Some Pics from my Fleet Air Arm days

[101RRS]

Coming up to the cat




Taking off - off the cat








Hook and radar down - rear boom still in




On patrol








Getting ready to land back on
Dumping fuel

[101RRS]

Approaching before the circuit




Over the top




In the circuit on base




Turning onto finals




On finals




The most dangerous workplace in the world




Late finals







Landed - wing fold





Rescue Destroyer (Resdes) - Derwent I think




End of the day

[Hoges]

I remember as a kid in " short pants" (you had to be a 'big' kid to wear long trousers in those days ) going with my dad and uncle (who worked in Navy) and visiting both HMAS Sydney and HMAS Melbourne ...both were docked at Station pier in Melbourne on delivery.... left a big impression

ps what are the 'stores' just outboard of the engine in the first photo ("on approach" )?

cheers

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Great images.

It is so sad that we no longer have that capability!

So where are the pics of the Skyhawks?

Diana

[101RRS]

Great images.

It is so sad that we no longer have that capability!

So where are the pics of the Skyhawks?

Diana

Only have a few of them as I was in the Tracker squadrons - when I scan the slides I have of Skyhawks I will post up. Shame I didn't take more of them as a few crashed off the ship when I was on it.

Garry

[101RRS]

So where are the pics of the Skyhawks?

Diana

Pedro the rescue helo - airborne for all launches and recovery

[Lotz-A-Landies]

<snip>



<snip>

• Is that a missed approach (missed catch)?
• a touch and go?
• or did they have a catapult on the angled deck and its a take off?

More great images again!

Addit: Oops - no tail-hook so it's a take off!

[101RRS]

• Is that a missed approach (missed catch)?
• a touch and go?
• or did they have a catapult on the angled deck and its a take off?

More great images again!

Addit: Oops - no tail-hook so it's a take off!

Most likely a touch and go as the tail hook is up - though I cannot remember if the hook is raised if the wire is missed.

Due to its small size, Melbourne only had a bow catapault where US carriers also have catapults on the angled deck as well. On US carriers the Trackers could "free deck" (take off without the catapult) but on Melbourne all launches were with the cat.

On occasion the cat would fire by itself causing some worry - indeed when I was there it dragged a Skyhawk down the deck at about 20 knots even with the A4s brakes locked and launched it off the front at 20knots. The pilot ejected just as the A4 went over the front and was recovered by the rescue helo - I now wished I had kept some bits of the canopy that littered then flight deck. On another occasion a A4 lost power just the cat fired and it went into the drink just in front of the ship.

When the first one crashed I was having morning tea in the mess when one of the guys said he saw a parachute coming down near the ship - then the crash alarm went off. We just assumed it was the divers jumping over the side with a parachute to test the crash/rescue systems - wrong - noticed that when we saw the A4 in the water. The pilot ejected but made a fatal mistake of inflating his life jacket as he was floating down as a consequence he could not put his hands under the jacket to release his parachute when he hit the water. No worries except he landed near the A4 and the parachute wrapped itself around the tail. As the A4 sank it pulled the pilot down with it and he went down at least a couple of hundred feet (he said it was starting to get dark) when the buoyancy of his life raft and life jacket pulled him free of the A4 and he floated to the surface.

In the end the catapault was getting too dangerous to use and was kept for "soft shots" for the Trackers (where there is a lot of wind across the deck for minimal assistance required for launch) and the A4s were grounded. The arrester wires were also playing up and started providing too much retardation on landing - there was a worry that they would not run out and rip an aircraft apart. Also some wires were breaking an landing (and you think a winch wire breaking was dangerous) sometimes after slowing the aircraft down so 'go around' flying speed may not be achieved. When one wire broke it took out all the aerials on the port side and whacked the ships side and whipped into a safety cage on the side of the ship where a few guys had sheltered for the recovery - they all needed an undie change afterwards.

Life was interesting back then.

Garry

[Mick_Marsh]

Great photo's and stories

regards
Mick

[Chucaro]

Thanks Garry great shots and info