In the morning of Saturday 2 November 2019, a small group gathered at Schiphol for the one-week trip to Taiwan. One participant had just arrived from London and another joined in Taipei from Munich.
Due to a problem with the APU of the Airbus A350 from China Airlines, we unfortunately left a good hour late. Because of this we arrived in Taipei an hour later on Sunday 3 November 2019 and despite the fact that customs formalities, picking up the luggage and the rented van went very quickly, we arrived too late at the nearby fighter field, Hsinchu. Here we could just capture the last two Mirage 2000 of this Sunday mission (!). Otherwise it would have been a lot more. However, later in the week we still had a chance.
After we heard from local spotters that the activities were done for the day, we drove to the second airport in Taipei, Songshan. This is the ‘domestic’ airport of the city and furthermore the home of the Special Transport Squadron that operates the Beech 1900 and Fokker 50. They didn’t fly on this Sunday, but the hangar doors were wide open and from the spotterscafe we had a very nice view. Here we enjoyed the view while enjoying a snack and a drink. Then we drove by a trio of preserved F-5s and stopped at a beautiful F-86 Sabre. Then a three-hour ride to Hualien followed.
