Da Nang (VVDN/DAD) 2013 MIL

[Le Addeur noir]

Saturday 26th January visitor,

05-5149 HH or/y C-17A 535 AS HI ANG REPAT 28 from and to VTBU

[Le Addeur noir]

Saturday 02nd March visitor,

05-5149 HH or/y C-17A 535 As HI ANG REPAT 35 from and to VTBU

[Le Addeur noir]

Sunday 14th April visitor,

05-5153 HH or/y C-17A 535 AS,HI ANG REPAT 40 from and to VTBU

[Le Addeur noir]

Friday 10th May visitor,

05-5147 HH or/y C-17A 535 AS HI ANG REPAT 43 from and to VTBU

[Trabanti]

Da Nang Int'l, May 9 2013, Mil

Flying activities:

Ka27:
7520
7523

Mi8:
7831 (green, not 100% sure about the '8', could be a 5..)

Mi17:
8411 (blue/white)

An26:
267

I spent a few days in Da Nang and went to a cafe with spotters terrace on the morning of the 9th for a few hours. This cafe ("Stop Here") is in the approach of Rwy 35R and (local) spotters are regular guests here. Drinks are cheap and cold (if you dare to use the icecubes), waitresses friendly and there is plenty of shade. Be alert, the view towards the approach is limited (trees) so react quickly. However, if you choose (your table) wisely you can take a spot where both the runway (lights) as well as one of the poled approach lights are visible. During my stay, they would only switch them on if something was coming (except for the choppers; they use the taxiway, but you'll hear them). Photography is excellent, although the helicopters are a little tricky (they tend to use the taxi-track as runway and fly almost straight over you unless you can catch them in a turn). Best time is early morning. After 1 PM the sun really is in your face.

Currently Hue airport is closed for expansion and Da Nang's rwy 35L is closed for maintenance so this is the only runway in use in the area at the moment; it can get quite busy here (civvies I mean). Nice bonus: All landings are from the south, always. Take-offs however are both from 35L and 17L. Although the Kamovs were a real treat, I came for the Fishbeds of course. During my few days here however they had nightflying, of course.. Before dusk a dual would go up and the rest of the pitch-black night was spent listening in frustration to the regular sound of afterburners, which could even be heard over the noise of the nightclub I was in, a few miles away! Once a blue dual made a low and fast pass over my hotel late in the afternoon, it remained unidentified. Upon landing at Da Nang on the 8th I noted 4 MiG21's (at least 2 duals) in 2 different colours (babyblue and silver) with canopies open on the platform in the far south-east corner.

More Su27s and possibly Su30s seem to be on their way to replace (part of) the Su22 and MiG21 fleet, so hopefully I'm not too late to get another chance in a few years.

Hope this helps anyone traveling to this beautiful country. Go get them!

Bart

[Le Addeur noir]

Saturday 22nd June visitor,

05-5152 HH or/y C-17A 535 AS HI ANG REPAT47 from and to VTBU

[Le Addeur noir]

Wednesday 04th September visitor,

10-0215 y C-17A 437 AW REPAT54 from and to VTBU.This flight was scheduled as Hawaii ANG C-17A 05-5150,but an airframe change was performed assumably due to unserviceability of 05-5150 at U-Tapao.