Sad to see these go...!!!

[FlashDrive]

Was going through my old RAAF Photos and found these....kinda sad to see them "mothballed" now. I was at Amberley when the very first batch of F111C Models arrived in 1973.

I can remember when Squadron Leader Kelloway returned to Base one afternoon and both main wheel tires " blew " on landing. There was a " massive " bang ....both landing gear disc brake rotors were " glowing " red hot....fire trucks scrambled...etc....etc.

Aeroplane spent about a week in the hanger for a " refit " at 482 Squadron. It's a great aeroplane to work on.... and still brings back lots of good memories.

OF the original 24 we purchased .... we lost 6 due to " bird strikes " , Mechanical failure , Failure of the Terrain Following Radar ( TFR )...which caused 1 aircraft to impact a mountain in the Philippines in bad weather.

All in all over the 37 years we had them....all up about 36 F111 Aircraft.

Kinda sad to see these " pensioned " off....:(
To me they are still a " formidable " aircraft to be reckoned with in today's Military Hardware.

The best bit I used to get a kick out of was when they would " sneak up " on people at Airshows... you'd never hear them coming until they were right on " top " of you.... It was a real buzz.

Cheers .... FlashDrive.

[renormalised]

Great plane....still the best strike aircraft around. Pity we can't build new ones.

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

Yes, I've thought they turned out a good buy, after the initial problems. Good range, fly low, good payload, and short landing for a Mach 2+ aircraft. I hope we can replace them effectively. We have had our problems here when buying defence equipment :screwy:

Cheers

[h0ughy]

some great shots there

[renormalised]

No, we can't. The F35, despite being a good aircraft, is slower and doesn't have the range or the payload capacity. Even with the best long range standoff weapons it can carry, it still can't get to most targets the F111 can. Neither does the new F/A18-F Super Hornets we have.

The only thing it has going for it is its reasonably good stealth capabilities and its electronics package. If it got into a dogfight with an SU-37 it would lose, all things being equal, despite the Flanker being a much larger plane. It doesn't have the turning capabilities of the Flanker series of aircraft because it doesn't have vectored thrust. Nor could it outrun a Flanker (2.35M vs 1.6M). The only plane that can beat the Flankers (and the new PAK 50's) convincingly is the F22 Raptor, and they're too expensive (plus they've stopped production on them and they have sales restrictions on them).

[mental4astro]

Many moons ago when the Sydney Easter Show was held at Moore Park, they had the F111's do a fly over just after the fireworks, with their afterburners. It scared the living poop out of me (I lived a stones throw from the showground & wasn't expecting the fly over), and the noise shook the dust off the walls. Ever see someone's backbone spontaneously turn to jelly? :scared2:

[erick]

I remember the early days when a number of them fell out of the sky! I was driving the back road from Brisbane to the New England Hwy when I came across a mangled car body beside the road on which someone had painted "F111" :D Seemed funny at the time! (As I recall no personnel were injured in any of the F111 mishaps?)

EDIT - sadly, I do have to update. Seems 10 RAAF pilots and navigators have been killed in F111 crashes. Sorry.

[FlashDrive]

As far as deaths go... and I won't mention any names out of respect....I personally knew and spoke to on many occasion while at Amberley ... 2 crew members who died whist doing a " low level " bombing run using " dummy 500 pounders " at Evan's Head NSW. It happened in 1977.....the aircraft was inbound at low level .... ground speed was approx' 500mph then.....the aircraft went into an inverted roll and crashed upside down into the ground.

Subsequent investigation to find the cause of what happened came to light when an autopsy done on the pilot .....they found Albatross blood in his lungs . It was evident the Aircraft slammed into a flock of Albatross birds at such speed.....the birds smashed the Cockpit perspex ( Aviation Grade perspex is extremely hard to break ) and slammed into the pilot's face, killing him and the navigator instantly. A good sized Albatross weighs anywhere from 4kgs and upwards. You can imagine what a flock of these would do to any aircraft at " high speed ".

And then there was Mark Fallon...( I mention his name as it was on TV at the time )..... a young man ... at the age of 19.... flying F111'S from Amberley ... his Aircraft crashed at Tennifield NSW sometime in the early 80's. I don't know the cause of that accident.
He was, because of his age, was known as the " FASTEST TEENAGER " in the world.

[[1ponders]]

I remember sitting on the north end of Fraser island one day on the top of a sand dune watching the surf. Next thing I'm lying flat on my face and getting sand blasted as an F111 screamed up over the back of a sand dune. Man it was traveling. I though I was going to die at the time. Its scared the hell out of me, until I saw what it was. Then it was a rush!! :D

[Osirisra]

As an Ex grunt it was always awesome when we were on a exercise somewhere to see a couple of those F111 birds scream over, good times.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Just who do we want to bomb anyway?!
I know the Kiwis can be annoying but......
I can see having a top-notch fighter with ground attack capability (oh yeah -Super Hornet!) and maybe reconfiguring the F111 for Wild Weasel missions, but keeping it as a bomber is silly. Heck. If we dislike someone enough to drop bombs on them, just send some cruise missiles at them. Why risk brave, clever people?
We could pay on a piece by piece basis and get the Yanks to do the dirty work.
'Course if we have to go toe-to-toe with the US we'd be nobbled.

[wasyoungonce]

My F111 experience was 3AD...the unofficial motto:

"you are not here for a good time, but you will be here for a long time"!

Love the old Pig, like the Mirage ...very graceful in design.

Colin...1973...yikes Hmmmmm quite a bit before me ...late 80s at 3AD.

[casstony]

I've been told by someone in the know that our planes would destroy enemy planes without getting anywhere near them, courtesy of american technology and american cooperation, thus avoiding a dogfight.

I'm under the impression we just do whatever the yanks say since we're dependent on them for our defence.

[FlashDrive]

Well...Well.....N0 3 Aircraft Depot ..... Yes .... In my time... that was the Engine Build Up section for various components ... etc.

I still have my Squadron Badge and original F111C Shoulder Patch which was made in 1974.
Do you remember Air Marshall Ray Funnel....he was chief of the Airforce during the 90's.....Well, when I was at Amberley in the 70's he was only a Wing Commander and was CO of No 6 Squadron....flying F111's.

Nice to hear from another former Raaf'y......:thumbsup:

[kinetic]

My dad's uncle who used to have a farm near Loxton said that once
when they rang in a complaint that two of their flyboys had just
flown over their farm in F1-11s, treetop level, and killed all of their chickens and
smashed quite a few windows with the noise...the response was
something like 'sorry maam, our pilots are instructed not to fly
that low ' :D

Steve

[wasyoungonce]

Yes our emblem was the Rooster...we would have one in a cage paraded every SQN booze up! I so loved my Rooster badge!

Yes I remember Funnell...when we occasionally escaped from our Avionics clean rooms.

I managed this quite often as I ran the Camera repair section (and later pavetack mirror control) so I had occasional sorties to the real world at 6SQN.

RAAFies are like flies..they always hang around and annoy you.

[renormalised]

That's why the F35's stealth capabilities come in handy. It can sneak in under the noses of the enemy and let off their missiles before the others even know they're there. But if they were detected (and stealth isn't foolproof), they would be in trouble if they had to duel it out. Whilst they're a little bit more maneuverable than an F16 (and that's pretty toey, mind you), they're not as nimble as the SU-37 and the like. However, their electronics package also has the advantage as well...they have superb off boresight firing capabilities and can fire their weapons in any direction. All it needs is for the missiles etc, to be capable enough to perform so themselves. One interesting thing was they are thinking of fitting high powered lasers in the conventional versions of the F35, where the lift fan would normally go. The engine generates a surplus power supply of 20MW over and above the plane's needs. They've tested 150KW lasers for attacking ground and air targets and as far as I know the tests were very successful. Now, something like that would put a whole new spin on a dogfight, when the SU-37 went to shoot the F35 down, only to be cut in half by the laser from the F35 :):)

Not only that, but the new AESA radars can be used as weapons. They're designed to be aimed at the other planes and fry their electronics or the pilots inside the planes. Plus, they don't need to actively ping targets to find and identify them...they can do so completely passively.

[Barrykgerdes]

Yes paying off the F111 is the end of an era in Australian aviation. I had very little to do with them. Possibly worked on some of their IFF. I was supposed to have a couple of F111's and Mirages do a bombing run on the old Trinity Bay dredge back in the early 80's. I m not sure if I got the F111's but the Mirages did the bomb runs. I was ground control (as a civvy) on HMAS Warnambool.

When I was at Amberly 6 Squadron flew Canberra's and Lincolns. Major Stoner USAF was the CO at the time. Watched him land a canberra with no nose wheel. He scratched the paint but little else. He was a real nice guy. He gave me a lift back from Brisbane one night after leave. I had a good long chat with him and his wife before he told me who he was. ACR's did not hobnob with majors.

Barry

[FlashDrive]

How true Barry ...... ACR's ( Aircraftman Recruit ).....The lowest rank in the Airforce .....to be " hob nobbing " with a High Ranking Officer in those day's was a " privilege " ......let alone a daily occurrence.
I was single when in the Airforce at Amberley and was once invited to have tea with a Flight Lieutenant and his wife at their married quarters just outside the Amberley Airbase.

As a young fella of 19 years old...I was blown away and took up the invitation....He was an F111 Pilot who was 28 years old and had a regard for " ground crew " and didn't have a " us and them " attitude when it came to being an Officer or a " so called lowly ground crew "

Some of the other guy's got wind of this...and wondered if I was up for promotion.....never happened.....just " boosted " my ego a bit in front of the other lad's. :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, and another one here :)
After Edinburgh I did my time at Wagga (Intruments fitter) back in '75.

F111's were a favourite of mine.
I remember how they would practice landing and take-off's next to our barracks at 3am about twice a month, scaring the crappers out of us while we slept!
We never understood why they picked Wagga to do this.
Our barracks was up against the edge of the tarmac! (if you know RAAF base Wagga you'll know where I mean).

I remember those 'out of the blue' flyovers that would make everyone scream and little kids cry :lol:
That was back when they were allowed to fly over a crowd.

My Dad was with 77 Squadron Williamtown and AMTDU Richmond.
All of his 30 years were spent on Vampire, Sabre, Mirage, C-130's and the incredible Caribou :thumbsup:

Apart from F-111, my other favourites are Mirage, Phantom, Caribou and Iroquois choppers. :)

One day they will all be gone.

[acropolite]

Gotta love the F111, I'm old enough to remember the controversy surrounding their purchase. Speaking of "sneaking up", HRH, myself and the kids were watching rays swimming in the waves beneath the cliffs under the lighthouse at Byron bay and an f111 flew underneath us hugging the cliffs, by the time I had turned on and raised my camera for a shot it was far away in the distance. We didn't hear a sound until it was past.

[Jeffkop]

Hi all A126047 with my bit. I will NEVER forget that number.
As a Raafie I never had anything to do with the F111. 486Sqn and 35Sqn were my life so Hercs, 707's, Caribou and Iroqois received my attention as a RadTech in the late 70's early 80's. I certainly had heard of Funnel.
As a civvy though I worked for Honeywell Space and Aviation and spent many hours at 482sqn. We repaired the ring laser gyro (part of the Avionics upgrade the F111s had) and I also designed computerised test and overhaul equipment for the rotary shaft positional encoders used in the F111 NavSim (It was FULL of them). Was interesting times. I enjoyed those trips as I also got to catch up with mates who were still in.
I was amazed at how different attack aircraft were kitted out campared to the transports I hade worked on. It sure was quite an aircraft, but past its use by date now in most facets I would imagine.

[FlashDrive]

Well...what a small world....I was at Edinburgh in Oct'72.....No 1 RTU Squadron....Course No 1192 ....doing my recruit training....3 months it was... then graduated and went to RAAF Base Wagga Wagga....then did a trainee's fitters course ( No 34 Trainee Fitters )... and ended up as a " SUMPY " ..... ( AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE ENGINEER ) specializing in Jet Engines and Piston Types.
Got my first posting to Amberley after that.

I recently visited the old Base at Wagga....see photos....that's me " trying " to get a feel of the place again.... The memories that place brings back to me. Got " CB " ( CONFINED TO BARRACKS ) a few times while there....:mad2:

Remember the big long road up to the Guard House ( front entrance to the Airbase )... had to walk all the way up to it... in your uniform and report to the Sargent of the Guard....every hour ....on the hour.. ( starting at 7pm until midnight ) he would inspect you for proper attire and stand " real close " to you to see if you had been drinking....if you had YOU WERE IN BIG TROUBLE..... no drinking allowed while on " CB "

My time in the RAAF was the best Job I ever had.....never regretted it....:thumbsup:

[FlashDrive]

Hi there A126047 ...... This is A122940 ..... I to have never forgotten that number .....:thumbsup:

[Hans Tucker]

A1XXXXX...Queenslanders. :P

[FlashDrive]

Hey Hans ....Something tells me you should share a bit ...ehhh ..!!!! :P
Correct me if I'm wrong....No's starting with A1 were Queenslanders.
A2 were from NSW ... A3 were Victorians ... etc. etc.

I think that's how the Defence Dept knew what State you enlisted from.

Cheers .... Colin.

[Hans Tucker]

Yep...A512967 served from 1987-2008..Enlisted as a Cat2B...wanted to be an Engine Fitter but because Adult Trainees, unlike Apprentices, were only offered three trades...ended up as an Instrument Fitter, Sumpie trade was not on offer...thankyou recruiting. Unlike you gentlemen I worked on toy aircraft Macchi's & PC-9/A trainers at 2FTS Pearce. Last 8 years in the Mushroom factory at Williamtown (481 AVMF). I have no regrets....ok maybe one..that I didn't serve a overseas deployment.

[FlashDrive]

Well done Hans.... yeah... quite right.... Cat2B included all " ground crew " mustering....except...Avionics and Radios... which was Cat1a.
I had all trades offered to me...Engines, Airframes, Electrical, Instruments, Armorer..... chose Engines because I was a bit behind in my " Mathematics ".....I was more mechanically minded.

As far as your so called " toy " planes go.....Macchi's ( based at Sale in my time ) ....they were all important as the others.

As far as Deployment went.....Had a 3 week trip to Hickam Airforce Base in 1975 on a RIMPAC Exercise ( Hawaiian Islands )
A trip to Butterworth in Malaya for 2 weeks .. and the usual trips to Darwin for the Kangaroo Exercises.......:P

[Hans Tucker]

So many changes in the Airforce now (no longer RAAF...thankyou white ant republicans). 1RTU moved from Edinburgh to WAGGA. OTS moved from Point Cook to East Sale. Only Avionics & Mechanical trades exist although they have re-establish the Gunnie trade as a stand alone trade. There are more civilian contracts for a bulk of the deeper level maintenance on all aircraft platforms...kind of sad really for those of us whom remember the times when we were the RAAF and were self sufficient. Oh..the A1, A2, A3 ect service numbers have been replaced by a PMKey's number.

[FlashDrive]

GEEEEEES....!!! Things have changed....didn't know about the PMKey's....What the heck are they.
As far as civilian contractors go....I know they employ Private Security Firms to guard the entrances to Airbases now .....we used to do that in the 70's on a 3 month rotational squadron roster.
I had heard about OTS ( Officer Training School ) moving to East Sale.
But you say it is no longer RAAF.... Just Airforce now.....????

Sounds like a " sneaky " way of getting rid of the Queen or the Monarchy from any " ties " with the Australian Defence Forces.
Rumblings of the REPUBLICAN Movement I'd reckon.

Remember it was RAAF... ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE.
I have also heard that the WRAAF'S ( WOMENS ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE ) is no longer.

Well ... we had the best time Hans ... maybe not now though...!!:shrug:

[Hans Tucker]

Yes civilian firms now man the gates and entrances to the bases so no more guard duty....not a bad thing as I always got the grave yard shift.

PMKeys replaced the traditional service numbers and is an electronic way to link a member to his online service record..mines was 8206453.

Contractors now also control the major servicing of aircraft frames, engines and avionics. Uniform personnel basically handle the Flight Line stuff. Technical Training whilst now civilian recognised falls below how we were trained.

RAAF disappeared from our uniforms 10-15 years ago..replaced by AIRFORCE. WRAAF's were gone before I joined in 1987.

1FTS no longer exists as all Pilot induction training is done up in Tamworth by civilians. 2FTS is completely run by a civilian company, no uniformed members except the trainee pilots.

Yes, it has all changed and part of the reason why I discharged.

[FlashDrive]

Hans....What a mess it all seems to be now ..... they have become " lazy " as far as training goes .... what's the point of even teaching anyone when they end up on the " flight line " doing basic duties....how boring.... not to mention other changes...It was a " REAL " job in our day and you had to study and know your trade..!!

Pufffff..!! If that's how it is ..... :(

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I'm a Navy guy myself, but they taught us a lot about how to shoot down aeroplanes (no offence!).
I assume were referring to Indonesian planes when discussing the Flankers.
Although it's is more manouverable than its predecessors, the Flanker is not particularly so at high-speed. I've seen its shenanigans at Farnborough and Paris - the Cobra manouver and such - and as one pilot pointed out to me: "Impressive. But why would you WANT to do that ?"
It also has the radar signature of a football pitch and the thermal imprint of a volcano. Compared to any post-2000 American fighter, its radar and stealth suite is medieval and they're always crashing.
The F111 or any other fighter, would just zoom-in at high speed, fire a stand-off missile, and head home for tea.
Any they missed could be picked-off by Queenslanders with night-sights and .338s. :D

[renormalised]

True Peter, but you don't dogfight at mach 2. Most dogfights occur down around 300-600 mph and it's down there the vector thrust and huge engines of the Flanker will tell. It's who has the most energy and height after all that turning and dodging that wins. Plus, the skill levels of the pilots and luck on the day.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi A122940 and A126047 This is A214061

Yes You never forget that number.

I later had another when I was in the CMF 2/84032

Barry

[Brundah1]

I was in my last year at school when Frazer announced the purchase of the then named TFX (aka Trouble and Fuss Extraordinary).

So my career was almost a decade shorter than the life of our most wonderful and potent weapon system.

I'm no Raafie, but I did "serve" 40 years with QF our "reserve airforce", so quite often experienced the up close and personal rush of a Pig.

I watched a F111 do a touch & go whilst stationed at Avalon in the early 1970s. The driver kept the burners on in a near vertical climb, sweeping the wings back and disappearing up into a blue sky.

Those who attended the official opening of Expo 88 will remember two F111s do an opposite loop dump n burn from 500ft along the Brisbane river.

Those two events still give me goose bumps.

Being such a highly effective piece of old technology, perhaps it outlived the manufacturing facilities ability to support its operation. One exception to this rule seems to be the B52 (a weapons system close to 60 years old with no firm end in sight!)

There was a Ch 2 program a few years back about the merits of the F111 and the difficulty Australia faced in acquiring an effective strike replacement. Unless our next submarines are equipped with cruise missiles I can't see us having the deterrent strike capability of the F111.

Watched the last dump and burn over Brisbane, with a lump in my throat.

For those so inclined Aero published a great read mid last year "F111" $14.95

I do hope we see a few of these birds properly preserved indoors, so our grandchildren can know the story of when the RAAF "spoke softly and carried a big stick". :thumbsup:

[FlashDrive]

Just a couple of more of the " Pig " ;)

[FlashDrive]

Poetry in motion ....:P

[Analog6]

Wonderful images - just love 'em! One year they did a dump and burn at an ANZAC day evening concert at the War Memorial in Canberra. We saw them sneaking up Anzac Pde but they were totally silent - UNTIL! I reckon a few folk had to change their duds. And there was low cloud and the flaming plane disappeared into it and the whole sky went red - it was wonderful and to cap it off a lone piper on the walls then started up and that was really spine chilling. I wish they'd kept a couple for displays, there is nothing to touch them.