Mirage A3-16 To Queensland Air Museum

Congratulations to Queensland Air Museum on their purchase of Mirage A3-16.
This follows on closely to their recent purchase of Neptune A89-277 so there are a couple of gaps in their fine collection filled.


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Glad to see her going to a good home!

(IMG:http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/albums/Mirage-III-A3-16/A3_16.sized.jpg)

How much for an old Mirage I wonder ? I still have photos clipped from the Melbourne papers of the embarassing "wheels up" at Tullamarine. And did A3-16 ever carry that tail scheme in service with ARDU as I can't find any ?

Also, speaking of RAAF Mirages, I am still not convinced that the photo purporting to be A3-77 is in fact A3-77. I have photos of all the RAAF Mirages except -77 and the best I have is a small indistinct photo of a formation of four Mirages taxiing out for the fateful mission, with A3-77 allegedly the third in line. The photo was taken by a former RAAF Wing Commander serving at Williamtown the day -77 was lost and he well recalls the drama and sadness when it was realised -77 was missing. I 've corresponded with many people and organizations over the years to fins photos and none have been forthcoming. I ever corresponded with Wg Cdr Drummond's widow who scoured his log books and possessions for me.

The photo purporting to be A3-77 appears in a well known book about RAAF Mirages. I wrote to and emailed the aurthors many times asking if I could look at a larger image or tell me where it was found. Of course, there were no replies which makes me suspicious.

Never, say never I say but I am still not convinced until I actually see the serial on the airframe as it could be anything you want it to be.

Cheers

Bob

Bob

Photos of A3-16 on its belly at Tullamarine show it with just a yellow tail. I suspect they never got around to applying the ARDU stripes and titles if indeed that was their intention. These were not added until the aircraft was restored at CJFM. The aircraft was with ARDU for just under a year.

Does anyone know what sort of trials the aircraft was used for and what was the purpose of those additional probes on the nose?

Incidentally, whatever the reasons for the belly landing, the pilot has hero status at QAM for without him the aeroplane would surely have gone to Pakistan.

By the way, in the photo gallery for A3-36 there is an image of the aircraft dangling under a Chinook but it is mistakenly captioned as A3-16. (I got quite excited about that for a minute or two!)

Regards
Ron

Hi Ron

Sorry for the typos in my first reply. I wasn't concentrating so will try to do better this time.

I have newspaper clippings about the Mirage dating back to 1965 and the Melbourne "Age " reported on 25/10/74 (with a photo) that "......Flt Lt Nick Ford, 29, based at Laverton, was on a simulated diversion flight when he tried a "touch and go" landing on the north-south runway (ie Tullamarine) at 10.55 am..." (ie the day before 24/10/74).

The report later went on to say that" ....The Mirage had been on a continuation training flight from the aircraft research and development unit at Avalon..."

It would appear that the pilot forgot to extend his wheels.

Cheers

Bob

Bob

My understanding of the accident is that the pilot was getting distracted by multiple aural warnings so he turned them off. Ordinarily the tower controller would have issued a "check wheels" advisory with the landing clearance but on this occasion he thought that might be insulting to the pilot so he skipped it. So it was a classic Swiss cheese incident.

Regards

Ron

It may have actually been the fact that the check wheels call was RAAF ATC procedure and not a civilian ATC procedure (as far as I understand the civilian procedures). I recall reading about that as a contributory cause in this accident in an old flying safety magazine.

I have heard of a few instances that the lack of a check wheels call at a civilian airfield has almost resulted in embarrassment for the military aviator involved. I also recall check wheels calls were issued even to the CT4s at 1 FTS back in the day so thoroughly ingrained in the mind of an Air Force trained pilot.

As you say a classic case of the holes lining up in the cheese.

The two supers and the PM3 Beam saved his bacon.

Sorry I missed this thread earlier. Good to know more about the incident whys and wherefores. Yes at Point Cook in the Winjeel era the base call was "three greens". Sometimes if someone was feeling sporty they might radio "C/S, base, wheels down and welded" but I never did. :-) Now for the pic:

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/albu...A3_16.sized.jpg

It seems this photo was just before the fireman seen kneeling sprays foam AND it was a rainy day - for some?

Anyway this is my contribution from old Classic Jets website no more:

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Thanks Luig and others who have responded. We have now built up quite a comprehensive history of the aeroplane:

A3-16

There is also a more detailed account of the final landing:

Last Landing

Regards
Ron

AAAaaaahhhh thanks for the EMERGENCY explanation. Now it becomes clear that with minimum fuel the Mirage really was strapped and as mentioned all the cheese holes lined up. Poor bastard. I guess the foam at the end did not help any conversion back to flight status either.

I see there is a colour version: http://www.qam.com.au/qam-content/aircraft...ge/A3-16-08.jpg

This post has been edited by Luig on May 7 2016, 06:45 PM

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Luig

I've only just noticed that someone has apparently wiped the foam off the serial number. Well done that man.

Rgds
Ron

looks very similar to your incident Phil in the A4...same end result

Brings back a lot of memories, I was serving at ARDU at the time. When Bob Jarrett (owner of Classic Jets Fighter Museum) told me he had acquired A3-16 I provided several photos of the aircraft that were used as part of the display.

Not quite the same Dave, no foam to contaminate engine particularly, whilst the aircraft side number A4G 885 was returned to flying after about one year. Damage to aircraft was minimised during landing on empty drop tanks (with arrest). Damage mostly caused elsewhere. Remember the deliberate empty drop tank landing of A4G 887 at Amberley (no arrest deliberate new procedure but on foamed centreline - no fire so no after landing foam) where the only damage was very minor (wheel had come off otherwise elsewhere). Within a day the A4G was repaired (wheel back on) and had returned to NAS Nowra.