Paul Filmer visits Iruma Air Base and sees a variety of Japanese hardware coming and going.
This day was to be one of the highlights for me on this trip – a visit to Iruma Air Base.
C-130H © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
As a transport base it is home to the various electronic YS-11, the flight-checker fleet, plus most of the C-1 pool.
U-125 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
It was another grey morning, with the overcast stretching as far as the eye could see. Not a promising start!
C-1 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
With the roughly north/south runway orientation it was apparent from the wind that runway 35 would be in use, so we parked in the Toyookadaiichi Hospital car park nearby and walked the short distance to the viewing spot by the fence.
T-400 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
As usual we were the first there and it wasn’t long before locals started to turn up.
U-4 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
This spot is elevated and right next to the loop from the taxiway to the runway, so really nice angles can be had from here.
T-4 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
First out was a C-1 and this was followed by a steady stream of other aircraft departing.
U-125 © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
After a U-4 (Gulfstream IV), a U-125 (BAe-125) and T-4s departed, returned and bashed the circuit; finally a YS-11 appeared.
YS-11EB © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
We shot a pair of YS-11EB aircraft, which both departed, and luckily one came back later and bashed the circuit for over an hour. Bliss!
YS-11EB © Paul Filmer – www.globalaviationresource.com
We had small pockets of sun, but we were mostly in cloud the whole day unfortunately.
Get involved – join the conversation?