Tour advert for Israel – Saturday 25th April to Friday 1st May 2020

Following on from this years successful visit to Israel, we will re-run the same trip and format in 2020……get in touch if you or anyone you know might be interested…..

Join us for 7 days spotting in Israel where the Israeli Air Force will be celebrating their independence and we will visit Ramat David & Haifa open days. We will also be visiting the amazing Israeli Air Force museum and as many of the various wrecks & relics located on our route around Israel for those of us who like military heritage. For those of you who have not been to Israel before, this will be a great chance to see past and present aircraft operated by the Israeli armed forces.

During our time in Israel, we will be guided by Israel Aviation Tours who have many years of experience when it comes to looking at aircraft in this security conscious country. From outside we will also have a look at Hatzerim, Hatzor, Nevatim & Tel Nof military bases. We plan to spend time at these bases (where active) all day on Sun 26th & Mon 27th pm. Being active days, we should expect to see some military movements at some of them.

Sde Dov is now closed and so we can be flexible as to where in Tel Aviv we will base ourselves. Accommodation to be chosen will allow you to view movements either in or out of Tel Aviv’s main airport Ben Gurion, giving a good chance to catch up with your El Al fleet and those elusive Arkia and Israir frames that never stray far from home.

We will also take a look at some general aviation airfields where ramp access will be requested at Rishon LeZion & Hertzliya (but not yet granted). We also intend to visit smaller fields at Beit Hanania, Beer Sheva, Ein Vered, Habonim, Meggido & Tnuvot.

Having focused on civil and military, we also take time out to look at museums and wrecks & relics. We will visit the Israeli Air Force Museum at Hatzerim where around 120 museum aircraft should be seen on display and stored – this museum alone is worth the journey to Israel. And if that wasn’t enough, around 70 ex-Air Force aircraft are stored in revetments which are located right next to the museum.

I have been informed that base visits to military airfields are not allowed during the Independence week but if some other groups follow up on their interest, we should be able to join up to make a bigger group. This would allow us to visit the IAI military store with 25 aircraft at Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion and see the parked up airliners and bizjets that wouldn’t be seen from outside. This visit is currently planned for Thursday 30th April but is yet to be confirmed.

If the interest is there, we could also do Ovda where the Israeli Air Force store up to 80 aircraft outside on this large airfield. These can only be seen from a distance from high ground and it is quite a drive South to get to this base. Doing this place will mean that some of the items listed below may get dropped from the itinerary…….

We aim to fit the below wrecks & relics in;
Atlit (C-46F at Atlit Immigration Camp Museum)
Be’er Sheva (Kfir on display)
Be’er Sheva (F-4E on display)
Beit Shemesh (Tzukit on display)
Giv’at Olga (Kfir on display in school)
Giv’at Olga (F-4E & H500MD on display)
Haifa (Kfir on display)
Kiryat Motskin (F-4E on display)
Nahshon Junction (Nord 2501D on display)
Neve Amiel (Mystere IVA on display)
Rehovot (Mystere IVA on display)
Revivim (Dakota and Super Cub on display)
Tel Aviv (Holz Technical College with 7 aircraft)

Tour cost is £980. This includes the return flight from MAN, LTN or LGW, six nights hotel, ground transport, an Israeli guide and entry into the museums.