Matsushima Air Base

F-2 MISSIONS starts on this runway. It is the home base you first take off from and the one you come back to.

The real base

Yabuchi, Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture — flat coastal ground on Ishinomaki Bay.

The 21st Squadron based here flies the two-seat F-2B and trains fighter pilots. Aircrew who have finished basic flight training come here to learn combat fundamentals in an actual fighter. In other words, this is where F-2 training really begins. The Blue Impulse display team (11th Squadron) is based at the same field.

There are two runways: the long RWY 07/25 (2,701 m) and the short RWY 15/33 (1,500 m), crossing in an X towards the northeast end. An approach to RWY 07 comes in from over Ishinomaki Bay.

The terrain we built

19.2 × 15.3 km from national elevation data. Both runways are flattened along their surveyed end points; everything outside them is the real ground.

There are 54,188 buildings — the town of Yabuchi, the settlements along the shore, and the rice-field grid running inland. West is Ishinomaki Bay; east is the mouth of the Kitakami river. Background rings extend the ground out to the horizon.

What it is like to fly

The long runway is where you learn take-off, climb, turn and landing. At sea level on flat ground, nothing blocks the view once you are up.

You fly the same circuit three times — by day, at night, and in rain. At night the terrain disappears and only the runway and approach lights remain; in rain the pavement is wet and wheel braking is halved. Same shape, completely different flight.

And a box the size of a carrier deck gets painted onto this runway in white. Carrier training starts here, on ground that does not move.

• The Story — one year of training