Another waste of public money

kiwijims · Guru

Another waste of public money

Big Gorilla · Guru

What a crying shame. A State of the art warplane in it's day. I'm surprised some shiny assed public servant didn't think that maybe one could be put in the airforce museum. Something similar to what Qantas have done at Longreach....A piece of history lost.

Cloak · Guru

A mate bought one which he has in Darwin....

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

A bit of history concerning the ultimate fate of the magnificent F111 aircraft.

The article is from August 2010 - it has all been done and dusted now.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/for-sale-secondhand-f111s-20100803-115bc.html

Note that there are four to go on display and three retained for "military heritage".

It was only the hulks of the remaining F111s that were buried (in November 2011) - they had been completely stripped and gutted under tight US Government restrictions.

It should be noted that ALL American-built/supplied aircraft cannot be sold, gifted or disposed of without full approval of the USA Government.

Any sale/gifting MUST be approved by USA Government before any disposal action can commence.

Cheers - John

Big Gorilla · Guru

That article gives a lot more detail. Good to see our history going on display, not only for us, but our generations to follow..

GaryKelly · Guru

Seems the ol' F111 has been around almost as long as I have... although I do remember the Mirages. In any case, it appears as though we got a pretty good run out of the F111s. Considering how much it costs to update to the latest technology, it's just as well.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

The F111 was, right up till it was taken out of service, an incredibly capable aircraft. It had many capabilities, even up to its withdrawal from service, that were superior to the F18 Hornet.

It is a long read - but if you have the time, this is a very informative history of the F111.

Cheers - John

Cloak · Guru

I was fortunate enough to be a techie on both Mirage and F111...

I preferred the F111 because of it's pedigree with the B58 Hustler. It had awesome systems on board, an amazing machine given it's age.

The mirage was a challenge due to it's very narrow flight envelope on landing profile, we lost a few because of this. Happy to say our team at Richmond
were responsible to finally cure the beast of most problems.... just before we dumped them. Oh well better late than never.

If you travel to Darwin try to visit the Aviation Heritage Centre to have a close up session with the F111, you won't believe it until you touch and smell it.

Cheers and many thanks for jogging my memory.

Big Gorilla · Guru

I did see one up close when I was a young fella in short pants. (Now I'm an ol' fella in short pants). I was learning to fly and doing a navigation exercise with an Instructor from Royal Qld. Aero Club. I think it was Nowra we landed at and there was one there on the tarmac. The RAAF guys let us look over it, not inside unfortunately.. Never seen anything like it. I was star struck. The swing wings really impressed my inexperienced mind at the time... I think at the time Nowra was a Navy airfield. Maybe someone can confirm that. F111s were based at Amberley.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

I have a dubious honour. I have taxied, taken off and flown an F111. I went extremely well for about 20 minutes or so.

Then the instructor asked me to bank to port and make my approach to the airstrip.

I did what I was told and banked to port and felt extremely pleased with myself on how well I was doing. However, alarms began to sound and lights flashed.

Moments later I had driven the F111 into the ground - I had been losing height dramatically while banking cry

Oh .. did I mention that it was in the F111 simulator at Amberley

Love the Pig

Cheers - John

Big Gorilla · Guru

Can certainly have a lot of fun in a Sim., apart from the serious business. In real life I loved to terrorize the up and coming first officers. One of my trick questions was: We are at cruising level and you just happen to look in the top of the right window and you see the sun. About 2 hours along you look in the same window position and the sun is still where it previously was... What is our ground speed and in which direction are we travelling ?"

Anyone like to have a go ? !!!!! confuse confuse biggrin biggrin

milo · Guru

bummer about those planes , would be great as a flight simulator... some how..

Delta18 · Guru

Big Gorilla wrote:
Can certainly have a lot of fun in a Sim., apart from the serious business. In real life I loved to terrorize the up and coming first officers. One of my trick questions was: We are at cruising level and you just happen to look in the top of the right window and you see the sun. About 2 hours along you look in the same window position and the sun is still where it previously was... What is our ground speed and in which direction are we travelling ?"
Anyone like to have a go ? !!!!!

I'll be the 'muggins', Westerly at some 1400kmh ground speed?

dorian · Guru

I did some contracting work at the Defence Research Centre at Salisbury, SA. ISTR one of the employees saying that DRCS were involved in fixing the design issue that caused the F-111's wings to fall off. In fact I think Australia may have lost at least one aircraft (and its pilot?) due to this problem.

dorian · Guru

Delta18 wrote:
I'll be the 'muggins', Westerly at some 1400kmh ground speed?

Wouldn't the speed depend on the latitude?

At the equator the speed would be 1670 kph. Elsewhere it would be less.

(diameter of earth x pi) / (1 day) = 1670 kilometers per hour

http://www.google.com/search?q=diameter+of+earth+x+pi+%2F+1+day+in+kilometres+per+hour

But then it's a trick question, so what have we missed?

Big Gorilla · Guru

The answer is complex, but we look for a simple answer. Firstly the aviation industry still works in nautical speed and distance. When you hear the flight deck announcement "We are cruising at 11,278 meters", they are actually at 37,000 feet of Flight Level 370. The conversion to meters is made only for passenger information. Same applies to speed which is displayed in knots..

The speed of the earth's rotation at the equator is about 900 knots per hour. At 45 deg. latitude, speed is about 637 knots. So to keep the answer simple it is "We are travelling west at 900 knots". In this case with a westerly heading with a G/S of 900 knots, and the earth rotating easterly at 900 knots, the sun will be in the same position each time you look at it. Aim of the exercise is to see if the guy has an understanding of the question. I have seen some guys actually work out the ground speed for the line of latitude we were closest to, although we were not on a westerly heading.

Of course a commercial airliner couldn't reach 900 knots, not even with a jet stream up your ass, but a military jet can. The question is one of many similar that are asked to see if the new boys have something to think with !!

dorian · Guru

Big Gorilla wrote:
The speed of the earth's rotation at the equator is about 900 knots per hour.

"Knots per hour" is a measure of acceleration, not speed.

Big Gorilla · Guru

The knot (pronounced not) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile (1.852 km) .... expressed as "knots per hour", which is in fact a measure of acceleration.

dorian · Guru

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_(unit)

The knot (pronounced not) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile (1.852 km) per hour ...

Speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as "knots per hour", which is in fact a measure of acceleration.

kiwijims · Guru

What has a knot got to do wilh a buried F1-11 ??????

K.J. yawn

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Well it is the I digress forum ! Lol

Phil C · Guru

What a crying shame... one of the most magnificent aircraft ever being treated like that... Im ver pissed off with whoever made that decision, there would be dozens of museums that would love a full 111.

Had the privilege and joy to fly the F111 simulator during an attachment to Amberly, fsgt set it up on final approach wheels down, flaps/slats set etc. at 500 feet, I buried the bugger 20 feet down after a few seconds.. Not a smart pilot.

Safe travels

rockylizard · Guru

Phil C wrote:
What a crying shame... one of the most magnificent aircraft ever being treated like that... Im ver pissed off with whoever made that decision, there would be dozens of museums that would love a full 111.
~~~~SNIP
Safe travels

Gday...

The Pig has always aroused the passion of those who knew it well.

However, I had stated above -

rockylizard wrote:
~~~
It was only the hulks of the remaining F111s that were buried (in November 2011) - they had been completely stripped and gutted under tight US Government restrictions.
~~~~

Attached are the full details of where the F111's were dispersed to. It is safe to say they have been afforded the recognition they deserved.

Cheers - John

dorian · Guru

I can't understand why the hulks couldn't have been recycled as scrap metal rather than being buried. Maybe future archeologists will have something to talk about.

kiwijims · Guru

HMMMMM... I wonder if the American chewing gum holding them together,

would have been an embarrassment to some original owner. disbelief

K.J.

Phil C · Guru

dorian wrote:
I can't understand why the hulks couldn't have been recycled as scrap metal rather than being buried. Maybe future archeologists will have something to talk about.

Good point Dorian, I think its because the pigs had all this toxic/carcinogenic sealant crap behind and in the main fuel tank (behind the ****pit firewall) there are rather a lot of compo claims and a special DVA claim area for ex RAAF bods who worked on and in the fuel tanks.

Maybe why the birds are being planted rather than turned into razor blades.

Irrespective, and to digress, there was nothing as spectacular as a pig torching...

I was attached to Amberly when Nordink and Jones bought the farm at Coffs Harbour during bombing practice, investigation showed a pelican penetrated the windshield at 600 knots and did some pretty serious damage inside the ****pit and to the left seater. Sad day, I use to jog with Phil Nordink when we were at Pearce (2FTS).

Cheers

EDit.. the auto swear thingo took out the word c o c kpit.. Give me strength...

-- Edited by Phil C on Wednesday 12th of November 2014 02:53:44 PM

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.