PPRuNe Forums - Tomago Airstrip

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In 1966 a Mirage had an engine failure, having just got air borne at Willy, and dead sticked onto the airstrip, I've seen it described as both a crop duster strip and a disused airstrip.

Anyone able to elaborate on the nature of the strip at the time of the occurrence.

Many thanks in advance, just curious.

Probably not what your after but I found this

modern technology reenactment.

A good news article on the recovery. Page 19 of 24.

https://www.tomago.com.au/wp-content...2019_WEB_2.pdf

Mirage A3-29. Gary Cooper the pilot. He saved the tax payer a lot of $$'s.

May 1966.

R

Quote:

Originally Posted by runway16 (Post 11522369)

Mirage A3-29. Gary Cooper the pilot. He saved the tax payer a lot of $$'s.

May 1966.

R

During the Vietnam war, in 1968, Gary Cooper was posted to the US Army 9th Infantry as a Forward Air Controller (FAC), flying the Cessna Bird Dog. He soon established himself as a "legend" in their eyes, to the extent the US Army wanted to recommend him to be awarded the Medal of Honour and the Distinguished Service Cross. Australia wouldn't allow this! For more on this, read his book "Sock it to em Baby".

runway16 is correct. There's some information about the event, including input from the pilot Garry (with two 'r's) Cooper, on the Friends of the RAAF Mirage IIIO & IIID Facebook page.

The original strip is now behind the fences of the Tomago aluminium smelter. Slower going home than getting there:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....0a88c0bc2f.jpg

Many thanks Clinton. :ok:

Quote:

the US Army wanted to recommend him to be awarded the Medal of Honour and the Distinguished Service Cross. Australia wouldn't allow this

I had the same response, though not for those grand awards.

The US recently awarded Cooper the Distinguished Flying Cross 'directly'. Here are the two citations:

Quote:

CITATION:

1.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Flight Lieutenant Garry G. Cooper, Royal Australian Air Force, for heroism while participating in aerial flight as a Forward Air Controller near Can Giuoc, Republic of Vietnam, on 6 May 1968. On that date, with complete disregard for his own safety, Flight Lieutenant Cooper repeatedly directed airstrikes from a low altitude and exposed himself to heavy enemy fire in order to pinpoint the enemy and accurately mark them for destruction. His actions were instrumental in the success of the operation and resulted in the saving of numerous friendly lives. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Flight Lieutenant Cooper reflect great credit upon himself and the Royal Australian Air Force.

2.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Flight Lieutenant Garry G. Cooper for heroism while participating in aerial flight near Cai Nuoc, Republic of Vietnam, on 4 October 1968. On that date, Flight Lieutenant Cooper was flying his O-1 Bird Dog aircraft as a Forward Air Controller in support of friendly ground forces engaged in combat with an opposing hostile force of battalion size. Due to low clouds in the target area, Flight Lieutenant Cooper elected to operate in close proximity to the hostile force where he was extremely vulnerable to the hostile anti-aircraft fire. With complete disregard for his own personal safety, Flight Lieutenant Cooper made low repeated passes over suspected anti-aircraft emplacements to draw their fire from the fighters and force them to reveal their positions to the attacking fighter aircraft. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Flight Lieutenant Cooper reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

The wartime RAAF name for this strip was Hexam. Despite earlier mention of it being 3400 ft long, the drawing (which I'm unable to post) shows it as 5100 ft - still a mightily impressive effort in a Mirage!

If the dimensions of the strip on the Tomago Aluminium EIS document posted at *6 are ball-park accurate - yes, it was much longer than 3,400' long.

How much of it was tarmac at the time on the landing? Dunno.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9bb806b3d8.jpg
I finally figured how to show this.

Nice bloke Garry, worked with him at Ansett. He was not treated well by Ansett or the RAAF, a little underrated in my opinion. Could never understand why, although he did call a spade a shovel. I like people with that quality but some don’t.

I’m no expert on Mirages or dead stick landings but I know the area well enough. Pretty comfortable to say that straight bit of grass just south of the highway, and north west of the pot line, is what’s left of the airstrip.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b6dd446af.jpeg

Directanywhere:

Quote:

what’s left of the airstrip.

I'm more inclined to think that the northern stub of the runway is visible off to the centre RHS of your photo - the drawing shows a 14/32 alignment which doesn't align with your "straight bit of grass".

Clinton gets the cigar, this is where I think (for what that's worth) it was too.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....55c4b3bced.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dora-9 (Post 11527685)

Clinton gets the cigar, this is where I think (for what that's worth) it was too.

That's not the old Hexham strip though - Hexham (Smithy's) was out near the old Hunter Balloon Loop coal loader, behind the Macca's there.. Click here.

Working on the assumption that "disused" meant the former RAAF strip and given that the RAAF drawing has it in a loop, and to the east, of the Hunter River, then I'd have thought my location was correct. Open to contrary opinions though, what's the history of Smithy's strip?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dora-9 (Post 11527705)

AAhh, I understand the confusion now - I hadn't noticed the old RAAF map had the Tomago strip also named Hexham. I saw that you'd put Hexam on your Google image and thought you meant Hexham = Tomago when they are two separate strips and a couple miles apart. You're spot on with you're location though, Tomago Aluminium reference the old runway (and Mirage landing) in one of their newsletters where they say it's now part of the smelter.

Quote:

The runway used by Flt Lt Cooper for his emergency landing is now part of the Tomago Aluminium site.

As for Smithy's - I can't recall any specific history about the strip, but when I worked coal trains out of Newcastle - 15 years ago now, mind you - I was told it was still in occasional use and Westpac used it for training, though I've no idea whether that's accurate or not. I'd always assumed it was built by the owner on the old rail bed of the old Richmond Vale Railway line - but a bit of digging today shows that the old branchline curved off at the location of the now-Aurizon depot adjacent Hexham Station. It was for sale while back, but being zoned E2 Environmental Conservation - as well as the surrounding land being nothing but a swamp, going underwater when you get any more than an inch of rain and good only for breeding mosquitoes meant it doesn't look to have sold.