Taiwan & South Korea 2023
A group of long-time friends had asked 4Aviation to arrange a tour for them to Taiwan, combined with the ADEX show in South Korea. With their personal preferences in mind a schedule was proposed, and after some tweaking back and forth the group of friends, together with the 4Aviation guide, assembled at Schiphol on Saturday the 7th of October for the long flight to Taipei.
Arrival at Taipei, on 8 October 2023, wasn’t the smoothest ever, with one piece of luggage “missing” (there was actually a sign on the baggage belt identifying the luggage which had not made the journey from Amsterdam to Taipei, for whatever reasons) and having trouble getting in contact with the car rental firm to pick us up from the airport. Also the weather wasn’t at its best either, humid and raining, but that would fortunately not turn out to be a bad omen, in fact in hindsight we would have very little to complain about the weather for the duration of the trip. Anyway, we eventually got into our luxurious black van and headed out to our first destination. Military aircraft were of course the main objective, but there was also some civil interest and for some in the group ATR aircraft were high on their list. So where better to start than at Taipei’s Songshan airport, housing both military and civil. This being a Sunday there was not much hope of anything military flying, but it was expected that some army helicopters would be at the base in preparation for the flypast over the city in a couple of days.
By the time we had found the right spot on top of the vegetable market building at the western side of the approach, the drizzling rain had stopped, the ATR’s were flying, and we had hooked up with the first of many (always enthusiast) local spotters during our trip. Two NASC helicopters (the semi-military rescue services, comparable to for instance the French Sécurité Civile) made life for the not-civil photographers interesting, followed by the surprise arrival of two C-130s. Very nice, first two in the pocket! Having seen enough from this great spot we tried to leave the building, but we not only had some trouble paying the parking fee (shouldn’t have been an issue, but tired and jetlagged…) but also a local guy decided to drop some (luckily empty) plastic crates against the side of our at that time still shiny van, not by intent I’m sure but we only later found out we had a small dent. “Don’t be gentle it’s a rental”, but this on day one is ridiculous.
Photographers who have been to Songshan over the last nine years or so will probably remember the café and platform opposite the military hangars, but unfortunately this has now closed and is in fact completely gone, making life for the military spotters a little bit more difficult. Our new Taiwanese friend had informed us about a temple up in the hills where a good view of the whole airfield could be had, so we decided to give that a try. Once there we found a nice temple complex worth the visit, but the distance to the airfield was too great to read anything off. So we headed back down and found two spots where we could peek over the wall without too much effort, reading off a whole bunch of numbers, including those of the promised army Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters. For photos these spots are less than ideal, nevertheless some were made anyway.
Taiwan is a fantastic country for preserved aircraft, one could easily spend the whole trip just hunting these down. We on the other hand made it a habit to “just” do a couple of them every day, and on this first day we started well with a total of six F-5’s and a F-86. Finding the latter one wasn’t a problem, but finding a place to park our car was. In the end we could park briefly on a private car park belonging to the American Club, the guards were either impressed by our big beautiful black van, or thought we were Americans anyway. At one of the F-5 locations one of our group decided involuntarily to have a rapid lie down on a slippery sidewalk, resulting in muddy trousers, some explicit language and panicking locals.
The long day ended in our hotel in Taichung, where the warm buffet was excellent and the DIY beer tap was included in the price.
Monday 9 October, one definite goal for Taiwan first-timers is to see the indigenous F-CK-1 “Ching Kuo” in action. Looking like an illegitimate love child as a result of an one night stand between an F-16 father and an F-18 mother, Taiwan is the only country where this fighter jet can be seen. Today we would try our luck at Ching-Chuan-Kang air force base, better known as “CCK”, one of two air bases where this type is based. One never knows if the RoCAF (Republic of China Air Force) starts flying early or not, so we were in time near the airbase… but not much seemed to be happening yet. Which was not a problem at all because there is more than enough opportunity in the vicinity for preserved aircraft, mostly F-104s. This we did, all the time keeping an ear out for fighter jet noise. CCK is not the most “open” air base of them all, but there are a couple of good spots a bit away from the air base in the approaches. By the time we got to one of these spots the flying had actually (audibly) started and it was now just a matter of waiting for the jets to return. In the mean time we were treated with yet another NASC helicopter and a F-16 making some approaches. Eight F-CK-1s eventually returned, not a shocking number but not bad either. There was good hope that the afternoon flying would yield more… but there wasn’t. After a couple of civilian aircraft (more ATR’s for the fan boys) and some waiting in vain (the local spotters had departed, never a good sign…) we decided to call it a day. There would be more opportunities for Ching Kuo’s. On our way to the hotel in Hsinchu we stopped at an amusement park with adjacent temple complex, guarded by two F-104s.
Today, Tuesday 10 October, was “National Day”, a public holiday in Taiwan which would also see an air parade over the capital Taipei. We had already seen the participating army helicopters at Songshan, but the jets would be flying from Hsinchu so that’s where we started our day. For this year’s parade no fighter jets were to join in the parade, “just” trainer jets. With the new AT-5 “Brave Eagle” trainer for the first time in use in fair numbers this year it was obvious they would participate, together with the venerable AT-3. No Mirage 2000s based at Hsinchu were to fly in the parade, but we had good hope they would be flying anyway.
Word had gotten out to the public about the air parade, and the usual spot in the approach was already busy with people when we arrived. But we managed to park our car (we later had to relocate it after the police arrived) and found a good spot to sit before it really got crowded. Our hopes for Mirages paid off soon after when the first couple taxied out and took off, to return an hour later in beautiful light. The weather turned out to be better than expected: it was a bit windy with fast moving clouds, but enough sunshine each and every time it mattered! The Mirages flew “business as usual” throughout the morning, on operational missions guarding the island from main land incursions on this important day. The participants in the air parade didn’t all fly together apparently. First eight AT-5s taxied out and took off, but only after they had landed again did a similar number of AT-3s come out and play. With the last one back on the ground again the crowd disappeared to enjoy their holiday at another place, and we were left to decide what to do next. We had a long drive ahead of us and decided not to stick around at Hsinchu but drive to the other side of the island, to our hotel in Hualien. The weather turned sour not long after we got under way, with low clouds and a constant drizzle. This did however not affect us very much as we were driving anyway, and in hindsight would turn out to be the last really bad weather. A couple of stops for an F-5, an F-104 and fuel made the journey feel less long. That night we ate in a restaurant where, again, a waiter had to go out and buy beer at the nearest 7-Eleven shop for us. The group of friends had made it clear early on that “beer o’clock” was to be a not to be skipped part of the whole experience, and fortunately the locals would do their best to accommodate this each and every time.
Wednesday 11 October, showed that Hualien is another air base with good photo opportunities, and besides F-16s home to one of the more rare RoCAF types: the RF-5E. Timing is everything of course, and we weren’t more than 15 minutes at our spot in the approach when not one but two RF-5s returned from their early morning (and only) mission! From this location the air base is not visible but we could hear a couple of F-16 groups take off as well, which duly returned as the morning progressed. In between we were entertained with a C-130, a NASC Blackhawk and a navy Seahawk. The latter was all grey and appeared to bear no registration number, it was only when scrutinizing the photos on a laptop later that night that a number could be discerned…barely! After the morning flying had finished we first did some shopping and then relocated for the afternoon flying. The top floor of the Carrefour car park is both renowned and notorious, for on one hand it offers fantastic photo opportunities on the runway threshold and adjacent ramp, but also is known for being visited by the police and the unfortunates being sent off. We did not see any police that afternoon, but unfortunately we had also picked an apparent non-flying afternoon, for whatever reasons. Only the C-130 which had come in (twice) that morning departed, but no F-16s would move. Maybe they were planning on flying after dark, but we wouldn’t wait for that possibility. Instead we called it a day, managed to get our car out of the car park (it was a tight fit!) and headed to our next hotel in Taitung.
The Taitung hotel is well known for its spotters-friendly attitude, some rooms with a view of the air base and last-but-not-least a roof terrace with the best photo-opportunities… ever! But that would have to wait until tomorrow, that evening only finding a place to eat was still in order. The small seaside town where we were staying didn’t seem to offer much places to eat, but in the end we did find a fish restaurant near the harbour. The incandescent lighting and the whole atmosphere told us this was a local joint not often frequented by tourists, and getting our wishes across might become problematic. This turned out not to be so, the lady was very helpful, we selected some fish and prawns and told her to “just fill the table”. Which she did, magnificently. And there was plenty of beer too. The dishes were fresh and very tasteful, the only moment with a few raised eyebrows was when the king prawns were cooked on our table…alive. Part of the experience, I guess. Although the whole place looked like it came right out of a history book, we could pay by credit card. Despite the jumping prawns in their death throws, this was definitely the best meal of the whole trip.
The early bird gets the worms, so goes the saying. The clock hadn´t even reached seven on Thursday 12 October, when the first F-5s taxied out and took off, and some of us were already present at the Taitung hotel’s roof terrace on this beautiful sunny morning. We were in for a treat! We hardly had time to enjoy our breakfast which was brought up to the roof by the nice hotel lady. We found ourselves lucky that there were still plenty F-5s flying for us to enjoy, with their retirement looming on the horizon (and a fact by the time I am writing this…). Even one specimen of each “special colour” F-5 flew: in tiger markings, silver, and brown/green camouflage. Besides these, the AT-5 Brave Eagle may be new and deliveries to Taitung have only recently started in earnest, but they are in full use and flew just as well as the F-5s, so we had a nice mix. An F-16 two-seater from Hualien entertained us even more with a couple of low approaches, but unfortunately this was one of the birds we had already seen and photographed the day before. To top the morning off two of the four F-CK-1s on Quick Reaction Alert deployment here flew a training mission. Definitely not a real alert take-off because there was no alert sounding and the ground crew took their time preparing the jets for take-off.
When the morning flying had finished it was time to leave this brilliant spot and give our cameras some time to cool down. By now the clouds had rolled in and it looked like there even was rain on the horizon, what a difference with the morning weather. We also needed to drive to the other side of the island again. After lunch and some shopping in Taitung city, some drops of rain, a short visit to the civil airport and yet another F-104 guarding a cemetery, the drive to Kaoshiung city started. This was totally uneventful until the navigation started to act up and then quit altogether, right in time on a busy motorway intersection. So we drove blind for a while until we could get off the motorway and sort the navigation out. A loose power cable proved to be the culprit and soon we were back on our way to the hotel. Which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment luxury-wise, but I guess you can’t win them all. But at least the missing piece of luggage had finally caught up with its owner! Dinner was “interesting” too. We thought we had found a nice chic place to eat, with the lady promising to fill the table with nice dishes and the cook running out to get our beers from the nearest convenience store. The place was soon reclassified as a “boudoir” and the food was getting stranger and stranger with each serving. We’re quite sure one wasn’t actually a cooked slug, but we can’t be sure. The food was certainly to one’s tastes… but not ours. Of course it wasn’t cheap either, adding to the overall disappointment. Ah well…
Yes, Friday the 13th. We had a lot on our schedule today and it remained to be seen if we would make it. But first things first. We did our morning shopping and breakfast before we headed off to our first destination: Gangshan. We were hoping the based T-34s and AT-3s would be flying in numbers this morning, and we weren’t let down. With the right spot in the approach quickly found the first wave of AT-3s was already airborne and soon returned. The sun was out too and the air reasonably crispy, all in all a good mix for decent photography! As usual at Gangshan, once the AT-3s had finished their flying, the T-34 Mentors started. And once these had landed, it was over to the AT-3s again, and so on. With the second AT-3 wave under our belts we decided it was time to leave. Not only because of our tight schedule but it also seemed to be the healthier option as some locals had started spraying chemicals on the fields right in front of us, and it started to smell really funny. By the time you can smell the toxics being sprayed it is definitely time to move! Off to the museum.
The group had made it clear that the large air force museum would be one of the highlights of their trip, and it gladly didn’t disappoint despite the small detail of not being allowed to enter the “storage” site. Here’s the current situation, bear with me if you please: The air force museum used to be located on the eastern side of Gangshan air base, with most aircraft outside on a large circular platform. However a new (also round) building was erected elsewhere on base, and most aircraft moved there to be placed inside. There also used to be a museum near Taipei airport which closed in 2014 due to the airport expansion, and after being stored on the nearby former naval base for some time, most of that collection moved to Gangshan to be placed on the circular platform that used to house the air force museum. This is now considered as the museum “storage”. One can still drive up to this storage area, just outside one of the main gates to the air base, with all aircraft in plain view, but access was not granted despite several attempts asking at the gate. Slightly disappointed we moved ourselves to the “new” museum, which is a much more welcoming and pleasant affair. It’s a large collection and not every exhibit is perfectly photographable, but you can also go one floor up for more pictures. We hoped to find the museum director’s office or anything of that kind, to ask for permission to get nearer to the stored aircraft, but no such office or any official could be found. In the end we just tried ourselves again to gain access, again without success, but did manage to take some photos from the outside.
Despite already well in the afternoon we still had hopes to have success at the next target of this busy day: Tainan airbase where the nation’s other half of its F-CK-1s are based. We found the right spot in the approach in no time, conveniently marked by the presence of a local spotter, and one again our timing proved to be immaculate with the first Ching Kuo’s of the afternoon mission returning. The sky was blue, the air was clear and the sun low enough on the horizon for a great set of photos of the returning jets! In the mean time we got another friendly lecture on the state of the RoCAF by another new friend the local spotter, and of course the almost obligatory group photo. The guy was even so kind to send the group photo that night to 4Aviation, so 4A HQ had unexpected proof of our wellbeing!
Being somewhat older spotters who never had lost the appetite for big piston engined aircraft, the couple of C-119 Boxcars preserved in this part of the country were also high on their list. To drive to one of these as the last deed of the day was one option, but there would be more C-119s the coming two days and as an alternative there were two S-2 Trackers to be seen. This was deemed as the smarter option and after the last F-CK-1 had returned and we said goodbye to our new friend, we went Tracker hunting. The first was preserved at a school, together with an F-5 and an UH-1. The lady at the gate knew perfectly what we were up to and invited us in to take all the photos we desired. Of the airplanes, of course. The second Tracker was found not too far away from here, preserved together with a museum destroyer boat. Next was a turboprop derivative of the T-28, hiding in the bushes at the back of a religious temple. You really need to know that it is there and not give up too easily to find its hiding place. With that one under our belts too we started a journey over the smallest of roads to a small park in a small village where a recently retired S-70 helicopter was supposed to be preserved. And it was, in splendid condition and un-vandalized. If only this would be possible at home… With last light upon us we ticked this one off as well and headed to our hotel. Dinner that night was definitely better than the night before! But once again the waiter had to get out to find us some beers, and apparently it was impossible to order anything else than a complete menu. But it tasted good and our initial doubts (after our experience the day before) were soon proven wrong.
Saturday 14 October, ahhh weekend, the spotters’ rest days. But not so in Taiwan, Saturday is just another flying day for the RoCAF (usually). So it was no surprise when we departed our hotel that we could hear F-16 jet noise coming from nearby Chiayi airbase, which fortunately for us was also our destination to start the day. We parked our car and walked into the approach, only to be greeted by the first F-16s returning from apparently a very early morning mission. There was also a local spotter(?) there when we arrived, but oddly enough he quickly packed his belongings into his car and drove off. Huh? Did he know something we didn’t, or did he expect trouble with our presence? We’ll never know. The flying continued and there indeed was some “trouble” in the form of two police officers on moped checking who those weird men were hiding in the bushes (against the unrelenting sun), but they turned out to be very friendly and we had no trouble at all. We were even allowed to continue photographing the incoming aircraft whilst being “interrogated” and could stay where we were. Besides the police and F-16s we were also entertained by C-130s, Blackhawks and a Cougar helicopter. Not bad for a Saturday morning! But it was hot that day…and humid, and a relief to be back in the car with the air-conditioner in full blow!
The afternoon was spent with preserved airplanes, including two of the much wanted C-119s. For our last dinner in Taiwan we eventually found a cheap and simple place to eat noodles, the only unusual part however was that this time there was no waiter to go out and get use some beers, we had to do that ourselves.
Sunday 15 October, travel day. But first go get the last of the prospected C-119s and some more preserved jets. That even the Sunday is not sacred for the RoCAF was proven by a couple of Mirage 2000s high up in the air, so Hsinchu could have been an option this morning. We however didn’t go there but spent a couple of hours at Songshan again, just as we did exactly a week before. The RoCAF at Songshan didn’t share Hsinchu’s Sunday flying vibe however (nor did we expect otherwise) and it was civilian aircraft only. There was however enough parked outside with the air force, with the hangars being open, so numbers-wise it was still rewarding.
It was time to say goodbye to Taiwan. We returned our car (more a dirty grey now instead of black) and in return the car rental company dropped us off at the airport and we checked in for our evening flight to Seoul.
From this Monday 16 October onwards, the rest of our trip would be all about South Korea and the ADEX show at Seongnam (Seoul air base). But before we could get there we first had to take a bus from the airport hotel to the terminal where the car rental company was located. All went well for a while until the rather confused lady there decided that the international driver license we presented to her was not valid because it wasn’t an American one. After some fifteen quite frustrating minutes luckily her supervisor showed up, the lady was confined back to her seat in the back, and he had us on the road in our shiny Kia, in no time. Pfew, talk about a rough start. The Seoul traffic wasn’t much fun either, Taipei is crowded too but at least most people there are on mopeds and not in their cars crowding the roads. Nevertheless we finally arrived at Seongnam to be greeted with a bit of organised chaos. Today was the press day and we were suitable accredited, we just needed to get on base first. We were supposed to meet up first with another 4Aviation group which were just starting their tour, but the numerous men in black directing the traffic moved us elsewhere and before we knew it we were parked near a secondary entrance and allowed on base (still without any form of checked id). Maybe we should collect our media passes first… but the media centre was at first not easy to find and at the far end of where we entered, of course. As usual our timing was great, we hadn’t been on base for more than five minutes when the loudspeakers announced “flypast coming from your left”! We quickly got our cameras out and waited for things to come.
That flypast was… massive. Over 60 jets in several formations paraded in front of us, every time one of these came into sight there was a sense of “oh wow look at that!”. Not only F-15s, F-16s, F-35s and the locally produced FA-50s and TA-50s, but also F-4s and F-5s! These two types are about to go extinct in the RoKAF (Republic of Korea Air Force) so we were very pleased to still see some of them flying. The only down side to the whole parade were the smoke cannisters fitted to some of the jets, leaving thick trails of yellow and red smoke which obscured many planes following behind. But we shouldn’t complain too much… and we didn’t. With that under our belts we finally made it to the media centre, where not much was going on apart from a table full of media passes still to be collected, and you could just grab yours (still without showing any id). We agreed on a time for everybody to be back at our car and went our own ways.
With no public on base and the final preparations for tomorrow’s grand opening in full swing, we had a pleasant and uncomplicated afternoon. The loudspeakers did at one point announce that the media event had finished and everybody was requested to leave… but nobody did, and nobody cared. Besides the large static display there was also local flying going on, and although officially you are not to take photos of the military airplanes landing and taking off… everybody did, and again nobody really cared. It’s just a big pity that the sun is right in your face in the afternoon… and we had more than enough of that! As if the sneaky air force BAe-125s and Falcon 2000s weren’t enough, when the HS-748 (usually called Andovers by us military types) fancied a local flight with some missed approached to finish things off, the older spotters in our group (as in: everybody) really became exited.
It had been a great day, time to conquer Seoul traffic again and find our hotel for the next three nights. This was a pleasant affair in the middle of an “old town like” area, with picturesque buildings and plenty of nearby restaurants. Because the two 4Aviation groups had decided to have dinner together (of course) it was a bit of a challenge to find a dinner table large enough for everyone to fit, or so we thought, because we soon found ourselves in a small private room just big enough for all of us to fit in. With the other group being all British we had expected them to drink lots of beer… but they didn’t and the Dutch once again had to keep the beer banner flying.
Tuesday 17 October 2023, grand opening of ADEX 2023. If you had thought the number of men in black at the entrances to the event had been plentiful the day before, you should have seen them today. Apparently some big shots were to make an appearance today, maybe even the president. Anyway, we had been warned before that (curiously, really) no media was allowed on base in the morning for the opening ceremony, and that was indeed so and not negotiable. Not a big deal for us, we planned to view the flypast today from a different angle anyway. We found a good spot on a hill near the approach, after we had managed to park our car on a small dirt road which involved removing some heavy building equipment, aided by a couple of military guys. A local farmer wasn´t too happy with our presence on his piece of land and we were asked to move a bit back by two well-dressed local guys who so much didn´t look like they were there to watch the aircraft, if you get what I mean. Today we were in time for the helicopter formations as well, a full display by the Black Eagles team, and finally the complete flypast, even bigger than the day before. From this angle too the smoke was a nuisance, unfortunately. To our surprise the flypast was finished by a B-52 doing a fly over. With this done our group split up, a couple of guys wanted to go on the airbase again, and the rest of us decided we would try our luck at the opposite approach end. Getting our car out of the crowded dirt road was a real challenge, the only option was to reverse all the way down to the main road with often only centimetres to spare for manoeuvring.
The guys on base had a relaxing time, and so did the other half of the group, but unfortunately there was very little flying going on for most of the afternoon. The VIP helicopters which did fly approached from all kinds of impossible angles, and the fixed wing VIP fleet decided to do a run down the runway only without taking off, for whatever reason we still don’t understand. Instead the group amused themselves with watching big kamikaze spiders and other wildlife. At one point an nice lady passed by and promptly offered a bag of sweet snacks, which we gladly accepted. Fearing this was becoming something of a wasted afternoon, all smiles returned when first a C-130 returned, followed by a tatty looking camouflaged Casa 235 in beautiful light.
We had agreed to pick up our fellow group members at the same car park as yesterday again, but it proved to be a real hassle to get there. Big negotiation skills were required at every group of men in black, but actually driving on base to get to the car park proved to be a gate too far and non-negotiable. But, again, timing was immaculate and just as we had to start thinking about plan B our three intrepid group members came walking through the gate, they had figured out themselves that walking the first bit was maybe the smarter option!
The British didn’t drink beer, and had other plans for the night apparently, so our group went out for dinner on our own, where we had good food and beer from… the Czech Republic.
A couple of options were on the table today, Wednesday 18 October, although it was quickly decided there was little point in going back to ADEX today. There were rumours that Suwon, not all that far from our hotel, might be active with F-4s and F-5s. The British group decided to give that a go after doing the War Memorial Museum, but we decided to do the maximum number of wrecks & relics today, plus a bit of civil spotting at Gimpo. In hindsight this was the right call, there would be no flying at Suwon that afternoon, unfortunate for our British colleagues. We traversed Seoul city for a couple of fine locations, in this order: Boramae park, the National Aviation Museum at Gimpo including its nice viewing roof terrace, a couple of aircraft preserved outside at the Korea Aerospace University, and of course the big War Memorial of Korea Museum. To finish off we stopped at a C-47 in a park.
All good things… Nothing worthwhile to say about our flight back to Amsterdam, besides that it took 13 hours and 15 minutes from take-off until landing, which for some if not all of us was a record. Thanks Vladimir, you owe me a couple of hours… With another tour finished, we can undoubtedly say we had a fantastic 10 days in two great countries. The group is already planning future endeavours, so watch out for more!
