Vampire

[Centaurus]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/HSWL/Vampire1954001.jpg..Vampire

This Vampire Mk 31 A79-737 forced landed in 1954 at Polo Flat, Cooma after fuel exhaustion. Considering the total endurance with drop tanks was about 1.4 hours it doesn't take long before the pilot has to put it down somewhere.
Does any Pprune reader know further details of the incident?

[Paul O'Rourke]

Accident to: Vampire A79-737 - Unit: 2 Operational Training Unit - Place: Williamtown - Date: 12 May 1954 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy

No suggestion of Cooma but probably within flying distance though. I might do somemore digging but it will take a while :ok:


Incident re: Wirraway A20-636 - Unit: No 25 Sqn - Place:Abandoned strip Muchea, WA - Date 3 July 1955 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy 05827

Accident to: Vampire A79-282 -Unit: No 25 Sqn - Place:Laverton: Date: 30 October 1955 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy (05827)

Accident to Vampire Mk 33 A79-824 Place: Woomera AirfieldPilot Flg Off B Joy (05827)

[Centaurus]

Thanks for that history. I remember Brian Joy. Nice bloke who sported a moustache.
I think he joined one of the airlines eventually. He flew Meteors in Korea.

[Fantome]

Accident to: Vampire A79-737 - Unit: 2 Operational Training Unit - Place: Williamtown - Date: 12 May 1954 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy


Incident re: Wirraway A20-636 - Unit: No 25 Sqn - Place:Abandoned strip Muchea, WA - Date 3 July 1955 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy 05827

Accident to: Vampire A79-282 -Unit: No 25 Sqn - Place:Laverton: Date: 30 October 1955 - Pilot: Flg Off B Joy (05827)

Accident to Vampire Mk 33 A79-824 Place: Woomera AirfieldPilot Flg Off B Joy (05827)



FLYING OFFICER JOY . .. . . . 'TENSHUN. . . . .. WHOSE SIDE EXACTLY ARE YOU ON?

(Allegedly said to 'Zeke' . . . Jack McDonald when he fired up his Meteor in a hurry .. . gave her the gun only to swing round into another parked Meteor.)

[Paul O'Rourke]

CENTAURUS:

Do you have a motive?

FANTOME, NOTED!

I will give Flight Officer B. Joy the benefit of the doubt.

A chap from Warrnambool supplied me with the following picture. He knew Jack McDonald. This is his Mustang. Frank told me he witnessed Jack not long after the Korean War perform an inverted run along the main street (of what he believed was Warracknabeal) at 200' circa early to mid 50's.

Is this the same Gentleman? :)


http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv283/PaulO-001/Mustangsmall.jpg

[Centaurus]

Frank told me he witnessed Jack not long after the Korean War perform an inverted run along the main street (of what he believed was Warracknabeal) at 200' circa early to mid 50's.

Nice photo of a Mustang. I very much doubt if Jack McD. would have risked such a foolish and highly dangerous manoeuvre. A lot of these "daring pilot" stories of various pilots are embellished down through the years and the truth is very different. Jack was the consummate air-show pilot in the Mustang and in the displays that I witnessed back in that era he was ever careful of the rules of low level aerobatic displays in the Mustang.

[ranmar850]

Slightly off-Topic, but who owned the Mustang/Cavalier that operated out of Bankstown in the fifties/early sixties? I grew up in the area, remember seeing it flying, including a low-level run up Milperra Rd once, I was looking out the back window of the old Vanguard and saw it coming. I believe it was destroyed in an accident, pilot killed?

[tipsy]

Illawara Flying School used them for target duties.....................







and beatup the odd Caribou between Nowra and Richmond.

tipsy:=

[Centaurus]

who owned the Mustang/Cavalier

The Cavalier was the Dart engine version of the Mustang and one was stuck at Fairbairn Canberra for a few years. Did it ever fly?

[tail wheel]

That was P51 VH-UFO:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/Mark12/Album%203/DartMustangOzImagePeterSledge001.jpg

Ex Maralinga. A68-187, 44-74839a, now N50FS, "La Pistolera".

1950: RAAF
1958: numerous owners, open stored '61-'67
1976: VH-UFO, Australia - attempted restoration with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop, later stored
1995: Shipped to USA (World Jet Inc.)
1996: Rebuilt as TF at Square One Aviation in Chino (Frank Borman)
2006: (Rod Lewis) "La Pistolera"

Now:

http://www.lewisairlegends.com/wp-content/themes/GG-Theme/img/T-51_lg/05.jpg

[ranmar850]

Didn't North Americam produce a civilian version of the Mustang, Merlin-engined, after WW2, called the Cavalier?

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_Mustang

Edit-should have done some simple homework first. More to it than I thought.:uhoh:
Edit again--Was the late Bill Wylie's twin seat Mustang a Cavalier or a "proper" USAF training variant? I had the pleasure of flying it ICUS as a 5oth birthday present to myself. Highlight of my logbook, after my first solo and Basic Aerobatics endorsement.

[jas24zzk]

The turbine conversion, whilst an interesting study, is a good demonstration of puke level asthetics.

What a shame the owner in the us is running around with a seppo livery on an aussie aircraft.. Many yanks with CAC stangs proudly display the aircraft's heritage.

[Dogimed]

2006: (Rod Lewis) "La Pistolera"

Tail looks stupid.

Dog

[GCS16]

Nice Pics gents. Keep 'em coming.

[Fantome]

parked just behind FCB (Castrol red/black/white) in the pic here is old AER
Jack Masling's 310, employed cloud-seeding in '68. Now stored in the museum at Moorabbin with plans to display her as a rain-maker.

A68-187 when having the Dart put in in Canberra the man spear-heading the work was Peter Brown, son of JT Brown who had Austerserve at Bankstown and Kingsford Smith Flying Services. Peter's brother was also involved with the Dart project. Have an idea that Hockey Treloar was the man writing the cheques. Peter was tight lipped whenever nosey parkers came round asking leading questions.

[SeldomFixit]

Fantome - Ron Gower mentioned something similar to me at one time.