2 March 2007

Hawks over Canberra - Don't panic

| johnboy
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Defence has alerted us to a flypast of Hawk 127’s over ADFA tomorrow between 10.15 and 10.30.

They look just like fighter planes because they are fighter planes for all that we like to pretend they’re just trainers.

So don’t panic when the loud zoomy things shriek over head tomorrow morning.

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Was that it? Just one noisy Hawk flying at an odd angle?

Yeah, peaceful swims in the quiet waters of Shoal Bay with the kidlets were considerably enlivened by the sudden loud appearance of low-flying jets. It was great!

That should read “held onto them too long”!

The problem with the Macchi was the ADF held onto too long. Having wings snap off aircraft is not a good way to go!

neanderthalsis5:05 pm 02 Mar 07

The hawks are much better that the Macchis that we had been using in the jet training / “possible light combat if things got nasty” role. I wonder if they’ll stay in service as long though, we had the Macchis from 65 – 99, the only thing we have ever had longer is the Caribou.

My family used to go camping out in the back of north-NSW in an area the RAAF would use for training and exercises. One minute you would be contemplatively stirring your porridge on the fire, the next there’s two F1-11s screaming over you just above the tree line. Made for interesting brekkies…

I have always wanted to go camping at the end of Williamtown’s runways! 🙂

The A-4 Skyhawk is the aircraft that the RNZAF used to operate before Ugly Clark took over NZ and turned the place into a giant Pussy.

Sheer you need to move to Nelson Bay then – Hornets on bombing runs make brilliant viewing, and you can also park your car right at the end of the Williamstown runway…awesome.

skyhawk – iirc has a ‘perfect’ wing.

The BAE Hawk isn’t related to the old skyhawk’s Mael

Vectorsite has an excellent piece on them.

The pic is off the defence site linked to above.

Hey Mael, I think you’ve got your wires a bit crossed there – these Hawks (BAE Hawk – a British design) have a maximum speed of just under Mach 1.

The Skyhawk was the US designed plane that our navy used to have for the HMAS Melbourne. It was a fair bit slower, but with a max speed of 585 knots it would still be hard to mistake it for a piston-engined Cessna.

Perhaps if either a Hawk or Skyhawk deliberately flew as slow as possible as a tactic to confuse IFF?

yaaaaaaay! THIS is why I moved to Canberra. Loud, fast, cool stuff.

Whatever they’re called nowdays, the SkyHawk is a rather interesting craft.

Interesting for the fact that they fly so slowly that IFF regards them as a cessna (and therefore cannot target it with decent hardware), and yet it is nuclear payload capable.

Interesting what you pick up here and there…

Photos supplied by JB ?

Nice one 😛

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