Thunder downunder tonight - what a blast !!!!
Sat Aug 28, 2004 4:41 am
Hi
For those of you who don't know I live in Brisbane Queensland Australia and as I speak I am sitting on my back deck/ verandah watching 2 F111 Aardvarks of the RAAF doing one of the most amazing night time airshows I have ever seen. Brisbane has a famous River Festival where about half a million people crowd the riverbanks in the centre of the city to watch fireworks and lighted barges etc
These are the last flying F111s left in the world and tonight two of them flew over and along the river doing a dump and burn where the aircraft dump fuel from the rear of the engine jetpipes and produce a flame of truely huge proportions several hundred feet long and with a deafening roar the entire sky lights up like daylight!!!!!. I was able to see the whole show as the aircraft flew over at around 300 Ft very fast and then pulled up directly over my house releasing ECM flares as they went. When they pulled high up into the cloud it transmitted the glow for miles and looked like a gigantic lightning burst.
The show was very short but very memorable. Photos will follow - I wish you could all have been here - you will never see anything like it again when they are grounded in a couple of years time - I think they qualify as Warbirds anyway.
Regards
John Parker
For those of you who don't know I live in Brisbane Queensland Australia and as I speak I am sitting on my back deck/ verandah watching 2 F111 Aardvarks of the RAAF doing one of the most amazing night time airshows I have ever seen. Brisbane has a famous River Festival where about half a million people crowd the riverbanks in the centre of the city to watch fireworks and lighted barges etc
These are the last flying F111s left in the world and tonight two of them flew over and along the river doing a dump and burn where the aircraft dump fuel from the rear of the engine jetpipes and produce a flame of truely huge proportions several hundred feet long and with a deafening roar the entire sky lights up like daylight!!!!!. I was able to see the whole show as the aircraft flew over at around 300 Ft very fast and then pulled up directly over my house releasing ECM flares as they went. When they pulled high up into the cloud it transmitted the glow for miles and looked like a gigantic lightning burst.
The show was very short but very memorable. Photos will follow - I wish you could all have been here - you will never see anything like it again when they are grounded in a couple of years time - I think they qualify as Warbirds anyway.
Regards
John Parker
Sat Aug 28, 2004 6:38 am
Hi
Sorry Col but I forgot it was on till a few choppers took up residence near my house and then I remembered
Regards
John P
Sorry Col but I forgot it was on till a few choppers took up residence near my house and then I remembered
Regards
John P
Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:01 pm
In 97, after then F-11 was gone from the USAF inventory. My squadron participated in operation Cold Thunder in Alaska. The Assuie squadron of F-111 was there. It was great to see so of them in the Air again. We closed Pease in HN and Plattsburgh in NY. We had a party with he squadron that last night we were there, WOW what a great time. During that past cruise we ported in Perth and Hobart. Some of the best days of my life; Australia will always hold a dear place in my heart. I remember 2 A-7s were up there also. I'd love to know who's they were. They taxied right by me one day. It was one off those days I will never forget. Just like the day an A-3 was doing touch-n-goes at NAS Lemoore and I was kicking myself for not having a camera at hand (the last day that happened to me, but the A-3s never returned)
Pig Dump & Burn
Sun Aug 29, 2004 2:33 am
Hey Setter... Just to keep you SE Queenslanders happy, maybe Lockheed can introduce a fuel dump ignition system onto JSF that can keep the pyrotechnics happening over Brisbane once the Pig has finally been put out to pasture.
Yep, a great aircraft in it's prime, but I feel it's prime may have passed!
Yep, a great aircraft in it's prime, but I feel it's prime may have passed!
Sun Aug 29, 2004 7:26 am
Hi Browny
Not that I think politics should creep into things but as we had an election announced today and as it is Labor policy to keep them flying until the new rubbish arrives then perhaps they will fly for a few more years - perhaps until they have really reached their use by date. Such a shame that the US canned them fat too early!!
Regards
John P
Not that I think politics should creep into things but as we had an election announced today and as it is Labor policy to keep them flying until the new rubbish arrives then perhaps they will fly for a few more years - perhaps until they have really reached their use by date. Such a shame that the US canned them fat too early!!
Regards
John P
Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:47 pm
That's what we do best. We find something great and replace it with trash before it needs to be. OR, we keep cobbling things together long past there expiration date because no one wants to do the work to find a replacement. That's why we have flight crew flying the same aircraft that were flown by their fathers, grandfathers and maybe even their greatgrandfathers. AND STILL THEY WAFFLE over funding replacements!??