The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a very popular aircraft in our hobby and especially now that it is becoming very scarce, we all want to sniff one last piece of Phantom.
In Europe we are quite spoiled with the last two local users, Greece and Turkey, who are very proud of their aircraft and it is possible to view them regularly in their home country or occasionally at an air show. How different it is with the last two other users, Iran and South Korea.
You can therefore understand our ecstasy when we received a message at the end of February that a good South Korean friend of 4Aviation, after much insistence, had received a positive response from the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) to his request to attend the farewell of the last F-4Es in South Korea with a group of photographers! We were very skeptical and could not believe it at first.
On Thursday 13 June there would be a spotters day, where we were welcome, and on Friday 14 June the official farewell would take place. Immediately with the reservation that in case of bad weather the whole thing would be postponed for a few days. That is nice planning! With the greatest possible reservation we informed our travelers, of whom quite a few immediately said ‘yes I do’, while a lot of details were not yet known.
A month later, at the end of March, it became clear that the official dates had been changed to Friday 7 June, so a week earlier, there was no more talk of a spotters day! Still with the reservation that it could be postponed due to bad weather. 4Aviaton then made the decision to organize a trip and inform all interested parties of our plans. As always, we share the information we have so that everyone can make a decision for themselves with all the reservations that entails. No fewer than 26 enthusiasts from all over the world register to go with us. A hotel close to the Suwon AB base was booked and for flexibility we opted for several minibuses instead of a coach. Due to our own scepticism we waited a while before booking the tickets for the airlines.
However, mid-April it was time to book them because otherwise the prices would have gone too far. We had arranged everything and that always gives a bit of peace of mind.
Early May we received a friendly request from our friends from COAP if they could travel with us, 4Aviation has more experience with trips to Asia and if you can help each other you should do so! Around the same time we also received a very cool, but at the same time very annoying message, we would also be welcome at Suwon AB on Wednesday 5 June for the dress rehearsal. Nice, because two days at an airport gives extra opportunities, but annoying because we had already arranged all the logistics and paid for most of them.
We contacted the airline Lufthansa, which we had chosen for this trip, what the costs would be to adjust the flights and that was still somewhat reasonable. Because we try to do everything as openly and honestly as possible, we presented the new situation to the participants and asked them what their intentions were. Everyone wanted to pay a little extra to extend the trip. The hotel was informed, no problem, the rental cars were adjusted, no problem and then Lufthansa was called to adjust the tickets. The tickets from, literally, the day before were no longer available and adjusting them would now cost about Euro 7000 per person instead of Euro 250! We can say that this is still a bit above our margin and disappointed we ended the conversation. What to do now? The 4Aviation management went looking and in good consultation. We had found other flight tickets, so that we could still go on the new dates. The participants paid the agreed amount, we got some money back for the Lufthansa tickets and 4Aviation had donated an amount to make this unique trip possible.
Earlier in the month, of course, all passports and forms had been sent to the ROKAF and we received positive news that everyone could come. In the meantime, serious time was also spent on the free time that we would have around both days. We did not want to go operational spotting/hanging around the fence with a large group, but there are enough unique things that we could visit. Think of the border with North Korea, the great city of Seoul and the many dozens of museums and wrecks & relics that you can find throughout the country. A plan was also made for that and various options were presented to the participants.
Because the participants came from all over the world, also arriving on different days and mostly arranging their own flights, a shuttle schedule was also drawn up for picking up the five rental cars and the 35 participants of the trip. We have had simpler trips.
But in the meantime it was time to travel to South Korea and fully enjoy the things that would happen.
Both tour guides had already arrived in Seoul on Sunday 2 June to check whether all preparations for such a large group were in place in South Korea. There we encountered a few more unforeseen issues that could be resolved on the spot. Among other things, discussions at the car rental company about the international driving license, which according to the website of the rental company was not necessary, but was still required on the spot. On Monday 3 June, a few airports around Seoul were visited to see if they were options for future trips. The first participants also arrived on this day.
