Met up with an ' old ' friend.....

[FlashDrive]

Met up with an ' old ' friend today.... No129....never thought I'd see ' her ' again.
Yours truly standing with ' her ' ....I wonder if she remembered me.
I even have my old flying jacket after all these years.....man, that's nice and warm to wear....
They were good days....

Flash....ex RAAF....No1 Squadron.

[blink138]

nice one flash.... one of the best aircraft ever and has served Australia for many a year
pat

[Dennis]

Excellent pics – I love the placard showing how the “Crew Escape Module” works.:)

These used to be RAAF grey when I worked at Amberley – has the F-111 been given a new paint job for the display?

Cheers

Dennis

[Hans Tucker]

No, that is the original paint scheme for the 'C's' in the 70's before they went all grey about the same time the 'G's' arrived.

Ooohhh....129 has a Pave Tack Pod fitted.

[noeyedeer]

Hi Dennis ..
the camo pattern has been around for years, I think since the 80s (or perhaps Vietnam) that I can remember. All my old military books have our f-111s in camo...

and flash,
I bet she was a hog to fly! :)

matt

[FlashDrive]

The ' Pigs ' were ' green ' ( camo ) when they first arrived at Amberley ( Jan'73 ) ...and were the ' C ' Model.....F111C.

Grey colour came years later......' E ' Model I think.....

Flash......

[Dennis]

Thanks guys – I was there from 1999 when they were all grey, apart from a sad looking older “A” model behind the WSSF.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[FlashDrive]

Hans...the Pave Tac is is ' fake ' :( ....what you see is a good plastic/metal copy of the real thing......ain't no ' lasers ' in this one mate....

Flash..........

[Hans Tucker]

:sadeyes: .....so where did 129 end up being displayed?

[FlashDrive]

Caloundra Air Museum ... on the Sun Shine Coast....Qld

Flash......

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Aye Flash !
I used to be a bit of a ground crew in the days of 'Golden Fleece' the , ( before the world got touchy and feely )
Aussies , Yanks and Kiwis , central plateau North island NZ , the Kiwi A4 Sky Hawks , cleaned up there in tactics (flew below the radar ) . Awsome to watch .
All were aloud to break 750mph , go for it !!! . Mach 2 , Not aloud that much these days .

Back in the days :D .

Our base was fly by . :D.

Brian.

[noeyedeer]

wish we still had hmas Melbourne and her A4s. a few strafing runs on the boat people might send em back. :)

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug: I hear you Matt , the last one went for 25K , minus its up-grades .
They took it away on a tandem trailer , scored !!! .
What a machine ...:thumbsup:
I went into building for the Navy soon after ,,,
Brian.

[noeyedeer]

25k! no way!!! .... they seriously became scrap metal. I always thought they could do so much for the navy and air force. even after that disaster, jervis bay should've kept the ante up on the government to keep the A4s for longer then they did.
:(

like the F-111.. another chapter in history ... and it sucks because they were so cool!

[brian nordstrom]

:question: The NZ Gov't held on to these waiting for a sale .... that fell t
hru .
By then it was not hot news , a few Kiwi/Aussie bro's went to work .
The whole fleet of A4's with the best tech in the world on board ,,, and the sale was going south ..
the spare parts ???
I liked the ANZAC Navy by then , our tree hugging politicians knew better , NZ lost its Balls !!! Airborn style .
Those SkyHawks were world famous . And scary in the sky .
Taken by the same attitude that let the French walk after the 'Rainbow Warrior" was bombed in Auskland NZ ...
I know a lot about ....
thanks Flash ! .
Brian.

[noeyedeer]

lol opened a can of worms :)

nice pics again Flash. gonna miss those in our skies
matt

[noeyedeer]

kinda like the Sea Shepard and the anti-whaling debate with Japan ... it can be stopped ... but the government has too many international intrests monetarily.

lets hope it doesnt escalate to another rainbow warrior..
matt

[ZeroID]

Nice Pix. MOTAT ( Museum of Transport and Technology) in Auckland has a Skyhawk in it's Aviation Hall. The only one to ever fire it's guns in anger for NZ I think. Across the bow of a poaching fishing boat inside territorial waters. It stopped !!

http://www.motat.org.nz/

Check out the Aviation hall link a bit down the page.

Those things were scary, their 'below the radar' flying habits won a number of war exercises. Certainly scared the visting yanks a lot, they thought they were invincible with all their techo gear.
You know kiwis can't fly, thats why they are more comfortable close to the ground !! :lol: