RAAF vs AG. Accident waiting to happen?

[maxspeed]

This has being an ongoing concern of mine for some years. To do with low flying militrary aircraft conflicting with AG aircraft, I have being a victim a number of times. Firstly not to many years ago as a very very fresh AG2 on the Darling Downs my little agwagon windscreen become full of F 111 tailpipe and more recintly in WA ferrying with a load on out to the field at 2-300ft agl and a PC-9 goes under me and he was heading in to the sun! no radio calls no nutn'. And when I followed this up with a call to Pearce air force base I was told in no uncertain terms there was no danger as he (the PC-9 pilot) would have had me on TCASS, and whe I informed him that to my Knowlage that for TCASS to be effective the other A/C must not only have his Xponder on, but actually have one in A/C to start with!
Has anyone else had concerns over this ? And should the RAAF be relying on TCASS and the likes over basic airmanship? In my opinion I don't care if you are doing 100kts or 250kts, below 200ft AGL your eys belong in one place and it aint' inside the cockpit!

[Low-Pass]

Maxspeed, If you check the NOTAMs for the area you'll be operating in, you'll generally find notification of LJRs or Low-level Jet Routes. These tend to be quite precise as to the time and location of RAAF aircraft at low-level. They do this as they don't want to have an accident either. In the end, they generally have a bang seat....

LP

[maxspeed]

L-P, I have looked at the posted LJR'S and in fact I find them to be broad, inprecise and basicly useless. I think the RAAF would be much better served if they used the radio more, and limit the amount of playing and beat-ups on unsuspecting AG aircraft that are out there working doing somthing productive for the country! Also it's also gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that a good part of my wage is going into putting fuel into that young punks F-III!!:}

[Milt]

maxspeed

That F-111 is as much yours as it is the young punks' on board.

The difference is that the two young punks who are training to use it in anger are prepared to risk their lives in combat to preserve your way of life for YOU.

[maxspeed]

Milt, I put this post here as a topic on saftey , in the veiw that it could save lives, by no means is it to begrudge the RAAF, god knows I would love to have a go at what they do and I have the up most respect for the blokes/girls and what they do. I'am attemting to keep this light hearted In the hope that someone that has more motivation and intelligence than me may take this further and both the RAAF and AG industry cann work together on somthing to improve saftey for everyone;)

[Lowlevldevl]

Hiya Max,
Hows the weather at Palm Cove?
I can understand your frustration perfectly mate. I'll bet you that nearly every ag-pilot in the country has a yarn to tell about being 'beaten up' by a fast jet. Had a similar thing happen years ago mustering west of Townsville. Four F-18's used me as an intercept target near Blue Range. (That's the only explanation as I rang the day previous to advise my area of operations as requested by NOTAM.) Now I wasn't that worried because it was a fairly spectacular experience and I figure they new what they were doing. Bet those boys thought that was areal hoot though.
However............ stray ever so slightly into THEIR air-space and watch the $hit hit the fan. Then it's a major incident.

[currawong]

Tree top height to ground is usually out of their way:E

Pulling up at the end of a run might surprise them.

It sometimes surprises some of our own that choose to ferry at a particularly low, illegal, and unprofessional level.

I would be up to trading a ride with one any time:ok:

Will the new Wedgetail project have any bearing on collision avoidance, given some of that gear can see cars on roads etc?

[Paint The Sky Pink!]

Hi all,

Just catching up today. Have been away from the computer for a while. Had the AAAA conference, then it was off to the USA for two weeks.

The RAAF vs AG Flying has been an issue in the NW NSW / SE QLD areas for some time. A meeting was held a few years ago between the RAAF and our industry. I was not here at the time of the meeting so, I cannot tell you what the outcome was! I will however ask around. Maybe someone alse reading this knows of the meeting I am talking about??? I think it was held at the Moree Aero Club.

I think nearly everyone one of our pilots have a story to tell about been out spraying and seeing the tail end of a F-111 whizz past, usually quite close by!

Cheers,
Paint The Sky Pink!

[poteroo]

LJR's

I owned a property N of Pearce for about 10 years, and it was some 5-6 nm E of the published LJR, but .... it was right on the 3 phase SEC lines running due N-S.

Macchis and later PC9's tracked up those powerlines religiously. I called RAAF Pearce, to be told

well, they are students, and sometimes they get a bit off course

So be reassured - they are not necessarily on track as claimed.

And they are not necessarily 300' agl either

happy days,