Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 32

Page 10

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38Sqn’s King Airs.

Eamon Hamilton

RAAF News 10 June, 2010

AFTER a 31-year absence, 38SQN has returned to Malaysia.

Air Cdr Noddy Sawade said a King Air from 38SQN made the return to Butterworth late last month. The squadron’s last trip to Butterworth was in 1979, as a stopover for a 38SQN Caribou on Its way home from a United Nations’ task

Back then, a trip from Butterworth to Darwin took in overnight stops in Jakarta and Bali (So??, who complained?? – tb). By comparison, the King Air was able to make the trip from Darwin to Butterworth in a day. It’s an example of the responsive capability 38SQN can now provide with its new Interim light transport aircraft, supporting ADF operations throughout the entire Australasian region.

OIC of the Interim Light Transport Transition Team, Wng Cdr Stewart Dowrie said the King Air opened up flexibility for the ADF. “This is one of the key advantages of the King Air with 38SQN, we have a transport aircraft that’s still reasonably flexible in the airfields it can access, but can now get there much more quickly and much more reliably, it’s proving to be a cost-effective means of delivering personnel where they need to be, when they need to be there”

38SQN has taken delivery of its seventh King Air, and will receive the eighth and final aircraft In July. The first King Air pilot conversion course has graduated six qualified pilots for the squadron, with the second course currently under way. “As more King Airs and pilots come online, we can expect to see the range of 38SQN tasking grow” Wng Cdr Dowrie said.

F-22.

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor, which first few in 1997, is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and was responsible for the majority of the airframe, weapon systems and final assembly of the F-22. Program partner Boeing Defense, Space and Security provides the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and all of the pilot and maintenance training systems.

Despite a protracted and costly development period, the United States Air Force considers the F-22 a critical component for the future of US tactical air power, and claims that the aircraft is unmatched by any known or projected fighter, while Lockheed Martin claims that the Raptor's combination of stealth, speed, agility, precision and situational awareness, combined with air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities, makes it the best overall fighter in the world today. In April 2006, the cost of the F-22 was assessed by the US Government Accountability Office to be $361 million per aircraft.

 Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chief of the Australian Defence Force, said in 2004 that the "F-22 will be the most outstanding fighter plane ever built."

The high cost of the aircraft, a lack of clear air-to-air combat missions because of the lengthy delays in the Russian and Chinese fifth generation fighter programs, a US ban on Raptor exports, and the development of the cheaper and more versatile F-35 Lightning resulted in calls to end F-22 production. In April 2009 the US Department of Defense proposed to cease placing new orders, subject to Congressional approval, for a final procurement tally of 187 Raptors.

Click HERE to see the aircraft in action

AUSSIE WORKSAFE... and about time!

Introducing the steel cap thong!! 

At last someone is thinking, a major breakthrough, here is new safety footwear for the workplace. Designed in Australia for Australians.

Also available in New Zealand – and known over there as Jandols Bro.

Colours

If you asked a bunch of girls and blokes to name a heap of colours, how different would be the result??   Well, someone did just that recently in the US, by way of an online survey, and the results are very interesting.

You can see the results HERE.

The Andromeda galaxy.

The Andromeda galaxy is about 23,931,438,284,180,247,883 Klms northeast of Cloncurry, Queensland. As Galaxies go, Andromeda is pretty large -- about 1,350,868,294,629,582,765 Klms in diameter.

When you view Andromeda through a good telescope, it appears about six times wider than the moon. When you look at it without a telescope, you only see the bright centre portion of Andromeda, so it doesn't look so big (or close).

The Andromeda galaxy is flying toward earth at around a quarter of a million miles per hour. There is a good chance the Milky Way galaxy (where we live) and Andromeda will collide in about 2,500,000,001 years. That should be exciting. Unfortunately, I'll miss it.

2.5 billion years is a long time. If we look back 2,500,000,000 years, the most complex life on earth consisted of single celled organisms.

HERE is a good photo of Andromeda from the NASA WISE spacecraft, taken in infrared bandwidths.

HERE is some more info on it.

RAAF Apprenticeship scheme.

W.L. (Bill) Arden

7^th intake

I was approached in 1985 at Headquarters Support Command RAAF Melbourne by SGT Warren Sowter, an ex-apprentice MT Fitter from the 22nd Intake. I was in Aeronautical Equipment Engineering Section 5 (AEENG5) and he was researching the history of Technical Training in the RAAF for his Degree of Bachelor of Education (Technical) at the Sydney College of Advanced Education. In later years I remembered his enterprise and began searching for him and his Thesis, titled ’A History of The Royal Australian Air Force School of Technical Training’.

In 2008 I made contact with Warren and asked his permission to convert his Thesis to a computer record and to make it accessible to all those who have worn the RAAF Apprentice sky-blue triangle patch. He kindly gave permission and provided me with all the research material he had kept for all those years. For this, we owe Warren many thanks because his excellent Thesis has preserved a part of Air Force history. This, and other records he has retained, could well be all that remains of the documents of the period as many of the historic records of the Apprenticeship Training Scheme have been lost, misplaced or destroyed!

I have faithfully transcribed the following pages from the original policy documents (Agendum No. 6768) which were part of those records. The documents have been transcribed (as pen amended) maintaining the original format, layout, and errors (including a calculation error for Drill hours in Annexure II). The aim was to present the documents as close to their original

appearance as possible. I also intend to convert Warren’s Thesis, and other records, given time!

You can read the full story HERE.

This is a copy of a letter written to the RSL by Bob Carlyon. We include it here as we agree whole-heartedly with the concept - tb

Adopt an ANZAC

Bob Carlyon

There was a story on the ABC's "Australian Story" a couple of years ago where a High School history class from Mackay here in Qld decided to made Gallipoli their project for the year. Apparently, it blew their teacher away as in previous years, the kids in his class had chosen projects involving pioneering families and events in the local district.

Cutting a long story short, they managed to gather the funds to make the trip through local fund raising efforts and I guess the ABC helped as well. Their project was for each kid (age = around 16) to look up a name on the local war memorial - someone who has died overseas during WW1. They then had to research this character. That meant finding out where he was born, where he went to school, did he have any family still living, where he served, how he was killed........the lot.

I was quite taken by one young girl whose subject had a sister still living. The sister still had some letters that this fellow had written. The young girl and some of her friends used to go to this old folks home where the sister was staying and bring them cakes and make then afternoon tea. Over a cuppa, the sister would talk about her brother - brother/sister stuff as well as how the young man lived before the war. Anyway, the girl learned a lot about the person she was researching.

The class actually had funds to go to France as well as Gallipoli. They were issued with a video camera (I guess by the ABC who accompanied them) and they showed some shots the kids took on the way out to the peninsula. The teacher did a voice-over and said that the kids behaved exactly as one would expect high school kids to behave out on an excursion. Then, he said, when they hit the beach, no one spoke or made a noise for over half an hour.

The occasion was just too much. I guess what was the final part of the kids' projects was that they had to give a presentation of what they had researched. This young girl I mentioned, had found the grave of the fellow she was researching and did her presentation there. I bloody near cried myself I can tell you. She was very emotional. She told about his life before the war and his role at Gallipoli - he was a water carrier. She said he was killed helping out a

friend who was ill (apparently he had done his run for the day and his mate said he was crook so this bloke said he would do the run for him. It seems he just stepped out and got bowled over by a Turkish shell.)

At this point, she just broke down and it was plain to see that she had become very attached to this person that she had never met. There were others in the class that did the same during their presentations. They went on then to France and did the same thing there in those battlefields. It was really a great show and it stirred me greatly.

On a recent train trip from up north, I had the pleasure of meeting up with an ex-member of 460 Squadron who flew Lancasters during WWII. Apart from both being ex-RAAFies, we shared the view that we were not too fond of this current society in which we lived. This seems to be a view held by many of the older generation particularly many veterans. I detected a considerable amount of bitterness in this man I met on the train. He indicated that he was 18 when he joined up and a year or so later he was flying a four engined bomber over Germany with people shooting at him. In fact, he, like so many others, sacrificed a very important part of their lives for all - the years 18-22 in this man's case.

Unfortunately, when looking at today's society, he can only regard those years as being wasted. As I have mentioned, there are many who share his view. Now we are not able to change today's society back to what it was, and there would be many who would not want that to happen.

My "Adopt An ANZAC" idea is based on the idea used at the Mackay High School but with the option of researching living veterans. The ANZACs are but all gone but there are still many WWII and other veterans who might be willing to participate. I suspect that those who are left from WWII are those who were the youngest at the time - those probably 18+. That would put them at 80+ now. Many are probably feeling their sacrifice was wasted. I'm the first to suggest that this world is crap but I think there are still a few good people around. I have some doubts about the younger generations as a whole but there are still some good kids in that mob. Maybe, the idea would help the oldies get to know the young folk a bit better and vice versa.

What I think is possible however, is the closing of the gap between the older generation and the younger generation. My grand-daughter marches with me every ANZAC day and I'm hoping that when I'm gone, she will continue to do so in my place. If some of these old guys can establish some kind of relationship with some of the younger folk, then maybe they too will march with the veterans on ANZAC Day, and in their place when the veterans pass on. In this way, the kids of today may be able to see more than "just some old people" marching on Anzac Day.

They may come to realise that the day is about remembering the sacrifices of people just like themselves, people who were only just a year  or two older than them. Perhaps, the RSL might be able to sponsor/promote such an idea. I had thought that it might be an on-going project for Year 11/12 History (as in Mackay) but a friend has also suggested the Boy Scouts or the Guides. My preference is for the High Schools as more would be involved however, I really have no idea on how it might get started. I really think it is a project which would be worth the effort though.

New Bra!!

This is only for the girls, blokes won’t be interested in this…..

The search for a bra to be worn with a low cut and backless dress has kept women busy for many years, however, until recently there has been little imagination to bra design, despite an early patent brought by an aeronautical engineer. In fact, the basic design has not changed dramatically since its appearance in 1885. But now a brand new design of bra has been released. 

See it being fitted  HERE

The Jackaroos.

In 1968-69, a group of blokes who called thernselves the “Jackaroos’ entertained Australian and American servicemen in South Vietnam.

What started off as an impromptu session on a stage at Vung Tau around Christmas 1968, has resulted in a polished 4 man group, eagerly sought after by Clubs and Messes in the area. Facing one big difficulty, the fact that 3 of the blokes were airman and on duty most of the time, the 4^th being a Flying Officer (Radio) with 9 Sqn, the group managed to play twice a week and in between shifts, found time to practice.

The group is pictured below getting in a bit of practice in 9Sqn’s hanger where noise wasn’t really a problem. This was taken in July 1969.
 

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