South Korea 2023
Although 4Aviation had been to South Korea many times before for the ADEX shows, this was the first time a small group of photographers went to visit operational bases alone. The main goals for this group was to catch the surviving F-4 and F-5 fighters. Although aircraft spotting is not as common as in Europe, this time it seemed similar to spotting in, say, Taiwan. A bit low profile and chances of police visiting to check your ID. Our group did not see any police, other enthusiasts, not from 4Aviation, did have contact, but otherwise without problems.
On Saturday 28 October 2023, a small group gathered at Düsseldorf airport for the long journey to Seoul, South Korea. Qatar Airlines took us via Doha, to Seoul, where we arrived on Sunday afternoon and went through the usual customs formalities and soon we were on our way to the east of the country to visit the first airport on Monday. Traffic around the Seoul metropolis is intense, lots of road users, all main roads are toll roads, speed limits are low (80-100km), frequency of active speed cameras and speed bumps is high and therefore you need to plan reasonable time for your journey.
In Gangneung, we enjoyed our first South Korean meal and went to bed tired and full of anticipation.
On this Monday, 30 October 2023, like almost the rest of the week, we were at the airport around 08:00, waiting to see what would happen. Gangneung has an east-west runway, with the eastern part bordering the beach and inaccessible. With a westerly wind, they then fly inland from the sea side, which is not ideal for photos. In take-off, we managed to take a few reasonable photos, but the best opportunities were at take-off and check-out after landing, the dilemma here being that photographing infrastructure is not really appreciated by the authorities.
On all days, we try to visit two fields and given the time it takes to move, you have to leave after the first mission. Of course, you’d rather stay longer, but as they often fly a good number of aircraft per mission (12-18), and you still want to stay a bit out of sight, that’s not a bad thing.
After a nice W&R location on the coast, with a few fine aircraft, we headed towards Seoul to find a landing spot at Wonju AB. From a distance we could already see the FA-50s turning in and soon we arrived at our spot where we could capture the FA-50s and also KA-1s with a very nice autumn scene (discoloured trees). Several more aircraft took off with which the afternoon was sweet. The first day was a great success. Another 2-hour drive to the hotel near Suwon followed.
As written, the F-4 and F-5 were a big target of this trip, and for the F-4 Phantom it had to happen on this Tuesday, 31 October 2023. Suwon AB is home to South Korea’s last Phantoms, as is a unit of F-5E/Fs. At our spot in the approach you had no view of the airfield, and judging by the rumbling, we had to guess whether we heard an F-4 or F-5 taking off. Several F-5s came in and finally, in the distance, we also saw an F-4E Phantom II cross the field and come in very nicely. Unfortunately, it stayed with this one, but better one bird hand than…. After some time it seemed very quiet at the airfield and we decided to drive the little bit south to Osan AB. Once there, we ran into another acquaintance and pretty soon after, two American A-10Cs came in very nicely. A few others ‘played’ with each other above us and some OS F-16s took off and returned in near darkness. From there we left for our hotel for the night.
On Wednesday 1 November, two airports with almost the same name were scheduled, Cheongju AB and Chungu AB. At the first one we started in the morning and heard a lot of rumbling on the field, F-35As taking off, these returned after 1.5 hours. We had secured a very nice spot in the approach where we could see them coming in nicely, unfortunately the weather let us down a bit, it was very grey. After the first missions, we went a bit north for F-16s around noon. The weather had not changed much and two runways were in use, but we were still able to capture a good batch of Vipers. The next day we would start at Yecheon AB and changed our hotel, which we had initially planned in Daegu.
This Thursday, November 2, began in a very small world, very dense fog. According to the various weather apps, this would last for a while, but at Daegu AB the weather was good so we quickly decided to go there first, a 1.5-hour drive. Just after arrival, we heard several F-15 engines start up and a dozen aircraft left and returned 1.5 hours later. We could stay here for a second mission or return to Yecheon, where the weather had improved by now. We opted for the latter and started another 1.5-hour drive, taking advantage of the 4Aviation flexibility. Arriving near the base, we saw the T-50 variants flying again, here they have the FA-50 and TA-50 variant, the latter has a slanted tailtip and the former is straight. There was plenty of flying and at the end of the afternoon we headed towards Gwangju, our starting point for Friday.
On Friday 3 November, we first drove past the base which is very open, but nowhere nice to stop for long. It was very quiet everywhere with no movement visible to us, thereupon we drove a bit off the field, in a very nice natural area, to wait for the things we hoped would happen, but that turned out to be false hope. Except for an airliner, there was no activity and by 10:00 am we decided to leave in the direction of Sacheon. Sacheon is a training base and home of major Korean aircraft manufacturer KAI. In the distance, we could already see several KT-1s flying, which we had a good opportunity to photograph from a nice spot. When the last of 15 had landed, 15 others were already ready for the next mission, then another 21 and finally another 15. In all, we saw 66 missions flown by 49 different aircraft this Friday afternoon, which recorded from different spots. Meanwhile, we visited the beautiful museum at the base and took a drive close to the KAI compound, where we also saw two of the new KF-21 fighters and were able to photograph one. At 16:00, it was quiet and we headed to the hotel via a few Wrecks & Relics.
For this Saturday, 4 November, we actually had the air show at Sacheon in mind, but that turned out to be just a demo of the Black Knights over a bridge south of town. So we changed our plans and made a ‘tour’ of the southern part of the country in search of operational bases, nice collections and wrecks & relics, where the F-4 and F-5 were once again the group’s favourites. Via Navy helicopter base Jinju, we drove via transport base Busan, Navy base Pohang to the hotel for the night in Dejeon.
Sunday 5 November, the last full day in South Korea, started with a setback. Since recently, you have to register to visit the Air Force Museum, and we had not done so and despite all efforts, we were not allowed in, unfortunately. The museum is located on a military base and for that reason we did not gain access on the spot. So we just visited several other collections and wrecks & relics, as well as the operational base Desidero AAF, another visit to Osan AB and Seoul AB, where there was no flying anywhere, but we were able to see and take note of a good variety of military hardware. We concluded the planes with the impressive museum in the city, where we had to show off our night photography skills.
At the Incheon airport, the car was returned and we checked in for our flight that would take place just after midnight, meanwhile Monday 6 November. Qatar Airways took us on an Airbus A350 to Doha and the final leg on a B787 to Düsseldorf.
We can look back on a successful tour, where we were more cautious than usual, but came home with a nice haul.
