Breaking News
At this very moment, 14:00 EST, a RAAF F111 is attempting to land at RAAF Amberly without the advantage of wheels. It has just aborted one attempt and is currently circling for another approach.
I can only wish the pilots a steady hand and sharp eye.
Hope the pilot doesn’t scratch the plane – we need them
UPDATE:
BuckshotColt2 has just executed a perfect belly landing. I suspect the pilot arrived on the tarmac with only a few litres of fuel on board as he was circling for sometime burning it off. Channel Nine had a chopper and live video feed from 15 Km out to avoid restricted airspace and showed the F111 only taking about a hundred yards of tarmac before coming to an undignified halt. There was some spark and flame from friction and other factors but the flames died as quickly as the two crew evacuated the aircraft – about 2 seconds.
Look for the film on CH 9 news tonight. They will play it for all it’s worth and wait for Beasley et al to blame it on Howard. By 7:00pm the ABC will have had plenty of time to arrange comment, maybe ABC reporter and Senator Bob Brown could get another gig. He’d be happy to put an anti government spin on some poor jet jockey’s bad afternoon.
Either way, it is a good end for a potential disaster; the F111 doesn’t even look dented but of course there will be damage and I would imagine it will have to be virtually rebuilt before flying again.
UPDATE: Reader Kaos leaves a link to the video in comments. I have moved it here to avoid a three-monitor wide link.
Facebook
Twitter
I doubt they’ll bother to rebuild it Kev. There was a Senate inquiry sitting out at Amberley a week or so ago where they talked about the number of aircraft that were serviceable, etc. it didn’t sound like they were stuck for numbers, but they were preparing to wind down the depot level maintenance on aircraft and engines from around 2008.
This aircraft will probably wind up on a stick out in front of the base entrance in a few years.
Ignoble but common end. The old girls have served for as long as I have and I’ve been put out to pasture. Thinking about it – I’m glad the Army didn’t think of the ‘stick’ thingy when they demobbed me.
The SMH has it as a “CRASH LANDING”! No doubt other media outlets will publish same. They just love that crash word! It looked like a perfectly rehearsed and executed wheels up landing to me. God bless ’em!
You get to practice a lot of emergency recovery techniques when your learning to fly, but I’m guessing you don’t get to scrape a perfectly good aircraft along the ground just for practice. Well done by the pilot.
Here’s a link to the video of the landing.
Link moved to post ..K
Thanks Kaos
Never forget that the F111 was, and is, a superb choice for OZ.
If the spec was available in a modern strike aircraft we’d snaffle it up.
The F35 generic replacement for F18+F111 is but a pale and inferior
replacement for the one eleven.
We are buying the electronic suite plus stealth in the F35, we sacrifice payload and
range.
Nice job by recently checked to the line driver.
Critical was wings level through the landing roll.
Of course, you understand in the USAF these blokes would have punched out.
Rick,
I agree with you and we can’t afford to punch out. It was a good display of a belly landing – the Boggie should be able to dine out and drink on that for awhile.
Yeah , days like this turn us all into airpower strategists.
The only viable 30 year threat regime to Australia is Indonesia.
Indonesia has a crap airforce, top threat is F 16 + F 5s and less.
Australia does not need F 35s.
F 15s, interceptor + strike (K) versions are all over anything Indos can
buy.
So why do we waste zillions dealing with a pretend capability?
Being ex Infantry my knowledge on what is the best ac for the money is limited and I would defer to my RAAF cousins in choice but I do know whatever we buy has to be the best and most advanced available and we shouldn’t upgrade to the minimum just to keep the Indons quiet but to the max to definitely keep the indons quiet and to meet a lot of other requirements…not all miltary. Commonality with the Yanks will always be important as will having a pool of pilots trained in state-of -the-art jets. We are the sole western power with F111s still in our ORBAT (I think) and as much as I love them I also loved the WW2 Mosuito; but times marches on and new developing avionics will need new airframes to match.
If we are to continue being a part of the Anglosphere then Indons are not our only threat. In fact they are hardly a threat other than nuisance incidents. If Iran or some other future renegade nation blows up it is conceivable that we could have a squadron or two there and when that happens I would like to see commanality of type and jet jockeys trained as well as yesterdays F111 driver flying the best ac we can afford.
Kev…
Long term aggressor threats from Iran do not exist to continental Australia.
Within the tech life of the next fighter (F35) there is no possible threat outside Indonesia.
So why go with an aircraft designed for ultra hi tech aerial warfare?
To stay with the top of the line technology you say? Why?
That’s a very expensive and unnecessary option.
War means you cannot replace your lost pilot assets, even if the US replaces our aircraft.
We can essentially fight an air war to the limit of our existing fighter pilot stock……that’s all.
We run out of pilots before we run out of aircraft.
F35s give no advantage over latest F15s in an Indo conflict.
In fact they are markedly inferior in every parameter ex Tindal.
We can run many more F 15s per dollar than F 35s
The very low possibility scenario of Indo pressure on PNG (100% land based) or overt occupation of, say, Christmas or Cocos Island gives no F35 advantage.
For a maritime, long range operator like OZ the F35 range/payload is pathetic.
This is how to save $8 billion.
I don’t think that Iran is going to attack continental Australia and in fact, after my long service in the Army I would doubt any nations ability to attack to the point of taking over the country – the logistic lines of supply are to long. However I do believe that what happens in the ME impacts on Australia and can affect our citizens safety…al la Bali and wherever in the future. For this reason we need to contribute to operations that go toward stabalizing the ME.
I don’t doubt your comparisons on the F35/F15 but defence planners do not buy just to accommodate the threat or otherwise of our troubling northern neighbour.
Kev
You’re correct, “defence planners do not buy just to accommodate the threat or otherwise of our troubling northern neighbour”.
So we need to be brought a little into the confidence of the planners
because any other threat than Indonesia during the life of the next fighter
is off with Harry Potter or with the faries at the bottom of the garden.
Taxpayers have historically paid a great price for the capital expenditure
wet dreams of defence academics.
The only bizzarre “F 35 is best” senario I can see is a presumed OZ
involvement in the defence of Taiwan.
Best we forget it, ever since I saw Taiwanese line troops wearing balaclavas
in front of TV cameras I knew their heart wasn’t in it.
F 15 Ks forever.