F-111 Disposal Team

[Fris B. Fairing]

It's probably been a melancholy day at Amberley today as the F-111 Disposal Team folds its tent after a job well done. Anyone who was lucky enough to see the team in action will have been filled with admiration for their dedication and attention to detail. With some political will along the way, they have succeeded in saving nearly 30% of all the F-111s that came to Australia. This is an outstanding achievement by any standard. Thanks to the Disposal Team (serving, reservists and civilians) 13 pristinely restored F-111s and 5 crew modules will stand as testament to the quality of their work for future generations to admire. Well done and thank you.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[500N]

13, that is superb.

"With some political will along the way,"

I bet they needed some of that and more especially with the US involved.

[Captain Dart]

Is it just me, or are the Indonesians getting uppity these days?

[gerry111]

Captain Dart, I think that the Federal Government has decided it's cheaper to give our Northern neighbours a bit of land in the N.T. to run cattle. And to throw money at Jakarta rather than attempt to scare them by military means...

[Oracle1]

Dumbest move ever made by Australia. 60 years ago we were capable of making our own turbines, now we get conned into scrapping a highly capable aircraft so the Australian taxpayer can buy some second hand outdated American surplus. The Indonesian's are running Sukhois now, perhaps they can afford to be uppity?

[500N]

gerry

That's an expensive response to a knee jerk reaction by a stupid Gov't that didn't need to occur. Maybe they need to fertilize the ground for the cattle with a few Greenies !


Oracle
They can afford to buy Sukhois because we give them aircraft and boats
so they don't have to spend money on them !!!

[Fris B. Fairing]

Guys

My original post was intended to give credit where credit is due but as usual the thread has drifted off on a political tangent.

Back on topic please.

Rgds

[gerry111]

Point taken, Fris B..

My first experience with the F111C was as a very junior Avionics RAAFie at RAAF base Edinburgh in 1976. An F111C had landed and was parked at Air Movements while the crew had lunch in the Officers Mess. The aircraft being then very secret had to be guarded. I was given the job... :cool: :ooh: :eek:

So I drove my car to Air Movements and met up with the crew. Could I sit in the aircraft? Not a problem but please don't play with anything painted black and yellow. After the crew left, I took a number of photos of my 1975 Corolla next to the F111. Then I climbed aboard. It was November and rather warm. So I sat in the pilot's seat and shortly afterwards fell asleep against the very comfortable lamb's wool seat cover.

After about an hour and a half, the crew returned and woke me up.

[tartare]

As a kid in Christchurch aged 5 or 6 it used to be a rare treat to hear that distinctive noise and see one knifing across the sky after having flown across the Tasman for a Navex in the Southern Alps.
Big, scary and lethal looking compared to the ocassional RNZAF A4K or Blunty that flew down south.
Amazing jet - sad to see it go.

[Weekend_Warrior]

F111s seemed to visit NZ quite often - probably learning how not to fly into mountains. Also, how not to set fire to aircraft while flaring fuel and how not to crash while taking off into very heavy rain also were lessons learnt here. Thankfully no deaths or serious injuries.

I recall driving up the Hutt motorway in Wellington one day in late eighties, and looked to see a F111 crossing the ridge, just as it swept it's wings forward. Amazing sight.
I saw an USAF F111 at Brands Hatch in UK in 1984 putting on a display - I didn't know such a large aircraft could also be so maneuverable.

Certainly a sad day when they were retired and glad to hear some remain.

[tartare]

I wonder if they were pretending we were a certain big Muslim nation to the North:E
The last pig I saw in the flesh was at the Whenuapai airshow.
The young pilot swept the wings back and did what seemed like 300 knots straight down the runway centreline at about 100 feet... raw power.
Afterwards we were talking with him. He said although the airframe was now speed limited due to age - in its day he could cross the Tasman in 45 minutes (I think that's right?), spend an hour flying through the Southern Alps, then recross the Tasman back to Amberly - and still have gas left over.
I shook my head in wonder and said "that is quite a plane."
He looked at me unblinking and replied "Sir - it is not a plane. It is a jet."
Yes - it certainly was.;)

[Weekend_Warrior]

They certainly did fly from OZ to NZ, operate here for a while and fly back to OZ non-stop.

Some time in the early 90s? residents of makara complained about several loud crashing noises at 1am - obviously sonic booms - air force admitted a RAAF F111 was exercising off the coast and got a little too enthusiastic with the speed levers.

[ranmar850]

memories--standing up on the top of Charles Knife road at Exmouth, watching them fly past below...sharing airspace in the R area at Lancelin- I was under the hood, (dual)on a nav exercise in the 172 " be advised there is an F-111 operating in your area, between 0 and 20,000ft" :eek: Ripped off the hood, spoke to him, was asked to maintain current track and altitude, and had the pleasure of seeing him a couple of times, turning hard, wings swept back....the airshow at Pearce some years back, both the FA-18 and Pig putting on brilliant displays....Wanaka 2006, dump and burn over the runway during the lunch break, I believe he flew from oz, did the display, then flew home?
Airshows won't be the same without them, not to mention the more serious implications.

[PLovett]

Was sitting at home one evening quietly watching TV when I used to live just outside of a small town in the central north of Tasmania. One flew in through the front door, did a circuit around the living room and then flew out again - or at least thats what it felt like. :eek:

The reality was that it was a F111 doing a practice bomb run on a cement factory located in the nearby town. Whenever they were in the state this was a favourite exercise as a year or so earlier two of them did a daylight sortie on the same target. They were positioning out of Hobart where they had been for some flag waving duty back to the mainland. 500' or so over the ridge to the south of the town, "bomb" the factory then hard pull to the left to again depart northwards at 500' at a great rate of knots. :ok:

Not only did they get all that fun but they paid them as well. Spoilt I say. :}

[SgtBundy]

When I was in the AIRTC we did a few visits to the Evans Head bombing range and got to sit up on the hill and observe them doing bombing runs with practice bombs.

At one point we got told to climb up onto one of the buildings and one of the cadets was given a large fluoro orange sign with an exclamation point on it to hold up. The F-111 headed south down around Yamba and came straight back up the coast at low level, lined up right on the sign and did a high speed pass at what seemed to be 200 ft. The noise as it hit felt like it could knock the wind out of you.

Also my kids first introduction to aircraft was at the Richmond Air show - as we got off the bus the F111 was doing a low pass followed quickly by a dump and burn - this was the first aircraft they had seen up close....

http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af260/sgtbundy/P1040082.jpg

http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af260/sgtbundy/P1040085.jpg

[luvmuhud]

F-111C disposal team…that used to be a pair of Hornets!:}

[500N]

Proabably one of the best experiecnes I ever had in the military was due to an F-111 on an exercise at Woomera Rocket Range. We were assaulting the one of the towers and about 120 soldiers were live firing everything possible at the wooden building in front and the Concrete launch pad when the F-111 popped up on the radio asking for clearance.

Now we were running late and should have been off the target and a few Kms away by then but the boss cleared him for a live drop anyway :rolleyes:.
He roared in directly at us which surprised me as we were still firing something like 6 Machine guns and ricochets were going in every direction including vertical.

He then did two passes and dropped two bombs on the other launch pad. before coming in very low over us and then going almost vertical with full afterburner. Everyone felt the heat on our faces he was so close.

So thank you for one of the best memories ever :ok:

[Ascend Charlie]

Best example I saw of the F-111 Mud Movers was a live firing demo at Holsworthy in the 70s, with a pair of Aardvarks dropping HE onto the side of a hill some distance away. The roar of the machinery coming from right rear, the multiple flashes on the ground, followed quickly by that gut-shaking KRRUMPP was a real hoot.

Then the RAAF Hueys fired mini guns and HE rockets, and then the army ruined the show by firing the gun on a tank, it ricocheted and landed in some trees many km away and started a bushfire. The show stopped while the boys headed off to put out the fire.:sad:

[500N]

AC

The good old firepower demos :ok:

[morno]

When I was a young tacker at high school down in NSW, the school that I went to had a former student as an F-111 pilot. For a number of years, maybe 3-4 times a year you'd be sitting there bored out of your brains, then the rumble would start, followed shortly after by one, sometimes 2 F-111's very low and very fast over the school, swing it around over town with wings swept and up on 90 degrees, then go vertical and head back to Amberley.

I found out years later that, as with most places in the country, they were doing practice bomb runs on the school.

We also lived out of town in a long valley that also attracted a number of the boys doing practice TFR runs at bugger all altitude. An awesome sight that was sad to see go.

morno

[Howard Hughes]

F-111C disposal team…that used to be a pair of Hornets!
If they could catch them! ;)

[tdracer]

Thanks to the Disposal Team (serving, reservists and civilians) 13 pristinely restored F-111s and 5 crew modules will stand as testament to the quality of their work for future generations to admire.Kudos on a job well done. I had the pleasure of seeing what I'm reasonably sure was one of their restorations last week at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor. A beautiful F-111 in Australian livery - I think it was tail number A8-130.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Pacific Aviation Museum is a relatively new museum located on Ford Island in the middle of Pearl Harbor. The F-111 is a centerpiece display in "Hanger 79". Hanger 79 is a museum in and of itself, not only dating back to Dec 7, 1941, but still has visible bullet holes in the hanger doors from that attack.

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

Very pleased to see that WA got a cockpit capsule, its at the RAAF Assoc Museum at Bull Creek.

Aviation Heritage Museum Virtual Tour - North Wing (http://www.raafawa.org.au/museum/tour/northwing/index.html)

Appropriately located in front of the 'Lanc', and adjacent to the Spitfire Mk 22

Thanks to those who did such a good job.

Cheers:ok:

[LurkerBelow]

In the 1970s, I remember a flypast in Wellington by a F111 and two RNZAF Skyhawks. I had a holiday job at Victoria University in a building that had a grand view of Wellington harbour and the Hutt Valley. It overflew the CBD and then circled out back over the harbour for a second circuit, during which it swung its wings back and accelerated away from the Skyhawks who were obviously struggling very hard trying to keep up. I suspect now it was a very public demonstration by the aussies of the mighty superiority of the F111 over anything us kiwis could muster against it...

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

Beware drift.....

Re 'over anything us kiwis could muster against it...'

Oh, I dunno.... SPEIGHTS ain't so bad....

:}

[T28D]

I see Bull Creek also has the procedural cockpit trainer yet to be displayed.

[Lancair70]

Well done to the team.


My 1st sighting of an F-111 was at Casino airshow in the early 80's. The announcer said the A/C was inbound from the east in a few minutes, so we're all looking east and 20sec after the announcement over came the F-111, from behind us, low and fast wings back. WOW. It then proceeded on several passes in different config's, finally departing with a dump and burn. I'll never forget it.