Seoul Gimpo 2009

[redcan]

Hiya,

With the lady finally sleeping some time to make a log now.

Seoul Gimpo, 27th April 2009
Flew in on Incheon with KLM arriving at around 1130 on April 27th. As Incheon isn't that interesting anymore for me I just tried to get the hell out of it a.s.a.p. (logging only JU-1010 of interest, MIAT's sole A310 which I only saw with it's French registration before), so I would be back on time for the 1735 Korean Air flight to Bangkok. Transfer from Incheon to Gimpo is a piece of cake. Just go outside arrivals and you will see signs everywhere for a bus to Gimpo. Busses leave every 5-10 minutes for the best part of the day, and the journey time takes 35 minutes for a total of 6500 Korean Won, which is appr. EUR 3,82. Gimpo is built like a reversed L, with the longer leg being the domestic terminal and the shorter leg the international terminal (allthough I have the feeling they use this terminal mainly for flights to the Island of Jeju). Also at this side of the airport you'll find a ramp where they park bizjets. They do got two runways here both running in the same direction as the domestic terminal is. When arriving at the airport you can exit the bus at both terminals, arriving at the International terminal first, giving you a longer walk, or continuing to the Domestic terminal and walk back a little. Namely, the only spotting can be done from the 'corner in the L'. They do have an observatory overhere which is open daily from 1000 till 1700, being closed on Mondays. Well, now you're probably wondering why I visited the place on MONDAY April 27th. Shoot me, I didn't know this. Fortunately, the building in which the observatory is located is still open so you can take the elevator to the sixth floor allowing you to exit on this floor and park yourselve left of the elevator block. Here you do have a window facing the domestic terminal and both runways, which will give you the opportunity to follow (and read off) all traffic. On the other side of the runways you'll see a lot of choppers (parked tail and nose on, so you won't be able to read them) as well as some general aviation stuff. Probably the view from the observatory is better, but I can't tell you this because this smart-ass visited the place on a Monday. Photography can be done but the windows aren't that clean here and as far as I know they aren't that happy in South Korea with people taking pictures of aircraft. Remember that they are still officially at war with North Korea and for example some of the choppers at the other side of the airport really looked military or Coast Guard to me. For myself, I didn't run into problems. Maybe it was my cute smile, maybe because I don't take pictures, or maybe they don't care at all. I have been in Seoul twice now and I haven't been bothered at all, allthough I do try to keep it low-profile as much as possible. However, some uniforms did see me watching airplanes with binoculars on both visits at Incheon and Gimo and they didn't bother to come over.
For the ones also interested in bizjets you'll have to do the following. When exiting the observatory just give it a sharp break to the left and when you walk in this direction you'll cross an E-Mart Shopping Mall after a couple of hundred meters. Get yourselve to the 3rd floor here and when you look outside you'll see the ramp where they park bizjets. As far as I know you can't get a view on this place from another point so, maybe it's worth to go here. And, to be honest, I was just damn lucky to find this place on the 3rd floor only because of the fact the observatory was closed and I was looking for some food and a drink. That's the only reason I ended up in this mall but hey, sometimes you're just lucky.

Seoul Gimpo on April 27th between 1330-1600
Air Busan
HL7233 735
HL7250 735
HL7510 734

Asiana Airlines
HL7508 734
HL7511 734
HL7513 734
HL7527 734
HL7592 734
HL7594 321
HL7703 321
HL7761 321
HL7762 320

EastarJet
HL7781 736

Jeju Air
HL5255 DH8
HL7779 738
HL7780 738

Jin Air
HL7555 738
HL7558 738
HL7564 738

Korean Air
HL7239 306
HL7241 306
HL7243 306
HL7245 306
HL7295 306
HL7480 74M
HL7556 738
HL7557 738
HL7559 738
HL7567 738
HL7569 739
HL7704 739
HL7705 739
HL7708 739
HL7716 739
HL7719 739
HL7757 738

Others
701 CL604 Korea Coast Guard
HL7748 BD7
HL7759 BBJ
HL7787 BBJ
HL7799 G.550
N388TP BD7

REQ: all white stored 707? parked at the other side of the field

rgds,
Chris

[joost]

REQ: all white stored 707? parked at the other side of the field

while looking at this site, I downloaded B707 file, searched for Seoul and came up with
HL7402 s/n 18160, which is a B720 : http://www.airliners.net/open.file/275937/M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can not be sure off course but Hopefully it is of any help.

Grtz
Joost