RAAF Richmond today

[planeimages]

Some images from RAAF Richmond today. Not a lot happening, just a few passes by the F-111, two Hercules and a Boeing 707 and the Navy Squirrels. Three Hawks arrived; the Roulettes minus their leader, the HARS Neptune looked great while Temora Aviation Museum sent along the Spitfire VIII, the Meteor, Vampire and Canberra. The USAF demonstrated the C-17.









C-17 practice at Richmond today.

Grey skies and wind.




HARS’ Neptune. Great front seat view.






A8-274 F-111 in the grey skies.

[planeimages]

C-17 touchdown. Lots of smoke and wheels bouncing.

This one slipped the net.

[planeimages]

Darren Crabb arrives in the Temora Aviation Museum's Meteor carrying the markings of "Halestorm".

[yak2]

Great pics Peter. C17 very impressive performer, and just love the Neppie. Are you going to Wagga for SAAA bash next weekend? Got my bird out of maintenance and it needs a run. Any forum members attending can have a ride for the price of a couple of Cascades!
Rob

[planeimages]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the kind comments. Unfortunately in one sense, no. I am doing a course with HARS for tour guides at their Albion Park facility.

Have fun at Wagga.

Peter

[mumbles]

If the Aero Australia crew mentioned an inchoherent guy in a red T-shirt asking after you, that was me . Hope you had a great day!

[planeimages]

Hi Mumbles,

Yes, Wendy said someone mumbled something about me! Thanks for dropping in. I was wandering around but spent most of the afternoon at the stand.

Here are some shots I managed to collect:

RAAF Richmond. Saturday 21.10.06



C-17 backing up at Richmond. Note the vortex being created near the intake of #2.

Seconds later: bang



Compressor surge in #2 when backing up. Strikes me it would be a better idea not to back up until the problem is resolved! Twice in two days. This must frighten the crap out of the crew.

Vortex generated must have something to do with this phenomenon.







The name in the Neptune nose, Bob Dean HARS member and former RAAF Airframe fitter on Neptunes.





F/A 18 pair. Angles on Hornets



Something had to brighten up a dull day.

[mumbles]

It was dark wasn't it. I didn't even see that compressor surge, nice shot.

[tibor]

Did they actually fly the C-17 after that surge? Did they do any maintenance on it first?

[planeimages]

Hi,

I spoke with members of the C-17 crew today and they said that, while the compressor stall is undesirable, it does occur occasionally. He said they check the engine after each occurrence. They were mightily impressed with my print which I waved about at 0700 this morning.

Notably the compressor stall did not happen today. They appeared to back up for much less distance and with less power.

The aircraft departed Richmond very shortly after its display, presumably to Hickham.

I am reliably informed by a well-qualified person that it is the stall which causes the loud explosion of air from the front of the engine. The subsequent interruption of the airflow through the compressor and combustion chambers causes an amount of fuel to pass through unburned. It re-ignites in the power turbine area or outside the engine.

The "will'o- the-wisp" or sprite or vortex occurs independently of the compressor stall.

This causes the flash of flame.

My pic was on display and caused a fair amount of very favourable comment.

More pix later.

[planeimages]

Hi Mumbles,

Thanks. I didn't actually see the exposure because the mirror in the SLR was up at the time. I was aware of a flash of white light and thought that someone had fired a camera flash. The lady standing near me said that the C-17 had a flash of flame. It wasn't until I saw the image on the PC that I knew I had scored the image.

I was following the two starboard engines expecting that a compressor stall might occur. I was lucky that it happed on that side. My caption is actually incorrect. The Editor tells me that the engines are numbered from port outer to starboard outer.

It was #2 which "backfired" on Friday. Thus it was #3 on Saturday. I stand corrected.

[xr6turbo1]

I quite like the shot of the Meteor, what was the weather like over the weekend? Looks a bit dark. I was almost about to fly over to the show but time went against me

[mumbles]

Weather precis:
Dark and manky on Saturday.
Slightly less dark and manky on Sunday afternoon, the morning was okay.
Wasn't much bright sunshine or photogenic light cumulus to be had.

[planeimages]

Hi Gavin,

Just so so. It didn't rain but the cloud cover was comprehensive. Flat and dull yesterday but some breaks and form in the CU/ CBs today. It started well at 0600 and deteriorated.

Excellent show, though.

Here are some from today.

[mumbles]

planeimages said:

The "will'o- the-wisp" or sprite or vortex occurs independently of the compressor stall.

Saw some of those through my viewfinder today while looking for a stall ;D.

Depending on the 'take' quality I'll put up some of my efforts after I get home.

[planeimages]

Que? Must have not collected all the URLs.

Here goes again:



No compressor stalls today. “Will’o-the-wisp” was still around though.

.

RAAF Hercules 160-H props at low shutter speed



RAAF Caribou



Pip Bormann tells the RAAF Tiger Moth pilot how he does it. Pilot is impressed!



Pip gets ready for his incredible display with running commentary.



Little red PC-9s all in a row.



Threatening skies at 0700.

[planeimages]

Looking forward to seeing what little devils you found.

[tibor]

planeimages said:

I spoke with members of the C-17 crew today and they said that, while the compressor stall is undesirable, it does occur occasionally. He said they check the engine after each occurrence.

To say that a compressor surge (or stall) is undesirable is a bit of an understatement... I'd be interested to find out how thorough their "check" was - if I was flying in it, I'd be out there with a borescope looking at as many compressor and turbine blades as I could to ensure they weren't damaged.

A surge could be caused by any number of malfunctions within the engine (fuel, disruption to airflow, ingestion of foreign objects and blade damage to name but a few) and I understand that this is a known problem on the C-17 following application of lots of reverse thrust during a short landing. Even so, I'd be wanting to find a cause and ensure that nothing had "let go" (or was about to!) before I left terra firma again.

[planeimages]

Hi Tibor,

I paraphrased the words of the USAF pilot when we discussed the incidents.

They had a compressor stall on Friday and the second one on Saturday.
Minds superior to mine would have carried out the appropriate checks. Their attitude was very cool towards the events.

Another person with whom I spoke who was not connected with the C-17 but had a career in Gas Turbine knowledge and is with an government authority these days. His comments were not dissimilar to the C-17's crew. He explained how the bang and the flash did not emanate from exactly the same location. The bang comes from the front, the fireflash from the rear.

The bang does not happen inside the engine and the effect of the flame is monitored by the appropriate EGT and turbine temperature probes.

Clearly the level of concern was low as the C-17 took off for the USA immediately after its final display on Sunday.

[baldrick]

Peter brilliant photo`s as usual. Might say g`day to you on Saturday I think I`m down for the same course. I wish I had joined HARS earlier they`re an incredible bunch of blokes.
Simmo.