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J.A.S.D.F. F4 Phantoms


Latinbear

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The F4 Phantom is my all time favourite aircraft. As the 60th anniversary of its first flight approaches the number of opportunities available to photograph it in the wild without getting arrested are unsurprisingly very limited.

 

Therefore, when the opportunity arose to join a trip to Japan organised by the http://www.centreofaviationphotography.com/ where the focus was going to be on the JASDF's remaining Phantom base at Hyakuri then it was too good to miss. The trip had been organised to coincide with the JASDF triennial review taking place at Hyakuri which would see a flypast by all the aircraft types in the Air Self Defence Force's inventory as well as individual displays. We would also spend two days at Iruma to photograph the C1 "elephant walk" practise for the airshow later in the week which we would also photograph. I will post shots from Iruma in the next couple of days.

 

Unfortunately, the day of the review saw torrential rain and low cloud courtesy of a tropical storm causing the cancellation of the flypast. Instead we drove to the JASDF museum at Hamamatsu. 

 

Although I had been to Japan a few years ago this was my first visit to Hyakuri and its two famed towers. I now understand what all the fuss is about as their location and height (around 15 feet or so) offers superb views of the action as well as a compound to move around in for the price of about £11 per day.

 

Owing to the review a number of Phantoms were deployed to Matsushima and Misawa to create room for the large number of guests and visiting aircraft. Fortunately a good number of these returned the following day and in addition to plenty of flying we were blessed with good weather.

 

There are three squadrons of F4's at Hyakrui: 301 & 302 with the F4EJ Kai and the 501st with the RF4E. My understanding is that the F35 Lightning will begin to replace 302's Phantoms in 2018 and the squadron will then move to Misawa. I don't know what the out of service date for the Phantom is but if anybody does then I would love to know so that I can book another trip before it all ends! 

 

1. The view across the Hyakuri ramp with the seating for the review.

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2. The 501st Squadron ramp

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3. A view from one of the towers. 

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4.

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5. 

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6. 302 squadron

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7.

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8.

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9.

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10. There are two parallel runways at Hyakuri. The rain ruined the review but every cloud has a silver lining in the pools of water that were left behind.

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11.

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12. This aircraft had been on QRA. 

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13. The last chance area. 

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14. QRA sheds in the background. 

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15.

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16. 

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17. 301 Squadron

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18. KC767 visiting

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19. Resident U125A

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20.

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21..

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22..

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23. 

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24. A visitor from China. Look at the hangar doors; every door on the base facing the civilian airport is closed for the duration that this aircraft is on the ground and that is every time it visits.

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25.

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26.

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27. The resident T4s did plenty of flying.

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28.

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29. Popping the chute.

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30. This F2 was visiting for the review. 

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31.

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32. Towards the end of the afternoon. 

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33.

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34.

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35.

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36. Both QRA aircraft were taxied out at 7.30am every morning and engine tested before taxying back to the Q sheds and resuming alert. Hanging around at the rear of the Q sheds is strictly verboten (I don't know what the Japanese equivalent is). We were situated a hundred yards to the side of the sheds close to last chance and after 90 minutes security arrived. They were good natured, asked a few questions and presumably referred the answers upwards following which we were politely asked to move further away which of course we complied with.   

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37. Some locals told us there had been a bird strike on the other runway with a concern about debris hence the dream opportunity of two F4s taking off on the runway immediately in front of us. As you can see the light was beginning to go. Subsequent to this four F4s took off in the pitch black so great memories of glowing reheats but no photos. 

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38.

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39.

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40. The first time I've ever seen an aircraft in a hush house. 

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41. A fitting sky to end three great days at Hyakuri. All flying had ceased for the day. 

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That's the lot. Thanks for looking and hope you enjoyed them.

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MY FAVORITE too Latinbear ...

 

PHANTASTIC  ,PHABULOUS PHANTOMS....:wub::wub:

 

A STUNNING collection of photos and I concur with Alpha Delta 210 that the Dusky shots are SUPERB...

:clap:

You made MY early morning!!!

 

Thank you. I adore PHANTOMS.  Keep it coming ...

 

:hypnotised::worthy:

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3 hours ago, modelling minion said:

A superb set of pictures @Latinbear, thank you so much for sharing them with us.

Good timing too as I came away from Telford with a couple of Hasegawa 1/48 JASDF Phantoms so very useful reference photos.

 

Craig.

 

Very nice of you to say so. Incidentally where did you pick up the Phantoms? I had my eyes out but I clearly didn't look hard enough otherwise I would have dealt!

If you find that you're lacking in any particular reference aspect when you start the build then let me know and I'll look through my images to see what I can find. 

 

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 Incidentally where did you pick up the Phantoms? 

 

Probably from the kit swap, someone had something like 200 in there over the weekend and sold a fair number (who was he ?? - anyone know ??) - I bought 5 of his !!

 

 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Gundylunch said:

 Incidentally where did you pick up the Phantoms? 

 

Probably from the kit swap, someone had something like 200 in there over the weekend and sold a fair number (who was he ?? - anyone know ??) - I bought 5 of his !!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm feeling one of those Homer Simpson "Doh!" moments coming on!

 

I stopped going into the kit swap several years ago and now I'm seriously regretting it! Thanks for letting me know the likely source. 

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Thank you for all the complimentary comments and I'm pleased you're enjoying the shots.

 

I particularly like the variety of colour schemes that adorn the RF's especially as there isn't that many of them and they all belong to one unit. 

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4 hours ago, Robert said:

Great set of photos  The dusk shots are my favs.

 

Robert

Many thanks - I was quite pleased with how they came out. I chopped off the nose from the first one which was very disappointing and therefore for the second ensured that I had zoomed out enough to catch the whole aircraft. Seeing the second one with 'burners on chasing after the first reminds me of the RAF's publicity shots of an F4 climbing out into the murk having been scrambled on an intercept.  

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5 hours ago, Latinbear said:

 

Very nice of you to say so. Incidentally where did you pick up the Phantoms? I had my eyes out but I clearly didn't look hard enough otherwise I would have dealt!

If you find that you're lacking in any particular reference aspect when you start the build then let me know and I'll look through my images to see what I can find. 

 

Yes they were from the kit swap.

As has already been said the one guy had over 100 for sale over both days, I went back in on the Sunday to see how many were left only to find that he had re-stocked! So I was able to get one I didn't get on the Saturday. Apparently this was still only a small portion of his Phantom stock, which includes over 30 Spey engined ones!

Thanks very much for the offer of help when I get around to building one, I may well take you up on that.

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33 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Yes they were from the kit swap.

As has already been said the one guy had over 100 for sale over both days, I went back in on the Sunday to see how many were left only to find that he had re-stocked! So I was able to get one I didn't get on the Saturday. Apparently this was still only a small portion of his Phantom stock, which includes over 30 Spey engined ones!

Thanks very much for the offer of help when I get around to building one, I may well take you up on that.

 

Oh my word, that is double doh! It rather puts my collection of around 50 Fujimi 1/72nd F4s in the shade.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Latinbear said:

 

Oh my word, that is double doh! It rather puts my collection of around 50 Fujimi 1/72nd F4s in the shade.

 

 

I think it puts most of us to shame!

Mind you 50 Fujimi ones is no small number either!

I have a rather ambitious plan to build 3 RF-4EJ's (the proper recce ones not the gun armed RF-4EJ, confusing isn't it!) in each of the camo schemes they have carried since receiving camo paint rather than the original grey + white scheme.

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1 minute ago, modelling minion said:

I think it puts most of us to shame!

Mind you 50 Fujimi ones is no small number either!

I have a rather ambitious plan to build 3 RF-4EJ's (the proper recce ones not the gun armed RF-4EJ, confusing isn't it!) in each of the camo schemes they have carried since receiving camo paint rather than the original grey + white scheme.

 

Those would look spectacular! I suspect like many of us I much prefer the camo varieties to the all grey versions. 

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