Day 9, Nyutabaru - Kanoya, 07/11
After the disappointment the day before it
seemed that we were lucky once more. When we left the hotel
the sky was clear and we headed towards the airfield. From
narratives we knew about a spot that is only suitable in the
morning for 1 ½ hours, but excellent for head-on photos
of the jets, that turn afterwards nicely into the sun.
  Already
at 7am we did found it and the sun was rising behind some
trees. The first rays of warming sunlight felt really good,
and even better was still the crowded ramp with the F-4 and
F-15 squadrons at Nyutabaru, among them the famous
coloured Aggressors of the "Hiko Kyodotai". It did
not take very long until the security appeared from the inside
and the outside and the usual procedure started. Of course
only the three of us were controlled, the other Japanese spotters
were standing unaffected besides us…
Nyutabaru - The morning spot
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 The
first aircraft of the day was a T-4 which was very useful
because we could adjust our position at the fence afterwards
and were well prepared for the 3 Phantoms that followed shortly
afterwards.  "Only"
4 Aggressors came afterwards and while they were on the last
chance the first F-4 already returned and performed several
touch-and-goes. It was quite busy, but the sun was already
turning around and we went back to the car to be on our next
spot for the return of the F-15s. They returned 45 minutes
later, unfortunately with no go-arounds. During the morning
several more normal F-15s and F-4 flew their missions and
it became hazy. We discussed with some Japanese spotters and
they were not sure if the Aggressors would fly once more in
the afternoon because there was also night-flying scheduled
for that day. Therefore we decided spontaneously to go to
Kanoya at midday.
Eagle Aggressors and Phantoms
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  The
few kilometres to Kanoya took us 2 ½ hours due
to a lot of traffic lights and the country roads. Shortly
before arriving at our southernmost destination I had a look
at the GPS is it indicated an air-line distance to Misawa,
our northest point, of 1400km. That's Munich-Madrid, a journey
through Europe.
At first we did visit the Navy museum there which includes
very interesting exhibits: inside the Museum there is among
interesting historic facts that are solely explained in Japanese,
a Zero and the main exhibit at the outside is the huge Kawanishi
H8K "Emily" flying boat. We also saw another Shin
Meiwa there, Kawasaki license-built P-2J and P2V-7 Neptunes,
a C-46 and a Tracker amongst others.
Kanoya - Navy Museum
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 Then
we hurried up to have a look at the JMSDF base nearby as we
already saw helicopters circling above our heads during the
stay in the museum. When we arrived
there we say that a P-3 Orion was just returning home from
its mission and was cleaned in a huge washer. We hasted to
get out the car and take some photos of it. Standing at the
fence it did not take even a minute until our observers arrived.
These were the fastest ones during our whole trip for sure.
The check and the following conversation were relaxed and
the next 45 minutes the most dense during the whole trip:
as it was late in the afternoon all the based aircraft were
returning on after another: Orions, SH-60s, OH-6s and we even
saw a Coast Guard YS-11. And everything in perfect light,
until the sun disappeared.
Kanoya Airbase
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 It was
then time for us to get back as well and really exhausted
we returned to Nyutabaru.
With the colourful F-15, the F-4s and all the Navy aircraft
this has been the most multifaceted day of our trip. And even
though Patrick did not feel very well he was happy about the
results as well. For supper we had a hot soup once again and
decided to stay in the same hotel as the night before. Unfortunately
we arrived there already at 9, but could not enter the room
before 10pm. So we still had to wait for one hour in the cold
car. While waiting I even fell asleep after that perfect day!
-> Nyutabaru
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