A-4G’s from VF-805 operating off HMAS Melbourne, according to occasional reader Phil (who, as it turns out, comes from the land down under, oh, yeah-ya).
Professional notes:
- The best you can say about the music (Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”) is that it fits the time frame (69-73)
- That’s a damned short cat shot.
- Not much real estate to work with on the back end, either. That took brass.
- Note the (hydraulically?) retractable chocks on the catapult. And the absurdly small JBD.
- Bridle launch, baby.
- Light’s on deck!
Update: More of the same in black and white, showing some close-ups and oopsies. Man that’s a small deck. Did these guys fly at night?
Update 2: The times, they are a-changin’ -
THE Royal Australian Navy is set to move the fourth of its six Collins-class submarines into dry dock because of crew shortages, undermining Kevin Rudd’s plans for a massive upgrade in naval resources to counter a military build-up inAsia.
Defence analysts warned yesterday that severe skills shortages meant the navy could not crew its existing vessels, let alone new assets proposed by the Prime Minister in a major speech to the Returned and Services League on Tuesday night.
Thanks for sharing. Brings new meaning to landing on a postage stamp. Makes Enterprise/Nimitz class carriers look massive in comparison. Amazing what pilots worked with back then compared to what they have today.
It reminds me of a video you posted not too long ago. I believe it was those massive A3’s and Vigi’s landing on the “smallish” carriers of yesteryear.
As you say…Brass.
Love the white shoes on the handlers. Be stylin.
Re Update Two:
No suprise there, of all areas the bubbleheads are really struggling, especially when they’re based in an area when the guys in most demand could easily walk into the mining industry and double their salary while increasing their time at home.
It reminds me of a video you posted not too long ago. I believe it was those massive A3’s and Vigi’s landing on the “smallish” carriers of yesteryear.
Here’s my favorite…
2+3 – you took the words right out of my mouth.
7. Clearing turn off of CAT I! (I said it before XAIRBOSS did!!)
The Cat Officer faces the wrong way and stands up? What’s up with that?
Pictures a little fuzzy, but are those five wires across the back?
ManlyDad, I’m told the white shoe Cat officer is either the Captain or XO of HMAS Melbourne (or perhaps even a FLAG Officer) who is being given the chance to do the deed. Hence the odd ‘bended knee’ “Free-Styler Off the Top of My Dome” launch action.
Is there a wind up? Is this a wind up?
PixelKiller, yes there are five wires. In previous Gannet / Sea Venom era there were six wires with the last one called something that cannot be repeated on this forum because it was the expletive phrase used when it was caught, with the aircraft pulling up at the deck edge.
Most often the number of wires was less than 5 however with the target wire No.4 being missing. This meant there was a large area without wire that could cause more bolters. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. (BolterBoy)
According to the bloke who posted the video: “The catapult crew do not look down into the fuel and steam to watch the launch, it tastes awful.”
Old Mel might have been small as carriers go, but you didn’t want to be crossing her. As HMAS Voyager and USS Frank E. Evans learnt the hard way.
Lex, Yes the A4Gs did fly at night but not a lot. Not much to do at night with a bog standard A4F without any bells and whistles. However we needed to recover and launch at night as one would imagine.
My night rampstrike story on 2nd DL, first one was alright (story a bit garbled – like the event) is here:
http://www.adf-serials.com/research/ramp-strike.pdf
PDFs about the RAN A4G here (free download):
http://hosted.filefront.com/SpazSinbad/
OR
http://www.history.tjdwyer.com/
OR
http://www.gibstuff.net/a4_alley/
(at moment this website not working)
Lex, Catapult was 100 feet extended approx. to 110 during an early refit with cat bits from HMCN Bonaventure.
Nose, No need for a clearing turn. Only one catapult. Only single deck ops, no catpulting while deck landing because the foul line crossed the cat.
In Australia the “Land Down Under” song has the phrase ‘…men chunder’ rather than the more benign ‘…men plunder’ international version. What is it with that anyway?
saffer, I think it is fair to add to your comment that HMAS Melbourne (CO) was not responsible in either case. Sad events for sure.
Douglas Products…the Timex Watches/Energizer Bunnies of their day…
God love ‘em
Since we’re on the subject of cramped carriers, and given the Cap’n’s fondness for twin-engined, twin-finned fighters, here’s the British contribution, self-back-slapping and all: HMS Hermes.
Considering the flight decks of the British Colossus/Majestic class were less than 700 ft long (Melbourne stretched to 710 ft!) and with a flight deck width of around 100 ft and a max speed of 24 kts, anyone who flew anything, but especially fast jets, off those carriers had scoliosis-inducing brass ones.
VF-805???!! The Commonwealth makes you remember the function of each squadron with just a number, none of this namby-pamby American role identification stuff!!
That’s 805 Squadron, if you please.
Jason, During the A4G Skyhawk era the RAN Fleet Air Arm squadrons were renamed according to the USN convention of the day.
VF-805 was so named because it was the ‘Defender of the Fleet’ with the ‘poor man’s fighter option’ as used in USN ASW carriers in the mid-1960s. No other jet aircraft (other than previous Sea Venom) was capable at that time to operate from HMAS Melbourne. The PDFs available for free download tell the story.
VC-724 was the Skyhawk training squadron but operated several types (Vampire, Sea Venoms then the Macchi MB326H) hence the ‘composite’ part of the VC moniker instead of VT.
This USN naming convention ceased after the ‘fixed wing folded’ for good sometime after the mid 1980s.
http://hosted.filefront.com/SpazSinbad/
At the top of this page there are 3 different sized PDF downloads for the A4G NATOPS (also relevant to the E & F models). All versions have the same number of pages but they have different quality as ‘readme’ text explains. These A4G NATOPS have photos of the 4 x AIM9B Sidewinder modification. Not well known at the time while misinformation about the A4G is repeated on the web. Sadly.
Being an old (sic) Marine SATS Airfield guy, I have to tell you that the Scooters were always an awful lot of fun to work with. It never took much power to launch them on the Cat, and recoveries were always a comedy show; almost more fun than the F-8’s. Their sideways shimmy upon catching the deck pendant always had us casting bets as to whether or not they’d end up on a wing tip…
Many thanks to the Hermes Vets for the commentaries…
Appros po of Larry’s comments about small carrier decks and large anatomical body parts, I guess my story fits here as well as anywhere….. The Father of a very good friend of mine flew F6Fs and F4Us in the Pacific in WWII as a Navy type and seemed to have enjoyed himself–all things considered. So I asked him one day as to why he didn’t stay in the service after the war, to which he replied: “I made seven carrier combat night landings and I decided if I wanted to stay alive I’d better get in another line of work!” LOL He was a great guy and has left us now, as have so many of his brethren, but I’ll always remember his deadpan matter-of-fact delivery of that line………
Man, Scooters and Stoofs…..
Why can’t ANYONE make a low-cost Scooter now days?
More knobbly knee videos at Utube on A4G ops from different viewpoints on deck, one has mostly engine sounds from the A4G:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=JQT5yp8-bMs
“Video has sound track from actual A4G engines sounds (mostly) made by Peter Greenfield ex-RAN A4G Skyhawk pilot. The first half of the video shows how the nosewheel steering problem affects A4G operations on deck & on the catapult. Usually the very effective nosewheel steering makes taxiing on deck easy enough. The second half of this video shows A4G deck landings from a low angle at a point where the aircraft is most likely to stop if the target wire is caught. Sometimes the A4G gets ‘hung up’ after arrest and once again we see the value of the hard working deck crew coming to remedy the problem swiftly. These aircraft/pilots are doing deck qualifications.”
&
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=pbvBgE_WI5o&feature=user
“Super 8 film of A4G Skyhawk operations on HMAS Melbourne in early 1970s when aircraft onboard numbered 8+ from previous 4. HMAS Melbourne was an ASW carrier with the A4Gs used as fleet defence (poor man’s fighter). The A4G was modified to carry 4 underwing AIM9B Sidewinder Air to Air missiles. Catapult is 100 feet, while 5 wires are set. Hook to ramp clearance is 6 feet for target No.4 wire. Geoff Morton shot this film.”
Great stuff. Love the red/white “Checkmates” paint scheme, too.
My sister-in-law’s brother drowned when the Frank Evans split in two. His wonderful mother got phone calls telling her he got what he deserved and other vile things. Let’s hope that stuff isn’t going on now.
Ralph L, very sorry to hear that, I gather this is from a US phone source at the time? There is a regular reunion of the crews from both ships. Please go here for more information:
http://www.faaaa.asn.au/news/reunions/index.htm#evans
“June 2009 – Melbourne/Frank E. Evans Reunions
Reunions for the survivors of the collision between HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E Evans are held both in Australia and the United States.
The 2005 reunion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw letters of introduction and an invitation from the Mayor of Ipswich (QLD) for the 40th anniversary memorial service to be held in Ipswich in the first week of June 2009. The invitation was accepted unanimously for the 2009 reunion.”
A4G CarQuals 1976, Music by ‘Skyhooks’ & ‘Killing Joke’
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9gN60AI6o
“Carrier Qualifications onboard HMAS Melbourne 1976 by pilots from VF-805
and VS-816 “Tigers”. Latter half of video shows a side on view from the plane guard Seaking helicopter (camera a bit shaky but watchable). Suffer the shakes until the end to see a helo view of the mirror and flightpath from a ‘fixed wing’ approach viewpoint.”
Winterflood (‘SummerDrought’ or ‘VONDO’) A4G video now has different music (FOO Fighters and Jimi Hendrix ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock):
http://nz.youtube.com/user/bengello
specifically:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=ITMKiPdHqQI (standard version)
OR
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=ITMKiPdHqQI# (high quality version)
See Iggles Utubby QUICK!
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-_9_6-63Y (standard version)
OR
See Iggles Utubby QUICK!
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-_9_6-63Y# (high quality)
“A4G Skyhawk features in “Sea Eagles” a late 1970s documentary about
operations from HMAS Melbourne with its Air Group. Bias means that mostly
the A4G features with other bits edited out due to constraints of
time/filesize of Utube.”
Otherwise: http://nz.youtube.com/user/bengello (main page
“Farewell to a Lady” is the swansong video for HMAS Melbourne (last RAN aircraft carrier) made decades ago by some former crew in 1985.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9fsxLPwsQ
There is a high and low quality version (look in lower right corner of black video screen).
A4G Skyhawk ops HMAS Melbourne with aircrew talking about it. Begin music by ‘Rammstein’ “Benzine” and end music by Oz Band ‘Grinspoon’ “Thrills, Pills & Sunday…”
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=3dD2rQRE0a4
(with high quality option lower right of black screen)
1st Catapult A-4B USN Skyhawk from HMAS Melbourne graphic + EXCLAMATION! May 1965. VA-113 Det A-4B BuNo. 144874 from USS Bennington via NAS Cubi Point does the deed:
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/?action=view¤t=A4Busn1stCatMelbourne1965.gif
‘Red Rat’ TAG being painted on VA-113 DetQ A-4B after 1st Skyhawk DL HMAS Melbourne:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/1stA4BtailMelbourneVA113detQ1965.jpg