Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
Hi
I spent 2 weeks with 48? Squadron at Willliamtown in1974. They were supposed to be giving me some instruction on the APX72 IFF which I had never seen but was scheduled to install it on HMAS Orion and Otama. After the first day I took over the IFF repairs and did the instruction. I got a personal tour over "Hub cap". I stayed in the senior officers quarters had a great time.
Other service establishments I spent time at, Bulimba Barracks in Brisbane for a week. Hmas Albatross a few two week periods, Manus Island two weeks, Belconnen about 6 weeks. Simpson in Melbourne three weeks. two six week courses at Flinders, Lived in the wardroom. A couple of weekends in Darwin. Submarine escape course at Portsmouth. All as a civvy. I got around a lot of places in 25 years
Barry
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Hi Barry ... probably 77 sqn, would have been mirage's in those days, now Hornets ... APX72, Same IFF the C130 used and probably most military aircraft in that time. Its one of the bits of kit that I didnt get to work on, that and the DMEA but I repaired those as a civvy (before DMEA was phased out ) after I got out. Do you remember the size of the box that held the delay line in the APX72 test set ... could store 6 14" RCOS's in it I reckon. C130's, Caribou, Boeing 707, Iroqios were my babies.
In 1989 I worked for the only division in the world Honeywell had repairing general aviation aircraft. Another guy I knew well in the airforce worked there as well (well it was on his advise that Honeywell head hunted me) In the end because of our combined experience with military aircraft Honeywell gradually abandoned the general aviation work for the much more lucrative defence work. We repaired the upgraded C130 autopilot, F111 ring laser gyros, I designed test equipment for the F111 nav simulator and repaired 3 models of Data General mainframes that the RAAF used as for the raw radar processing system for all the CRU units. Also once a year I had to run a maintenance course that about 20 people from the different CRU units attended.
We built the Rugged Tactical Computer for the army, basically a 386 in a bully proof box that the army used in the field to calculate a firing solution for artillery. I also designed equipment that the navy used to provide the data necessary to change the very restrictive flight envelope that the sikorsky helicoptor had when it was introduced into our forces as the seahawk (navy) and blackhawk (army). This involved many trips to East Sale.
All that seems a distant memory now, really does feel like a long time ago in one dimension and yet only just the other day in another.
Good yakking to you.