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Just gonna have to wait till Tony can get back on base
Not on a base , this one's in Central Jakarta in the Satria Mandala Museum.
I can try and get out there over the next few weeks and photograph them properly.
MUSTANGS/A-26/B-25s etc.
I've been searching for 2 yrs for a WW2 warbirds not in a museum or pole or caches of spares that may be declared surplus but so far nothing and I've been on most of the bases in Java. If they are on a pole or a museum they are already 'sacred'. The Mustang outside Halim base has just been repainted last week so they are starting to spend money on maintaining them. Most of the exotic warbirds were cleared out by dealers and collectors 25 years ago.
I found a Mig 17 engine in a crate but it has a BER tag and there's no logs.
The local scrap dealers usually call by the warehouse when they have done a warehouse clearance and I've scored some NOS C-47 parts which I have yet to catalogue so I have my local scouts as well.
There is a huge scrap industry here due to the low labor costs and I know for sure that most of the Russian aircraft (and chinese, czech, polish licenced versions) were just cut up for scrap, this includes most of the Migs, L-29s, Tu-16s.
The Air Force does its best to retain a few of each types for historical value but there is no civilian groups or individuals who are interested or have the resources to do it.
The photo of the Ivchenko AN-12 engine in the back of the J20 pick up was in storage since 1964, it was still in perfect NOS condition still with desicant bags but calender timex (13 years for these engines). I ended up selling that to a Russian guy operating AN-12s in West Africa a few weeks later. That was probably one of the last of the Russian spares that was purged from inventory.
Doing this sort business here is a bit like an Indiana Jones movie, rumors, false leads, the occassional incidents with local mafias etc. Then there are logistic problems and language barriers. Outside of Jakarta maybe 5% speak English , my Indonesian is pretty good after 10yrs and I know how to deal with these guys and not get taken to the cleaners.
I spend a lot of time chasing false leads and real deals can take at least a year to work through the paperwork if its owned by the military and that is meeting them every few weeks to follow up not just sitting around after you send in a letter. I have a project now that started officially in April 2008 but it was from a lead a year previously , it took 1 year to find who the real decision makers are and actually meet them , they wont tell you anything until the 3rd or 4th meeting.
My gut feeling is there ARE still some worthwhile prizes about , mainly spares, but these are items that have been mislabeled , dropped off the inventory or otherwise unknown to the system. I'm slowly finding them.