in the arrivals hall with the four other participants that made the trip on their own to complete our group. Pick up of the three rental vans took a while, as rental car agencies always seem to take more time than expected, but all was good. The vans were loaded with our luggage and a stack of stepladders (many with 4Aviation stickers) that were stocked at the rental car premises. As all of the group were pretty tired, and the weather was rather rainy, no activities were planned for the remainder of this Sunday. The drive to the hotel in Tsukuba took us past Ushiku Daibutsu (a 120m tall Buddha statue). We arrived around 1600 at the hotel for the night. Some us decided to grab dinner that evening, others went straight to bed.

25 November 2019

Monday 25 November; Phantoms Day 1. We left the hotel early to be on time at the famous peace towers at Hyakuri. Upon arrival, the ground crews of the 2 resident F-4 Phantom squadrons were busy pulling a substantial quantity of F-4s out of the hangars for today’s missions. Eagerly we awaited a first engine start, but then… low clouds moved in quickly. In a matter of minutes the air base was covered in a thick fog halting all flying activity. The first and last military movement of the morning was a visiting KC-767, its sister having to divert. In the afternoon the fog cleared and 501Hikotai flew a sortie with a 3-ship before dusk, consisting of all three colour schemes. At dusk both 301 and 501 launched a 3-ship but with the limited light fading quickly and blustery winds, it was challenging conditions for photography. But the sight and sound of launching Phantoms in near darkness was awesome! After a somewhat successful afternoon at the fence, we boarded our vans and headed to Yokohama for a night’s stay close to NAF Atsugi, our first stop for the Tuesday.

26 November 2019

On Tuesday morning (26 November) we drove the few remaining kilometers from our hotel to NAF Atsugi. The weather was overcast with a very cold wind blowing from the North. The Japanese Navy platforms were full with P-1s, P-3s, C-130s, but, as has been the case since the US Navy carrier air wing moved to Iwakuni, flight operations appeared rather limited. Notwithstanding this, we scored a few P-1s, a C-40, a few H-60s and a surprise visitor, a US-2 flying boat. Around 10:30, we decided we had enough of the cold and headed to Iruma. At Iruma the conditions weren’t much better but at least there it was less wind. We made our way to north end of the field. In the afternoon we were entertained by a variety of the based aircraft types as well as some stunts by fellow travelers. The absolute highlight being a local flight performed by one of the last YS-11FCs. As it got dark we started moving once more as we still had a few hours of motorway to cover most of the distance to our destination for Wednesday morning: Gifu.

27 November 2019

Gifu is the base that hosts the test wing of the Japanese Air Force and if the weather plays ball, a nice mix of aircraft types can usually be seen. Also, because Kawasaki has a large assembly and maintenance facility here. We decided to try the ‘hill’ on Wednesday 27 November. While parking the vans, a Phantom could be heard starting up. We rushed to get in position, but barely managed before the Phantom took off at 9:15AM. Then things turned quiet. We had to wait for the 2nd wave to launch for additional movements. Around 11AM the 2nd wave went airborne including the red-white-blue F-2B with an interesting load out and a spin-chute installation. After the Wave 2 recoveries, we made our way to the Kakamigahara museum adjacent to the air base. This has recently been re-opened after renovation and is much improved. The visit was kept brief so we could be in time at Hamamatsu to visit one of the larger camera and electronics stores in Japan before closing. After BIC Camera formalities, which became necessary after the Iruma ‘stunts’, we departed Hamamatsu for a long drive to our hotel in Tsukuba. After a quick dinner at a Tomei Expressway service area we crossed downtown Tokyo. Little traffic made this a rather pleasant experience. We arrived at the hotel late that evening for a few hours of rest until an early rise to make it to Hyakuri the next morning.

28 November 2019

Thursday 28 November; Phantoms Day 2. Another very cold morning. Clouds quickly gave way to clear sunshine. Well in time we made it to the Peace gate where we witnessed ground crews pulling Phantoms onto the platform in preparation for today’s activities. It was advertised the local flying would mainly be a dress rehearsal for the weekend. Around 8 o’clock the first engines were started and not much later 6 Phantoms, 3 x 301Hikotai + 3 x 501Hikotai, taxied out in beautiful soft light. They would take off, rehearse the ‘mass’ formation fly-by and recover. At the beginning of the afternoon, both Phantom squadrons practiced their individual routines after which the base turned quiet. At the end of the afternoon we visited the two F-4s next to the Ibaraki airport terminal. The day ended in typical Japanese style at a local Izakaya restaurant.

29 November 2019

Friday 29 November; Phantoms day 3. Early in the morning of a cold, but bright sunny day for a change, once more we made our way to the Peace Gate with the famous towers overlooking Hyakuri airbase. Today proved to be a mixed bag. Early on we received information that there would be no flying by the local 301 and 501 squadrons and only a handful of aircraft would arrive for participation in this weekend’s airshow. A P-1 came in first in beautiful soft morning light. Then a surprise visitor: the special c/s 3Hikotai F-2 from Misawa. Two F-15s came in early from Komatsu as participants in the flying program. Around noon we relocated to the south side fence line and caught a few more scheduled participants to the airshow including Blue Impulse with their T-4 jets.

30 November 2019

Saturday 30 November; Phantoms Day 4. Today was the Hyakuri families day and access to the base was only possible for military personnel and their families. We had pre-booked access to the peace towers once more. Police notified that local roads would be closed from 5:30AM onwards. In order to be certain to avoid the potential roadblocks, and still have a place to park our vans as well as stepladders, we departed the hotel at 2:30AM already and arrived at the peace towers at 3:45AM (after a serious top-up on coffee). The weather turned great, although very cold, with mostly blue sky all day. The airshow itself held only a few flying display items, but mainly quality Phantom items, much to the liking of all enthusiasts present.

In the evening we met the other 4Aviation group, that has arrived in Japan on this Saturday, in the hotel.

1 December 2019

Sunday 1 December; Phantoms Day 5. Today was the actual Hyakuri airshow day open to the general public. Due to the advertised no parking on-base and expected massive crowds and traffic congestion we again started at an early hour. Around 5:45AM we parked up a short walk away from the base main gate. To our surprise, it was already possible to enter the base at this early hour, with access to the platform granted at 7:00AM. Unfortunately the weather didn’t fully cooperate this Sunday. There were some sunny spells, it was mostly overcast and still rather cold. This didn’t seem to stop the crowds from coming though as the platform and surrounding grass areas were quickly filled up with spectators. In typical Japanese style, static and flight line were basically mixed. Display aircraft are started up and taxi out in front of the public giving an up-close feel. Each of the resident squadrons provided a display item with a Komatsu-based F-15 and the Blue Impulse team as guest appearances. The flying displays were obviously the same as the day before, the crews doing their best in showing off their hardware, including some topside passes. After the flying had ended and most of the handful of guest aircraft had departed back to their home base, we hung around until the platform was cleared of people and then some more off base until most of the road traffic had cleared. After saying goodbye to the other 4Aviation group we then drove trouble-free to our last hotel of this trip near Narita airport. Time to celebrate a successful week with a few cold ones!

2 December 2019

Monday (2 December) was our return travel day back to Europe. The hotel shuttle brought us to the terminal. There we waved goodbye to five fellow travelers. Check-in, the flight, all was uneventful. At the luggage carousel at Schiphol we shook hands and said goodbye. End to a week in Japan focused mainly on Phantoms with unfortunately mostly grey skies and rather cold temperatures topped with an airshow with mainly F-4s flying. Another one for the memory-book. What’s not to like about that?

Japan III 2019

Japan III 2019

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Japan III (2019)

Japan III 2019

Japan III 2019

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