Doing it the hard way

An it is still faster than flying it there!

And here it is in Central NSW.



Bob

A lot of memories there, flying Wallaby Airlines from Vung Tau to Nui Dat and back.

Also watching them land at Luscombe airfield at Nui Dat was fascinating - particularly in a strong crosswind.
They'd glide in, yawing badly in the crosswind - then when about 20 feet off the ground, the pilot would apply some sharp rudder correction to line up with the centreline, and just plop it on the deck. The flying skill was a pleasure to watch from the far end of the runway.

It never ceased to amaze me how slow they could fly, and how short a distance they could land in.
Seen them land and stop in less than 200M.

The old Pratt & Whitney 14 cyl radials are pure pleasure to listen to, a real WW2 sound.

I can recall one time, we'd just finished re-metalling the surface of Luscombe, and it had been rolled but not swept. No doubt, some clever officer deemed sweeping unnecessary - or perhaps there wasn't time to sweep it.

A 'Bou promptly rolled in, they landed, and then applied power to taxi to the "terminal" - but the props threw up a heap of the loose bluemetal that was still on the surface - and the props promptly got a dose of "metal rash".

The rash was serious enough to cancel takeoff, until a replacement set of props was flown in, and the the props replaced.
Naturally, the runway was swept immediately after the incident.

Many years later (early 1980's), I was driving home from Perth to the Wheatbelt on a pleasant Summer Saturday afternoon - and as I drove past the Corrigin airstrip, I spotted, not one - but two - of those big familiar tails poking up above the low scrub on the airstrip.

Curious as to why 2 Caribous were parked there, with no-one around, I drove into the 'strip to examine the situation (this was the glorious days when "airside security" was unknown, and you could leave 2 Caribous parked in the bush without even a security picket!).

A quick walk around revealed the reason why the 'Bous were parked up. They'd been doing some SAS airdrops, as they did regularly from Corrigin - and one had landed and parked up.

The other one had apparently landed later, and upon doing a turnaround, the pilot misjudged the wing clearance distance - and had ploughed one of his aircrafts wingtips, into a wingtip of the parked 'Bou!
The torn and twisted metal on the wingtips indicated a decent contact at some speed.

Naturally, that had rendered them both unflyable until repairs were done - so the RAAF boys had obviously just gone home, and abandoned the damaged 'Bous until the following Monday!

I'll wager someone had a good "chat over tea and bikkies", with the CO of Pearce, after that incident!
I think there might have been some piloting career regression for someone, after that chat!

Glad to see that HARS have managed to preserve 2 x 'Bous in airworthy condition.

HARS - the Caribous

Cheers, Ron.