Things you don't see in Taiwan anymore

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
21

Haven’t flown into Chiayi or taitung yet
But have you flown into the old Taichung airport ?
The one where China airlines flew the bought second hand YS11 ?

They bought two and immediately crashed one in Taipei and Tommy was always shit scared to often fly in the remaining one to the old Shuinan airport in taichung !!

My boss was an ex P51 pilot and he loved those things and didn’t trust the jets

I never was a P 51 pilot and I was always shit scared in those turboprops because they not only flew forward they also flew sideways

And the air conditioner never worked until we were in the air

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22

@tommy525: You seem to know a lot about aircraft and the airline business. When you say ‘fly’, do you mean you were flying aircraft here?

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23

I had jobs that required a lot of flying around Taiwan and Asia as a passenger I was not unfortunately a pilot

But I was and I am fascinated by aircraft and I make it a point to try to know quite a bit about them in general

Partially because of all the flying I was doing and my girlfriend and cousin were stewardesses

However I remain to this day scared of flying in general but terrified of flying economy class in particular

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24

Bit OT, but that reminds me of a random expat I met in bar in HK. He was a bit cagey about what he’d done for a living (he was retired) and said he was a ‘taxi driver’. As he got progressively drunker he eventually brought out his iPhone and showed me pictures of him in his flight suit in/on military jets. Turned out he’d spent most of his time in HK flying military top brass around between meetings, or whatever it is they do. You used to meet some right characters in bars back in the day; not so much lately, IMO.

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25

Yes that was the pleasure in those days you never knew who you could run into in those bars in Taipei or Hong Kong

26

The airline with the dragon logo I’m trying to think

think the very very first in Taiwan with a dragon logo was CAT otherwise known as civil air transport and they had a Boeing 720 and that was later replaced by a Boeing 727 which was crashed landing in Taipei and the American flight crew were actually accused of pilot error if I remember

I didn’t fly in them they were before my time

CAT became China airlines

Back in the 70s when I started flying around Taiwan there weren’t that many planes there were planes that were flying international and they were planes that were only flying domestic and the domestic planes were a couple of old 737s a couple were brand new they had a couple very old Caravel and some even older four engine turbo props from England and a couple small planes flew to green island called bn2 and bn3. Britten Norman islander and trilander

One of the caravelles was bombed on its way to penghu

And the other I flew on once
There were so few planes then I knew them by tail number

I have flown in B2603 the FAT 737 that broke apart over Sanyi

Lucky not with me in it

I have flown in China airlines B1870 that crashed on landing in penghu

Again luckily without me in it

And I have been on B28003 the MD 80 that FAT crash landed in kaohsiung

Again lucky I was not on it

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27

I always tried to fly any new models that the Taiwanese airlines bought I was on the very first airbus 320 Trans Asia bought

The first Fokker 100 that Mandarin Airlines bought

The first ATR 42 that Trans Asia bought

The first md80 bought by FAT

The first md90 bought by Great China Airlines

The first BAe 146 bought by Makung Airlines

Never tried the Fokker 50 or the dehavilland dash 8
Or the ATR 72 also flown in Taiwan then

28

Which food place/bars are you referring to that existed back then?

29

Ko Wen-Je is still around :rofl: :rofl:

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30

Fortunate for the rest of us :rofl:

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31

He means the original Grandma Nittis and the Gday Cafe!

amirite?

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32

Correct but not only limited to that. Now you get independent cafes and young people opening restaurants but they aren’t easy going or free spirits. Mostly overpriced coffee and two eyes on social media. Maybe it’s just my impression. I just don’t meet many truly easy going hippy types .

(Gently tries to steer the conversation away from Tommy’s flying obsession)

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33

Do we really want to get him talking about betel nut girls instead?

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34

I remember that place.
It was the first restaurant I ate at the first time I set foot in Taiwan, Lonely Planet guide book in hand.

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35

Those amahs who sell 玉蘭花 when you stop at a traffic light.

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36

Still around in my part of Taipei

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37

Where are you? I haven’t seen them in a few years.

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38

Taoyuan county has them and they are mostly A-beis.

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39

Amahs? in my neck of woods there’s a man with several deformities and apparently mentally challenged doing that.

No, not me.

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40

Time for a career change? :grin:

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