Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates

[old faithful]

Easy handle a Bn of troops. The 12 x 130J30, s could drop a Bn group and equipment in one pass., although the heavy drop would probably go first.
Biggest jump I ever did was on Diamond Dollar 1986, think its still the biggest drop weve done. About 700 troops dropped, 1 fatality on that drop. Very cool drop, took off from Richmond NSW drop zone was Silver Plains, near Coen on the cape york peninsular. After a long flight and a cold morning (close to zero cels), hours inside of herc, to hit the slip stream at 30 plus degrees and see nothing but T10 conopies and a couple of RF111, s and FA18 escorts was soooo sureal!
Probably my favorite memory from my stint in the green machine.

 

[old faithful]

Alaska to SWB in 17hours! Were they in the concorde?
Richmond to Hawaii in a C141 was 16 hours of hell.

 

[Nick underscore]

Yeah, its true. It was a 17 hour flight from memory. It's happened more than once, but usually its about a battalion or so that does the jump. Just google it for more info.

cheers Raven for heads up and will search for more, just didn't think such long jumps took place.

EDIT; [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHIAS4UBQSY"]Airborne! From Alaska to Australia - YouTube[/nomedia]

Easy handle a Bn of troops. The 12 x 130J30, s could drop a Bn group and equipment in one pass., although the heavy drop would probably go first.
Biggest jump I ever did was on Diamond Dollar 1986, think its still the biggest drop weve done. About 700 troops dropped, 1 fatality on that drop. Very cool drop, took off from Richmond NSW drop zone was Silver Plains, near Coen on the cape york peninsular. After a long flight and a cold morning (close to zero cels), hours inside of herc, to hit the slip stream at 30 plus degrees and see nothing but T10 conopies and a couple of RF111, s and FA18 escorts was soooo sureal!
Probably my favorite memory from my stint in the green machine.

What a great story OF. (extreamely envious :wah )

Just a quick question if I may, why did/ do many armed forces that employ airborne use static T-10's? I never understood when going through this privately.. My teacher was some ex-SA para, but he wasn't a guy you really asked, what seemed silly questions too. Is it because there is too much inherent risk with steerable/ toggle canopies to the LZ? Cheers

 

[old faithful]

T10, s are designed to get a fully equiped para n the ground as quick as possible.
At 750 feet a g l, you have a 3 second awarness count, kick out of twists, and are on the ground in about a minute or less.
Having a 100 or more blokes steering canopies, when they are already very close together is a recipie for disaster. Mid air collisions and entanglments.

The MC1, is a semi steerable version of the T10, and not cleared below 1500 feet AGL. Operational jumps are generally 750ft, Ive got one logged at 650 feet, at night.
Most training jumps with T10, s are at 1000ft Above ground level.
At 750 feet, I witnessed a total malfunction at Innesfail, static line broke. The Bn adgident, Capt Menzies. Got his reserve out at about 100 feet. I have never seen bigger eyes on a human being, or anyone with a bigger adrenalin surge, I got him as he hit the ground, and he was like super man. No injuries and he completed the exercise. The parachute insertion is just the start. You then have a rally proceedure, then move to objective. DZ, s are never on top of the target, as a result, para, s world wide, are very good at walking with stupidly heavy loads.

 

[Trackmaster]

Much admiration.

 

[Nick underscore]

Interesting piece regarding the RAAF sortie numbers across type.

RAAF rotating the 400 and not the platforms.

Second RAAF Air Task Group to deploy to the Middle East | Australian Aviation

The single RAAF E-7A and the KC-30A are certainly proving their value and being utilised. Average 'flight time on sortie' for the E-7's, are impressive.

 

[Nick underscore]

Latest editon of APDR states RAAF F-18 'classics' will be rotating through on the next deployment cycle (July). P.68 - http://apdr.realviewtechnologies.com/#folio=69

Interesting that the optimal mix for BAMS is 12-15 x P-8A's along with 7 x Triton. Mentions potential future use of medium altitude UAS - I.e. Heron

Some blurbage regarding plan Jericho for the RAAF

 

[John Fedup]

Latest editon of APDR states RAAF F-18 'classics' will be rotating through on the next deployment cycle (July). P.68 - Asia Pacific Defence Reporter : APDR February 2015, Page 1

Interesting that the optimal mix for BAMS is 12-15 x P-8A's along with 7 x Triton. Mentions potential future use of medium altitude UAS - I.e. Heron

Some blurbage regarding plan Jericho for the RAAF

If those numbers pan out, that's quite an upgrade in capability from 18 Orions.

 

[Nick underscore]

RAAF now training on MQ-9 Reapers at Creech US air force base in Nevada.

I think we will see x4 in the White paper and a quick purchase, much like the recent Dutch deal. RAAF starts MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial system training in US - Airforce Technology

 

[ADMk2]

If those numbers pan out, that's quite an upgrade in capability from 18 Orions.

3 of those Orions are training only birds, so it's quite an upgrade on 15 Orions in reality...

 

[Bluey 006]

RAAF now training on MQ-9 Reapers at Creech US air force base in Nevada.

I think we will see x4 in the White paper and a quick purchase, much like the recent Dutch deal. RAAF starts MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial system training in US - Airforce Technology

This is quite an old article but it seems Reapers have support from the boss - Air Force wants to buy deadly Reaper drones

The fact that pilots are in training and upper brass are supportive of the capability seems to support your conclusions that we will see something included in the white paper...

 

[Todjaeger]

3 of those Orions are training only birds, so it's quite an upgrade on 15 Orions in reality...

I had thought that there were 18 in-service AP-3C Orions, and that there were 3 examples of other P-3 Orions (one being an EP-3C) which were used as training birds. Not at home so I will have to do some checking to see if I can confirm once home.

-Cheers

 

[ADMk2]

I had thought that there were 18 in-service AP-3C Orions, and that there were 3 examples of other P-3 Orions (one being an EP-3C) which were used as training birds. Not at home so I will have to do some checking to see if I can confirm once home.

-Cheers

We had a max of 19 at one point, 3 of which were training aircraft. They've been retired and we were down to 16 AP-3C airframes. At least one of these has since been retired, meaning we have (more or less) 15 aircraft on the flightline at present, which includes the training aircraft and the 'Special' (ie: EW roled aircraft) variants we maintain.

Hence why the numbers of P-8A's and Tritons reportedly to be acquired (8 and 7 respectively with 4 options on the P-8A) don't overly concern me.

Numbers wise we are no worse off and if the options are taken up, we are actually better off. Not to mention the qualitative difference...

 

[Volkodav]

I had thought that there were 18 in-service AP-3C Orions, and that there were 3 examples of other P-3 Orions (one being an EP-3C) which were used as training birds. Not at home so I will have to do some checking to see if I can confirm once home.

-Cheers

There were initially twenty, one was lost in an accident and only eighteen upgraded, including those equipped for electronic reconnaissance / surveillance. Three additional (old) airframes were acquired in the 90s for flight training and certification (to conserve) hours on the rest of the fleet but they have long since retired.

I was told that the extra aircraft were originally also intended to serve in a support role for the wing, flying personnel and cargo in support of Orion deployments but internal politics meant that if they took on those roles they would have to be transferred from 92 Wing to the Air Lift Group at least administratively and possibly physically too. Don't know the facts on that one but it is what I was told.

 

[John Newman]

Hopefully I can clarify the P-3 question.

As Volk said there were originally 20 P-3C's in service, purchased in two batches of 10 (first batch of 10 replaced a squadron of P-2's and the second batch of 10 replaced the P-3B's, the majority of which were back-traded to Lockheed and one also going to the RNZAF and being modified to P-3K and still in service too!).

One P-3C was lost in an accident in the Cocos Islands in April 1991, leaving a fleet of 19 P-3C's.

Three ex USN P-3B's were delivered in 97/98 to be used as training aircraft, designated TAP-3B, so at one stage there were 22 P-3's in service (18 x AP-3C, 1 x P-3C and 3 x TAP-3B). The TAP-3B's were scrapped in 2008.

The RAAF announced in November last year (2014) that three airframes had been scrapped (as I understand it those three airframes were 2 x AP-3C's and the 'unmodified' P-3C), leaving an 'active' fleet of 16 AP-3C's.

When the RAAF announced the scrapping of those three airframes they said that as further airframes are withdrawn over the coming years, selected airframes with 'historical' significance would be kept as museum pieces.

Below is a link to a Youtube video of the scrapping of the three airframes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUNN_IynV9c


And also a link to 'ADF Serials' which has information on individual P-3 airframes (unfortunately I can't get the link to go to the P-3 page, but if you go to 'RAAF/ADF Series Three' and scroll down to 'A-9' you will see the P-3 histories):

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/

By the way, ADF Serials is a pretty good website, has individual histories on virtually every aircraft that has been in ADF service right from the beginning.

Cheers,

 

[Milne Bay]

Hopefully I can clarify the P-3 question.

As Volk said there were originally 20 P-3C's in service, purchased in two batches of 10 (first batch of 10 replaced a squadron of P-2's and the second batch of 10 replaced the P-3B's, the majority of which were back-traded to Lockheed and one also going to the RNZAF and being modified to P-3K and still in service too!).

One P-3C was lost in an accident in the Cocos Islands in April 1991, leaving a fleet of 19 P-3C's.

Three ex USN P-3B's were delivered in 97/98 to be used as training aircraft, designated TAP-3B, so at one stage there were 22 P-3's in service (18 x AP-3C, 1 x P-3C and 3 x TAP-3B). The TAP-3B's were scrapped in 2008.

The RAAF announced in November last year (2014) that three airframes had been scrapped (as I understand it those three airframes were 2 x AP-3C's and the 'unmodified' P-3C), leaving an 'active' fleet of 16 AP-3C's.

When the RAAF announced the scrapping of those three airframes they said that as further airframes are withdrawn over the coming years, selected airframes with 'historical' significance would be kept as museum pieces.

Below is a link to a Youtube video of the scrapping of the three airframes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUNN_IynV9c


And also a link to 'ADF Serials' which has information on individual P-3 airframes (unfortunately I can't get the link to go to the P-3 page, but if you go to 'RAAF/ADF Series Three' and scroll down to 'A-9' you will see the P-3 histories):

Welcome to ADF Serials

By the way, ADF Serials is a pretty good website, has individual histories on virtually every aircraft that has been in ADF service right from the beginning.

Cheers,

Thank you for the link to RAAF/ADF serials.
Very interesting reading. I checked only one type - RAAF Handley Page HP.52 Hampden Mk.I.
Very few survived, with air-crew lost of course.
I am intrigued by one entry:

AD783 Mk.I ?

455Sqn.UB-U.
Lost 12/13Feb42 gardening off Emden.

I wonder what "gardening" refers to?
MB

 

[ngatimozart]

Thank you for the link to RAAF/ADF serials.
Very interesting reading. I checked only one type - RAAF Handley Page HP.52 Hampden Mk.I.
Very few survived, with air-crew lost of course.
I am intrigued by one entry:

AD783 Mk.I ?

455Sqn.UB-U.
Lost 12/13Feb42 gardening off Emden.

I wonder what "gardening" refers to?
MB

Gardening was the laying of sea mines from aircraft. Was a RAF term much like Rhubarbs was a term for low level fighter strikes in occupied France.

 

[Milne Bay]

Gardening was the laying of sea mines from aircraft. Was a RAF term much like Rhubarbs was a term for low level fighter strikes in occupied France.

I actually thought that might be it.
Thanks. High loss rate in the Hampdens
MB

 

[ngatimozart]

I actually thought that might be it.
Thanks. High loss rate in the Hampdens
MB

Yes there was. They weren't suited for WW2 combat conditions. To slow and poorly armed. same as the Hudsons and Venturas the NZ Sqns had in Europe.

 

[Volkodav]

Thanks for that John, very informative.