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Post by sniff on May 21, 2008 17:52:24 GMT 12
About 2 hrs 15 min each way, from memory, with about 20 minutes to do the drops, so all up about 5 hours. Right on max fuel! But the winds always conspired against you - southerly on the way down, northerly on the way back. Also needed not much wind to do the drops, so had to be planned carefully. At least there was a met station there!
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Post by beagle on May 21, 2008 17:56:13 GMT 12
Did any of the Andovers do trips to Aussie for exercises. I went on a RAAF 748 from wp to richmond via norfolk
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Post by skyhawkdon on May 21, 2008 19:45:40 GMT 12
Yes the Andovers regularly went to Aussie for exercises and further afield into SE Asia. We used to take one on the pre-Kahu Vanguards to deploy the mobile TACAN to Bali. It was a popular trip for the mobile TACAN maintenance team - they used to leave Ohakea a week before the A-4s to arrive at their destination just a day before they did! Lots of overnights... lots of allowances... lots of eating and drinking and not much work  |
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Post by Barnsey on May 21, 2008 21:10:20 GMT 12
Similar story to the trawler that wouldn't move out of the Raumai restricted area after repeated requests and beat ups and was holding up a weapons practice sortie... Cue one A4 over the top at 50ft dumping fuel.....
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Post by sniff on May 21, 2008 21:33:19 GMT 12
Andovers first went to Kangaroo III in Rockhampton, October 79, then to West Oz in 83. I guess we did K81 too??? Also lots of trips to South East Asia. Best one I did was up to Singapore, then Embassy runs to Thailand and Indonesia. Finally, we took all the Ambassadors up to Hong Kong via East Malaysia and the Phillipines for a week long conference. There wasn't much for us to to in HK for the week, other than to enjoy ourselves, and spend the allowances!  And then some black stuff on the way home......  Tacan trips were great too, easy days and then wait for the Skyhawks too arrive. Bali was the best stop...... Hey Dave, you better move these to the Andover thread, or start a new one.  |
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Post by sniff on May 21, 2008 21:40:16 GMT 12
How can I best explain this without digging a hole for myself.........
In the good old days before fibre optics and satellite communication, the Post Office used to move communications around the country - line of site - thats why there were lots of repeater stations around NZ, like on Mt Egmont, Nelson, Kaikoura, etc.
Oh yes, you get the idea, lots of over water transmissions.
Need I say more.....
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Post by sniff on May 21, 2008 21:53:06 GMT 12
Beags, on a good day with the extra centre wing tanks, you could go WP-OZ direct. I took the Andover WP - Amberley for KIII, a bum-numbing trip, but with a hefty payload too.
We had to do an overweight takeoff out of WP, Max All Up was 50k lb, but AOC could approve another 5k lb, which gave us enough petrol on the day to get across. I think we only had a -20kt component all the way across, normally it is about 60kts to 90kts.... or worse!
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 22, 2008 0:57:23 GMT 12
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Post by fletcherfu24 on May 22, 2008 17:06:18 GMT 12
Yes,off to the officers mess with you lot,the bombing of hostile shipping and defence of our fisheries is best left to the fearless Ag pilots in their Fletchers,you "Hooray Henry" types in your flash Andovers dont appeared to dropped any type of device (empty gin bottles excluded) on the fish stealing swines that infest our territoral waters... ;D
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And then some black stuff on the way home...... 
