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-   -   RAAF Mirage Aircraft (https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/291899-raaf-mirage-aircraft.html)

Peter Fanelli 13th Sep 2007 03:18

RAAF Mirage Aircraft
 
Whatever happened to the Mirages, were they ever disposed of or dispersed to museums or are they still in storage at Woomera?

tinpis 13th Sep 2007 03:26

To Pakistan goodness me yes....

linedriva 13th Sep 2007 03:52

There is a two seat Mirage (A3-16) restored to static display at Classic Jets Fighter Museum at Parafield Airport in Adelaide. Great museum, well worth a look if you are out that way. CAC Sabre, Gloster Meteor, DH Sea Venom, Mirage. The current project is a Lockheed Lightening. I just wish they were all flying!

Hempy 13th Sep 2007 04:14

There is a good history of all our Mirages here. I was shocked at how many we lost :eek:

Chimbu chuckles 13th Sep 2007 05:08

Yeah like A3-18...the below quote doesn't really do it justice.


Engine failure during return to base from Song Song Range (75 Sqn). Pilot ejected at 180 ft and 160 kts with only minor injuries. Crew; FLGOFF L.D.Boyd. RAAF Ejection number 44.
I flew with Lindsay, one of nature's true gentlemen, in PX...he had tried to eject several times but each time he pulled the handle with one hand (other on control column) nothing happened. Finally, in desperation, he grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled...and out he went...180'/160kts:uhoh:...inadvertantly discovering a design fault that had been, as I remember the story, responsible for a few fatalities.

His 'minor injuries' sidelined him for a year if memory serves...he retired a Wingco off F111s and is now on the A320 at J*.
One of the prettiest fighters ever designed too...what a good looking aeroplane:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu21W-ls_bE

lots of really good CGI and film including interviews with Isreali Mirage aces.

ForkTailedDrKiller 13th Sep 2007 06:42

The Mirage was indeed an awesome bit of kit - when the fan was turning.

When I was in NZ in the mid-80s I visited the Control Tower at Ohakea Airforce Base, home of the then NZ Skyhawk fighter squadron. Every couple of years the Aussie Mirages would arrive there for joint exercises.
Apparently it became something of a tradition for them to depart for Oz via the space between the Control Tower and its neighbouring hangar - below the level of the Control Tower windows.

One NZ CO decided to put a stop to this practice, so he strung a wire from the Control Tower to the hangar, and so it would be obvious, he strung some of those plastic propellors, that anyone of my vintage might remember used to be a common decoration of used car yards, along the wire.

You guessed it! The next time the Mirages were in town, one of the Aussie pilots just could not resist the challenge and departed for Oz in the usual way - between the Control Tower and the hangar - UNDERNEATH the wire - full afterburner.

Story goes that the MPs were waiting for him on arrival back in Oz.

Dr

Peter Fanelli 13th Sep 2007 07:23


Story goes that the MPs were waiting for him on arrival back in Oz.
Damn right too, probably made the sheep all skittish! :E

Capt Wally 13th Sep 2007 13:19

..............there's one floating around at Wangaratta airport I believe. can't believe the cramped cockpit & when you look up close at it the ergonomics seem like a typical pommy job...............!& that wing !!!................now I know where they got the design of razor blades from !


Capt Wally :-)

Capt Claret 13th Sep 2007 13:43

Geez Wally, "typical pommy job", there'll be a few Froggies that won't like that! :}

Bullethead 13th Sep 2007 13:51

And a few Poms!! :hmm:

Capt Wally 14th Sep 2007 08:22

...........hey I didn't say the Mirage was a 'pommy' job just referring to it's cockpit layout (ealry pommy jobs where a joke in teh cockpit!)................we all know that the Frogs put together this speed machine..............saw one land at ML airport many moons ago............so what you might say...........it was a 'wheeless' landing, nice to watch tho:-).............clever boy & he was a military guy...........see you don't need to be so called expertly trained to just be human !:-)

..............Capt wally

Peter Fanelli 14th Sep 2007 08:34

Didn't he go on to be an examiner?

Hempy 14th Sep 2007 08:44


Originally Posted by Capt Wally
..............saw one land at ML airport many moons ago............so what you might say...........it was a 'wheeless' landing, nice to watch tho:-).............clever boy & he was a military guy...........see you don't need to be so called expertly trained to just be human !:-)

..............Capt wally

The (trainee) ADC forgot to tell him to "check wheels", so he didn't :ouch:

Capt Wally 14th Sep 2007 08:46

.......very perceptive peter...........he did just that!.....he used to drive an old Saab to........silly bugger :) Wander what ever became of him?

..........................ahhhh those where the days...........way back when Steve Knott (may he rest in piece) was an apprentice Alan was about........learnt a lot from him as did Steve............memories will never die

capt wally.....reminiscing

Taildragger67 14th Sep 2007 08:46

My understanding was that 'landing' (controlled crashing?) one of those beasties gave a new meaning to 'aiming point'... :eek:

Capt Wally 14th Sep 2007 08:49

................& WHY DON'T THEY (ATC) SAY CHECK.........damn caps locks !!!..........wheels to 400 tons???................nothing to do with being single pilot I hope...the old "PUFF" checks I still secretly use even to this day.......costs nothing unlike the formentioned !

capt Wally:-)

gav_20022002 14th Sep 2007 14:51

There is also another one up in darwin that the then FLGOFF John Quaiffe put into the coconut grove mudflats after the fan stopped turning, considdering it spent a few good yrs in the flats with the weather up here its polished up alright

Richo 15th Sep 2007 03:07

gav

If you are talikg about A3-100, that was not JQ's mud lark.
A3-100 is the Darwin RAAF Base gate guardian (display and memorial) left by 75SQN back in the late 90s

JQ's sat outside the Darwin Aviation museum for a few years, looked real good with that big ding under the intakes and that, Banana look to it. The Army carted it away to Tindal a few years back under a chook. I hav'nt seen it since but I understand it was rebuilt from some spares from other aircraft and maybe even the old tail from outside DN Ops. If its all shiny and new now so be it, but personally I prefered it the way it looked when he left it. (no offence JQ)

richo

gsf 15th Sep 2007 04:18

ForkTailedDrKiller: Your story has obviously had more than the usual amount of embellishment with constant retelling.

There was no tradition of flying between the tower and its neighbouring hangar below the level of the Control Tower windows, they turned straight on track for New Caledonia.

The wire you refer to was not strung up for that purpose, it was an aerial.
The aerial did not have little plastic propellors on it, it was marked by small coloured triangular flags.

IF someone had flown between under that aerial in full afterburner they would have almost certainly collected the roof of the fire section or one of the adjacent Pohutekawa trees.

And Then 15th Sep 2007 04:32

Well anyways, B52 crews on low level navex over the NT would often muse at RAAF Mirages making guns passes and going underneath them.


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