Air Force City Park — Attraction in Mabalacat

As a plane enthusiast that looks upon both propeller and jet aircraft, I'd say.. It's pretty nice! The fact that these are old decommissioned fighters from the late 40s to 70s are cool, but saddening aswell because we went through many generations of aircraft (this one centered around 2nd-3rd generation aircraft) and most of them are eventually decommissioned for replacement. I'll try to give you a tour of the aircraft here.. This is the Huey, a helicopter used in the Vietnam war. You can see bullet holes here (because it was shot, obviously). Unfortunately you can't get in the cockpit like all other planes. Next, we have a P-80 Shooting Star. An amazing piece of technology, marking the start of the Jet Age for America. (this may not be the first jet aircraft though). I don't know the history of the T-38.. But it's a prop and a plane anyway! Then, we have the Vought F-8 Crusader, called the Last Gunfighter (but it's main weapon was the AIM-9 Air to Air missile). Next, and probably the last plane I saw here is the F-5 Tiger. It's agile, fast, and small. It's named "Tiger" for a reason. It has an armament of AIM-9Js which packed quite the punch. It fought against the Vietnamese MiGs back then. Then there's this artillery gun that has a semi-functional raiser. It would be fun if we could raise the barrel angle, but we pretty much can't because it is decommissioned. That's all I could tell...

Air Force City Park in Clark used to be a nice spot, but it’s showing its age now. The walkway is cracked like tree roots pushed through it. The planes and helicopter on display are real, though none are functional. it’s more of a museum park. The playground’s in bad shape. Slides are gone, just ladders and monkey bars left. There’s a small café but I didn’t try it. Some say it’s perfect for picnics, but honestly the grass isn’t that packed and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you clean as you go. There’s trash everywhere even with “no littering” signs, which says more about the people than the park. Filipinos really need to stop treating public spaces like someone else will clean up after them. If you’re curious about old aircraft, it’s still worth a quick visit, but don’t...

How to get here: no car no problem Just across SM Clark is a jeepney terminal. The one on the left most side, right after the overpass is the Bayanihan terminal where you can find all jeepney routes to Clark Freeport Zone. You can ask around from there what route will pass right along the park. I think most of them do. For us , we took the green-colored one because I think that was the one that passes there directly. Going back to the terminal, you simply have to cross the street from the park and wait for jeepneys to pass. There lots of it. No need to fear of being stranded...