A4G Skyhawk on HMAS Melbourne Deck Ops early 1970s

Greyscale video with music by TOOL. The pilot closing the canopy at the beginning is the pilot who has a cold cat shot in 889 going over the side. The pilot expertly stays with the aircraft and comes to the surface safely once the ship propellors have passed overhead. He is picked up by the SAR Wessex 31B and returned to the deck. The other minor mishap shows an A4G rolling onto its port drop tank due to an off centre arrest caused by the wallowing motion of the deck in poor conditions. The deck crew put the Skyhawk back on its wheels with very minor damage to the tank and wingtip. The whole time the engine is running at idle so deck crew were careful. The catapult crew do not look down into the fuel and steam to watch the launch, it tastes awful. :-)

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• A4G
• A-4G
• Skyhawk
• HMAS
• Melbourne
• Deck
• Landing
• Catapults
• Cold
• Catapult
• Rescue

[bengello]

Yeah..we used to have two!

[MudRat02]

I wish we still operated fixed wing aircraft from AC carriers!

[cougarace]

Fantastic vid, good to see some acknowledgement of our carriers. Got to admit I kinda wish we still had some

[j0noStrIk3r]

@MudRat02 not a definite but apparently there's been some debate about whether we should change some of the numbers of f-35 jets to the B version for use on the canberra class LHD

[Booyaka9001]

@j0noStrIk3r All of which has nothing to do with this awesome video of FAA Scooters though! :p

[Booyaka9001]

@j0noStrIk3r Personally, I figure some combination of Rafale/Super Hornet. The F-35 is hideously overpriced and it's much vaunted stealth characteristics our politicians see as a panacea are only really available if they operate in a clean configuration (ie, no external hardpoints in use), and this severely limits their capability. They could go toe to toe (for the time being at least) with whatever the PLAN puts in the air and would be very cost effective.by comparison.

[j0noStrIk3r]

@Booyaka9001 but by the time they are equipped, the pilots trained, and have officially reached IOC, China will have commissioned its first carrier into service, Russia will be putting the final touches on it's MiG-35's and Sukhois. You present a good counter-argument, but really, if I were to go for naval aircraft, I'd go for the Super Hornet

[Booyaka9001]

Is this from Flight Deck Story? I reckons I grabbed a copy of this from Nowra when I was at the FAA museum. Awesome DVD!

[Booyaka9001]

@j0noStrIk3r For the price of a sqn of F-35Bs, we could buy practically every surviving Harrier GR.9 in the UK, maybe even a few AV-8B+ Harrier IIs as well. And they'd be just as capable!

[j0noStrIk3r]

I would love to see a 2 more canberra class LHD's built purposely for F-35B's (Once they get them on track and built!) and the other for F/A-E/F Super Hornet's

[WALTERBROADDUS]

Damn, that was a narrow flight deck.

[res05aum]

I bet the plane at 4:30 had a full portside drop tank that caused the tip over. Our squadron on the Forrestall would have dropped the tank before landing. Normally we where at half flaps for take off and full to land. Great Video thanks.

[res05aum]

I bet the plane at 4:30 had a full portside drop tank that caused the tip over. Our squadron on the Forrestall would have dropped the tank before landing.