South Korea & Taiwan II 2025
Starting with a visit to the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX), two 4Aviation groups headed for Taiwan afterwards to pay a visit to the military bases of the Republic of China Air Force across the island. The two groups each had their own schedule for Taiwan.
Keep informed
Chances are that we will return to South Korea and/or Taiwan for a comparable tour. If you want to be informed if we have details about this, please click the button to send us a message.
Mid-morning on Wednesday (15 October), the fellow travellers arrived right on time for the long flight to Seoul-Incheon, connecting in Guangzhou. Checking in and dropping off our bags presented no problems. Even security went smoothly. Afterward, we had to wait in line for customs, but we were all at the gate well before boarding time. The China Southern flight departed on time and landed in Guangzhou easily ahead of the scheduled arrival time (Thursday 16 October by now). The transfer in Guangzhou for the flight to Seoul-Incheon was rapid, yet uneventful. The flight to Seoul also departed on time, and we arrived at Incheon Airport at the advertised time.
With the usual queue(s) for customs, it took a while before we could all collect our luggage from the belt. Next step: the shuttle bus to the car rental. Here, more travellers were met. The group would consist of two vans/groups in Korea, splitting up when getting to Taiwan. The formalities here went smoothly, so thankfully the tired group was soon on their way through the busy Seoul traffic towards the hotel for the next two nights.
The hotel, of course, knew we were coming, so check-in went very quickly. Meanwhile, we had also met some other 4Aviation members. No less than four different 4Aviation groups were getting together at the same hotel. Then it was time to freshen up and, for those who wanted it, grab a bite to eat at one of the many local Korean BBQ restaurants.
Immediately after breakfast (on Friday 17 October), we headed for Seongnam to experience the first (opening) day of ADEX. We were able to park our van a short walk from the entrance. Picking up our pre-booked tickets went smoothly, and we quickly strolled over the static display. The static display consisted mainly of Korean aircraft, one or more of each type. Two Korean-based US F-16s and a rather gray Growler were the only foreign participants. The show opened with a fly-past of 25 aircraft in five groups, led by an A330 with four F-35s. The remaining flying program was limited to a solo T-50, the new KF-21 Boramae, the Black Eagles (not to be missed, of course), and a Combat Search and Rescue showpiece featuring, among others, two HH-60s. Interspersed among the display flights were some based Hercules, Casas, and (Blackhawk) helicopters. At the end of the afternoon, we returned to the van and attempted to drive back to the hotel. Despite the short distance, this proved to take a while due to the ever-heavy traffic around Seoul. That evening, the majority of the group(s) discussed the positive results of this first ADEX day at the same BBQ restaurant of the previous night, which once again proved to be an excellent choice.
Given the successful Friday and the poor weather forecast for Saturday (18 October), the group decided to first view some preserved aircraft in Seoul itself before heading back to Seongnam for the afternoon program of the ADEX expo. And so we did. We first went to Boramae Park to see the preserved aircraft there, followed by some time at the Korean War Memorial and its extensive collection of aircraft on display.
Information provided indicated that the local flight program would begin after 1:00 PM, so around this time we found a spot in the approach area near Seongnam and waited for what was to come. Well, due to the low clouds, there weren’t as many activities as the day before. Fortunately, we had already secured the shots we wanted.
Late in the afternoon, we said goodbye to another 4Aviation team present and set course for Seoul-Incheon Airport. After encountering the “mother of all traffic jams”, and thus many delays, we finally arrived at our hotel for the night. After all, we had to be at the airport relatively early the next morning for our flight to Taipei. The rental car was returned without any problems, followed by a quick bite to eat and a few hours of sleep.
Sunday 19 October, early in the morning, several taxis took us to the terminal at Incheon for the flight to Taipei. Check-in, security, and so on were seamless. The flight to Taipei departed promptly and was routine. Once at Taipei Airport, we encountered the usual queue for customs. After the passport and electronic visa waiver checks, our luggage was retrieved, and the rental company picked us up for the usual formalities when picking up the two rental vans.
Now, it was time for the two groups to split up, since each group had its own itinerary in Taiwan. Since our group was scheduled to start our adventure with spending a few hours in Taichung/CCK on Monday, we drove via a number of preserved F-104s to the city of Taichung for our first night in Taiwan.
On this grey Monday morning (20 October), the spot at the south side of Taichung/CCK was quickly found. It is located in a kind of park. The downside for us photographers is that the planes are still quite high here. According to local enthusiasts, better positions are on the north side of the base. Several F-CK-1 Ching Kuos were flying, a Beech 1900, and a P-3 came to practice a circuit or two. Around 11:00 a.m., the F-CK-1s returned, and we decided to leave for the next base: Hsinchu.
On the way from Taichung to Hsinchu, the rainfall began to rapidly increase. Not exactly the best conditions for many aircraft movements. The spotting location at Hsinchu was quickly found, but by then the wind had picked up considerably. After an hour of waiting and almost constantly checking the weather radar, it looked like Hsinchu would remain closed for the rest of the day. We waited a while, using the time to check out some preserved aircraft in the immediate vicinity, to see if the weather would improve. This turned out to be the exact opposite, so we quickly decided to begin the long drive to Hualien. The weather was appalling during this drive. Heavy rain and very strong gusts of wind. The warnings kept coming through on our phones. After a few hours, we finally reached our hotel in Hualien. Fortunately, the wind had subsided considerably and the rain had lessened.
At a local BBQ restaurant, we enjoyed a delicious meal, cold drinks, and chatted about the long drive.
On Tuesday (21 October), after breakfast and checking out of the hotel, the weather had massively improved, contrary to the forecast. To start the day, we first logged a preserved F-5 near the hotel. While we parked the van, a Seahawk flew over, and the first F-16 take-offs gave us good hope that there would be active flying. So, off we went to the spotting location on the coastline, as the wind was coming from the south.
Many F-16s took off and returned, and we were able to capture them under beautiful conditions. We had heard from a Taiwanese source that Mirage 2000s would also be operating from Hualien. This indeed turned out to be the case. Five of them flew a mission with local F-16s.
After the last F-16 had landed and the sun had practically disappeared behind the mountains, we happily climbed into our van and drove towards Taitung, our destination for the next morning.
Under a bright sun, the spotting location at Taitung was quickly found on Wednesday (22 October). Around 7:30 AM, the first T-BE5As took off. The missions they flew weren’t very long, so the guys were soon back on finals. Four F-16s also flew a few missions. Great! As the morning progressed, the wind picked up considerably, blowing a lot of dust around. With the catch-of-the-day securely in the bag and the sun’s position not improving, we decided to leave and drive to Pingtung via some preserved aircraft, hoping to score a P-3 or E-2.
This wasn’t to be, so around sunset we continued our drive to our hotel in Tainan for the next two nights. Naturally, the group enjoyed a meal and a cold drink in the evening.
This Thursday 23 October, we started well on time @Tainan. Around 8:00 AM, we were already at the approach zone, and the first F-CK-1s were launched. A fair number of them flew, both single-seaters and two-seaters, in various configurations. After the morning wave had all returned safely, we departed for the Gangshan training base via several preserved aircraft. Once we arrived at Gangshan, a wave of T-34s was busy doing circuits. After almost all of them had landed and the lunch break was approaching, so we decided to visit the air force museum. After spending about an hour there, a wave of AT-3s was taking off. So, everyone quickly got back on the bus to head to the landing zone. It took a bit of searching to find a usable position, but we were in-time to capture all eight AT-3s returning. After these almost-wfu’d fuel-to-noise converters, it was the turn of another wave of T-34s. Unfortunately, the wind had shifted, so we had to move to the north side of the air base. We found an acceptable position along a canal to photograph the landing aircraft. After all the T-34s had left the circuit, it was time for the new T-BE5As to do their practice runs at the end of the afternoon. After the last T-BE5A landed in the twilight, we drove back to our hotel in Tainan.
Just like on Thursday, the group started at Tainan on Friday 24 October to add a few more F-CK-1s to the logbooks. On the way to the air base, we suddenly passed a preserved F-86, which was the first to be added to the memory card today. Once again, we weren’t disappointed at Tainan. A fair number of ChingKuo aircraft flew around today, a National Holiday, including a handful of different numbers than yesterday. After the last F-CK-1 landed, we immediately headed to the next base: Chiayi. Once at Chiayi, we caught a few F-16s returning from a mission. After their full stop landings, it became very quiet at the base. After a short wait, we decided to travel via a number of preserved aircraft (F-5, F-100, F-104, etc.) to the last hotel in Taiwan, again in Taichung.
On this last day in Taiwan (Saturday 25 October), after a completely rained out Monday afternoon, the group decided to try our luck once again at Hsinchu and add a few Mirage 2000s to the logbooks. The weather wasn’t great again, with low clouds and strong gusts of wind. However, fortunately, a reasonable number of Mirages flew around on this Saturday.
When it started raining again in the afternoon, and it looked like no more flying would take place, we visited a preserved F-5 on the way back to the car rental in Taoyuan. So our tour of Taiwan concluded with a good number of registrations and photos of all the common types of aircraft of the Republic of China Air Force.
At check-in, we were rebooked as a group on an earlier flight due to possible delays caused by the bad weather. The flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was more or less than routine.
The connecting flight to Amsterdam departed from Hong Kong also on time. Due to air traffic control restrictions, we flew the “long” route to Amsterdam, and after almost 14 hours in the air, everyone was happy to disembark (on Sunday 26 October by now). There was a long wait at the baggage carousel. Our bags were the last to come out of the system. After saying goodbye, the Korea/Taiwan II tour came to an end. Everyone went their separate ways, taking an ‘itch’ or ‘wish’ to visit Taiwan again in the future with them!
