Mirage in RAAF Service
 

A few answers to questions raised on this thread can be found on the link below. And, ditto to the remarks regarding the lack of recognition afforded Gary Cooper.



ADF Serials - RAAF A3 GAF Mirage III

One needs to bear in mind that participants in SVN were not looked favourably upon by the very nation that sent us there.

Tipsy
And for Tomorrow
"Lest We Forget"
I can't.

Does anyone recall the engine out profile for the Macchi? One of my former colleagues ( ex-Mirage ) swore it worked the same for an A320.

"Speed to height, check for fire, no fire, throttle idle, attempt hot relight, no relight throttle stop..." etc etc - that's stretching the brain. Can't remember the glide speed - 140 kt?

Glide profile something like 2 nm / 1000 ft with a circular pattern, high key 2500 AGL and low key 1500? All a bit vague now I'm afraid.

Come on Armless, the brain isn't THAT stuffed!

150kt and half speedbrake to simulate the windmilling engine.

Speed to height, check for fire, fire confirmed, eject!

In those days the RAAF Flight Digest (was it called "Spotlight" in those days) was a fine flight safety magazine and none of the graphic design highly coloured rubbish that constitutes the current "Spotlight" ADF flight safety magazine.

I flew with Lindsay in PX on the F28 - one of nature's true gentlemen - the reason he was so low and slow when he got out was he was busy discovering a design flaw in the seat pan ejection handle.:uhoh:

And the reason that Lindsay's engine failed was that an air intake attachment bolt head had sheared due to fatigue and partially destroyed the high pressure section of the engine. The failure was insidious in that true extent of the engine damage was masked by the cockpit indications of RPM and TGT which appeared normal. Also, the engine vibrations (actually compressor stalling) only occurred above about 8100 RPM (approx 95% of max RPM). In the meantime the aircraft decelerated due to substantial thrust loss.

When Lindsay finally recognized the problem and extent of thrust loss he was about 500 feet and about 250 kt and saw that he would not make it to runway 18 at Butterworth.

He then attempted to eject using the seat pan handle. However, due to a design defect, the handle would not budge when pulled off-centre with only the right hand, due to interference from the sides of the handle safety pin hole.

Lindsay said he used superhuman strength to activate the ejection sequence at 180 feet. He became the first pilot to eject with the newly fitted anti-squid line which was installed to promote rapid opening and inflation of the parachute. A very lucky boy indeed.

Stan Groom's (RIP) aircraft was crippled by the same type bolt failure and engine ingestion the previous year. The RAAF investigators couldn't work out why Stan didn't eject...so they erroneously decided that he must have been attempting a wheels-up belly landing on a dirt strip instead (oh really?).

It is my very strong conjecture that Stan was killed by the same design defect in the ejection seat pan handle that wasn't recognized and corrected until after Lindsay's ejection..

Hi all -- I found this thread while following up a story I'd heard about a Mirage making a forced landing at a race track and being towed back to base along the highway; looks like this was Gary Cooper at Tomago :)

Does anyone here know which Mirage this was? The adf-serials site doesn't seem to mention the incident.

Have any pictures of the tow home emerged over the years? I imagine some must have been taken!

Gary Cooper
 

I used to fly with Gary in CX. Lost touch with him after he left CX. Gary if you happen to read this post, please PM me. Also if somebody could help, I would be grateful for a PM so I could contact Gary.

Death of Tony Svensson
 

Tony died only recently after a long illness (Alzheimer's disease), thought by his family to have been brought on by that Mirage accident. I was in the RAAF and later worked at ARDU (aircraft research and development unit at RAAF Laverton). In one room was a strip of recording chart taken from the remains of the Mirage; burned and only about a metre long. The Mirage stabiliser failed and sent the aircraft into a spin which could not be controlled. Tony ejected at 750 kts and 7000 feet, just in time to survive, but with extensive injuries, broken legs and arms. His brain shut down in that he apparently could not remember much of the incident, so traumatic it was. I had communication with his daughter in the UK and a friend who was researching the accident.

Mirage in RAAF Service
 

R Landmann asked (in 2010)
Hi all -- I found this thread while following up a story I'd heard about a Mirage making a forced landing at a race track and being towed back to base along the highway; looks like this was Gary Cooper at Tomago

Does anyone here know which Mirage this was? The adf-serials site doesn't seem to mention the incident.

Have any pictures of the tow home emerged over the years? I imagine some must have been taken!


And a mere 3.5 years later I respond:

The aircraft was A3-29. In May 1966 it ingested a bird shortly after take off and Garry Cooper deadsticked it onto a disused WWII strip which was located at right angles to the Pacific Highway at Tomago, between the Hexham Bridge and the hill leading up to Raymond Terrace.

To make it even harder, power lines ran alongside the highway so Coop had to miss those before putting it down on the very short strip which ended in a stand of large trees. There were some small saplings growing on the strip and the Mirage demolished a few of them with only some minor damage to a Sidewinder.

At the time I was a corporal electrical fitter at 481 (M) Sqn at Williamtown and was part of the recovery crew that towed the bird home - about seven miles. A tow tractor was attached to the nose wheel but as the tow-bars had a breakable link, there was no hydraulic pressure to operate the brakes and there were some hills on the road, a 3 ton truck followed the bird, attached to the main wheels by rope.

Our route went south along the Pacific Hwy, turning into the Tomago - Nelson Bay Rd. As well as our recovery crew we had police, electricity supply authority and local council workers to disconnect power lines or remove culvert rails should that be necessary. As it happened we didn't need them.

The journey took around three hours and we developed a considerable tailback of cars as there were only a couple of places where we could pull over to let the traffic pass.

The only photo I can locate is in the book "Meteor, Sabre and Mirage in Australian Service" Stuart Wilson, Aerospace Publications P/L, Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1989; ISBN 0 9587978 2 X, p 189. A brief description of the affair is on p 184. The photo is attributed to Garry Cooper.

It shows the train of tractor - Mirage - truck and a very long trail of (frustrated) motorists. Right at the front is a disgustingly young and fit corporal who walked about half of the seven miles - backwards. I don't think I could do it today.

The book is out of print, but the publisher might still have a copy of the photo. If not, I can probably copy mine if anyone is interested and I can work out how to attach it.



Barry Williams
AKA Sir Jim

Mirage forced landing pattern..

http://www.texaselectricbroker.com/w...own-arrow1.jpg

Isn't that the truth? :ok:

This is just a little off thread, but while you Mirage enthusiasts are paying attention I thought I would ask if this question.
Can any one please provide the date of an incident near RAAF East Sale when a Mirage lofted a bomb clear across Lake Wellington due to a hang up on the Dutson Range?
Maybe in the 1970s???