Sea Venom ID?

[Martin Edwards]

Can anyone identify this Sea Venom and when and where it was?
Photo by Dick Winterburn

Clues;
It was a target tug. (Painted yellow and black underneath)
Side number ended in 5

Suggestions;
N4-930 at Tocumwal?

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[Martin Edwards]

How about this one taken at Bankstown in the 1980s

Clues;
Civilian paint scheme

Suggestions
None come to mind!
Could it be one that was exported to USA WZ/N4-903, -944, -946

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[Martin Edwards]

And finally this one

Clues:
Taken at Gold Coast 1989

Suggestions:
More than likely WZ/N4-911 but would like confirmation

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[Ron Cuskelly]

Martin

The white aeroplane with green trim is WZ910. It was with the Sydney Tech for a while but ended up with Harold Thomas from whom QAM acquired it in 1977. The aircraft is stored dismantled and potentially available as a swap.

Regards
Ron

[Martin Edwards]

Thanks Ron, one down and two to go (Plus the mystery Dookie Vampire)
I guess that the picture was taken pre-1980

[Ron Cuskelly]

Martin

When I first saw WZ910 on 24 Nov 77 the pod was in Harold's hangar at Camden and the rest of the aircraft was stored in the open on his property at Narellan so the photo certainly predates Nov 77.

I am fairly certain that the Sea Venom on the Gold Coast is WZ911 which formerly belonged to the late John Hill. The building in the background looks like the Gold Coast War Museum at Mudgeeraba.

I don't recognise the Sea Venom thought to be at Tocumwal but I have a note that three Sea Venoms were converted to target tugs; WZ930, WZ943 and WZ944. WZ930 was noted at Tocumwal and its last recorded side number was 865. If someone can recognise the location as Tocumwal that should do it. WZ943 had been up a pole at Nowra and WZ944 went to Warbirds at Mildura.

Regards
Ron

[Luig]

Venom Side Numbers changed in some cases. I'll keep digging. In meantime here is one target tug paint scheme example.....

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[Luig]

I cannot make out the side number. Photo is by Neville M. Parnell.

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[Luig]

Some more info...

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[Luig]

Probably the other PARNELL photo showing underside of DELMAR Venom in flight is 865 as shown here.

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[Luig]

On 27 June 1969 I flew my first Delmar Venom sortie in 865 with Petty Officer Aircrewman Cook.

On 11 July 1969 I first flew a Banner Tow sortie in 873.

Later on 26 August 1969 first flew 877 Banner Tow (probably only 873 had the target paint scheme).

Later Venom 876 was converted quickly to Delmar because as I recall 865 became completely unusable due airframe damage from too much DELMARing. The target when extended caused the aircraft to yaw a lot causing stress on the airframe and elevators which would be inspected for cracks and cracks monitored with pilot and Air Engineering Officer having a look before each flight. Nice huh. B)

My last Venom flight was in 873 (not target related) on 03 Dec 1970. It was the second last Venom flight in the RAN with SBLT Peter Cox having the last flight one or two days later.

This post has been edited by Luig on Jul 16 2013, 08:52 PM

[Ron Cuskelly]

In the colour shot by Neville Parnell, the aircraft has a "5" on the NLG door which suggests that it is WZ930 side number 865.

Rgds
Ron

[Luig]

Agree - as indicated in the text above the greyscale photo of 865 on the line with Delmar. However.... :lol: I have darkened the photo to allow the '5' on the NLG to be more visible.

This post has been edited by Luig on Jul 17 2013, 06:43 PM

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