Aircraft pics you've taken

The attached picture shows the field crew I was in charge of about to depart Observatory Claypan (about 100km NE of Mt Dare) about to depart for Adelaide.

Unfortunately I was not on it, as it turned into an interesting trip - Due to refuel at Leigh Ck, it ran into a dust storm, and short on fuel, and with ADF and HF disrupted by the weather, made a precautionary landing at Mirrikata - in the middle of the Woomera Prohibited Area.

Our party and the aircrew were accommodated by the ADF at the base overnight, and the following day a replacement aircrew was flown in by the operator (Airlines of South Australia), and I understand that the Captain retired that day.

I remained behind and did a central Australian tour.

John

couple of interesting vehicles there too, those FJ45 Station Wagons are very rare, theres few in USA but only ever seen one here, (and it was probably an Import)? !!

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Originally Posted by goingbush

couple of interesting vehicles there too, those FJ45 Station Wagons are very rare, theres few in USA but only ever seen one here, (and it was probably an Import)? !!

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No. The FJ45V wagons were bought by the company in Brisbane, off the shelf. One of them was my company car. I am not surprised that they are very rare. In many respects it was the worst vehicle I have ever had anything to do with, having an incredibly bad ride among other problems. But perhaps a more telling reason why they are rare today is that the bodywork simply fell to bits, starting almost from the showroom door. The rear seat folded itself whenever you hit a bump if it was unoccupied, or often even if it was, door hinges broke away from the body, the floor collapsed, as did the tailgate if you sat on it. For that matter so did the seats after a few months. And the ventilation seemed designed to bring in bulldust, over and above all the lot that came in the ill fitting (because the body flexed) doors and tailgate and the holes in the floor.

Apart from the suspension, the steering, the broken wheel studs, and the carburetter and alternator, it was fairly sound mechanically.

To reiterate, I am not at all surprised to hear they are rare; not only would their reputation have killed sales after a year or so, but to survive this length of time they would have had to be unused and in a dry climate. And unlike some surviving vehicles, they were not prone to single catastrophic faults that disabled them.

I suspect most of those sold would have contributed their mechanicals to the other, much more successful models within five years of being sold, and then crushed. Survival in the USA may have been more likely, if used on sealed roads in a dry climate, but in Australia at least, in the mid sixties, people would have bought these with the idea of long distance travel on unsealed, often appalling by today's standards, roads. And they were fast, even on bad roads, if you could stand the bumps and fuel consumption.

John

Some Pics I took at the Narromine warbirds show Anzac day 1992. The Sea Fury was particularly spectacular to watch in action.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


Regards,
Tote

Another picture from my time in the Simpson, this time about mid 1966 - visitors from head office.

This picture was taken on a claypan in the Hale River floodout, approximately 70km due east of Old Andado.

John

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Originally Posted by Tote

Some Pics I took at the Narromine warbirds show Anzac day 1992. The Sea Fury was particularly spectacular to watch in action.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...pscetiwf3v.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps0eq6cgty.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psfdeofqfq.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...pstlo82oar.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psnwp1r3eo.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps3owiiyyu.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psrigb0r3f.jpg


Regards,
Tote

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Nice pics mate. Some great aircraft there.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Another picture from my time in the Simpson, this time about mid 1966 - visitors from head office.

This picture was taken on a claypan in the Hale River floodout, approximately 70km due east of Old Andado.

John

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I've always liked the look of those old Comanches.

Calm weather for days, sun in the right place, and I happened to have my camera...
Attachment 91849

I walked outside today and heard an odd noise. I thought it was just a light aircraft.

Well, it was. But by the time I grabbed my old camera from the garage and swapped lenses, it was headed away. The cropped image quality from the old Sigma lens isn't that great.

Yeah, it's flown over my house a few times also in the last month or two!!!:D Apparently it's the only blimp in the southern hemisphere!!!