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With the hotel being close to the base there was no need for an
early start this day. On the way to the base we passed one of
the many temples in the country. As there were no aircraft
taking off yet we decided to give it a visit to the amazement
off the locals, seeing four men with cameras around this small
temple. |
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Then it was on to the base
home of the 455th Tactical Fighter Wing, with four squadrons of Lockheed Martin
F-16A/B. On arrival a spot was easily found on the first two choppers an S-70
and UH-60 where in the pocket.
Soon the first F-16's where taking off and before
long we had our first F-16's in the landing. This was also our first encounter
with the security forces checking on us in a very friendly way. At the end of
the morning mission the move was made to Tainan. |
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On the way to
Tainan we visited Gueiren home of the Army Aviation Training
Centre with a variety of different choppers in use. Gueiren is a
very accessible base from different sides, as the army is not
keen on photographers we decided not to push our luck and went
on to Tainan after a short hit and run for some AH-1W and CH-47
choppers. |
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Tainan AFB is the home of the 443rd Tactical Fighter Wing, with
three squadrons of AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo. With the winds coming
mostly from a northern direction on the Westside off Taiwan a
place was found on the Southside of the base.
The base has two
parallel runways and we were told that aircraft could switch
between them, during our two visits we saw the Ching-kuo using
the left runway and the civilian traffic the right runway.
During our visit we saw Ching-kuo fighters from the different
squadrons as well as the different types they have. |
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On our wish list there where the F-5's and with the weather forecast giving
only nice weather for Taitung the next day we decided to make the transit to
the other side of the island.
The transit took not as long as in previous
reports manly due to road improvements made during the last years , and it
will be even less ones the main tunnels is opened. |
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On the way to Taitung we visited Pingtung as we saw a E-2 Hawkeye flying around
on the way there , somehow we made a mistake with the navigation and ended
up at the wrong end of the runway as a P-3 Orion came in to land the E-2
Hawkeye was not seen either. |
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