From 1968 until 1984

A Pictorial History of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm Skyhawk A-4Gby

RAN callsign Lucifer used for formation & armament sorties

Centre Colour Page of the Navy News 21st Anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm edition 03 Oct 1969

HELLO! intro by Gorillaz

Please click above for video clip

In the beginning there were Sea Furies, HMAS Sydney and the Korean War

Sblt Fred Lane

Click graphic top left & right for RAN & RN Sea Fury arrested landing videos

Then came the Sea Venom F.A.W. 53 era

Please click all corner graphics for Venom video clips

ZOOM IN to see DETAILS

Click Earth image, zoom to NAS Nowra, NSW AustraliaThis opening video (or any other video in this PDF) can be stopped at any time by clicking the "X" in the top right hand corner of the window showing the video

Please use the Bookmarks tab to navigate to an individual aircraft history

Opening Page Only. Please go to the next page of this PDF for the Pictorial History of RAN FAA A-4G Skyhawks

http://www.drawquick.com.au/ships/pic15.htm

USN A-4B Skyhawk landing, May 1965 1st Skyhawk to land on HMAS Melbourne!

Click above for USN pilot story &

exclamation !?!!

Singapore RSAF Super Skyhawk A-4SU 926 at Tengah Nov., 2002

Photo from Errol Kavanagh

1st Skyhawk catapult HMAS Melbourne, May 1965

http://www.drawquick.com.au/ships/images/gallery/a41965_05.jpg

BuNo. 144874 First A4 to land on HMAS Melbourne in May, 1965

USN VC-5 Checkertail Angels A-4B

Please visit the Skyhawk Association at: www.skyhawk.org for more information

Page replicated from 805 Sqdn linebook 1967-68

Then came the A-4G Skyhawk era. read on

Please click graphic below for video clip

Page from VF-805 linebook

Navy Week HMAS Melbourne at Garden Island, Sydney, NSW, Australia 1968

805 Squadron Linebook Entry 1968

Click the red rectangle for a zoom view of NAS Nowra airfield today

Click the red rectangle below for video of a dusk catapault launch

HMAS Creswell RAN College

Click red rectangle below for zoom animated Google ride from outer space to NAS Nowra airfield today

SKYHAWKA pictorial history of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm complement of Douglas A-4G Skyhawk aircraft 196884. Please click the Bookmarks tab on the left hand side of this page to navigate to an individual side number of an aircraft. Some PDF pages have video .WMV movies or popup Flash .SWF graphics embedded. Please click images on pages as directed.

NAS Nowra, NSW area with Jervis Bay to the south-east

Click the red rectangle on right for a zoom animated Google ride from the USA to NAS Nowra airfield today

Most of NAS Nowra jet flying training area highlighted from Nowra south along coastal strip south of Braidwood

RANAS Nowra Main Gate with Gate Guardian Sea Fury on left and Firefly on the right 23 Nov 1967

Royal Australian Navy A-4G Skyhawk Pictorial Histories PDFsTA4G 879

The Story of TA-4G 879. The last page of the PDF references the original 724 line book page. Click on the icon in the lower right hand corner of this page to see the original photo of the page (much 3670 weathered). The image that will pop up is in Flash format. If you do not KB have a Flash player installed then the OS will ask to download this from the web. Many thanks to Australian Museum of Flight and Dave Masterson for this photo. RAN TA4G 880 which became NZ6255 and still going strong has had 6240 an historic "last" flight for the RAN Fleet Air Arm role. Story in the KB PDF with video clips and graphics

Title A-4G 870 A-4G 871 A-4G 872 A-4G 873 A-4G 874 A-4G 875

Size

Details

The PDF shows in graphical format the history of RAN A4G 870. This 2541 Skyhawk survived a mid-air collision in 1975 but was lost due to engine KB failure on 23/01/1979. Fortunately SBLT C. Tomlinson survived his ejection into rugged bushland Another pictorial history of the use of RAN A4G 871 (second-hand 5059 USN A4) now converted to NZ6215 Kahu standard. Perhaps it will fly KB again in the USA Sadly ASLT Malcolm McCoy died in RAN A4G 872 when he collided 3309 with another Skyhawk whilst practising 'divisional bombing' (in loose KB formation) on 17/07/1975. The PDF shows a pictorial history of this aircraft - 872 A story in graphics is told of the history of RAN A4G 873 which 3914 crashed after engine failure 05/06/1973. The pilot SBLT Tony Der KB Kinderen from VF 805 Squadron ejected over water safely. 873 was the first Skyhawk loss in the RAN RAN A4G 874 had a varied life, first with the USN with service in 5358 Vietnam and then a second life with the RAN Fleet Air Arm; and finally KB another life with upgrades with the RNZAF and the Kahu update. Maybe it will fly again in the USA RAN A4G 875 was lost after engine failure immediately after being 1231 catapulted from HMAS Melbourne 02/10/1980. LCDR Clive KB Blennerhassett ejected with minor injuries People to thank for photos: Australian Museum of Flight; Dave Masterson; Calum Gibson; Don Simms; Laurie Hillier and more - the list is long. Usually the story concentrates on the individual aircraft but 4084 often there will not be a lot of material for each one. Then aspects of KB the overall Skyhawk RAN to RNZAF (including previous USN) history are included. Any errors or omissions can be easily corrected - please advise Former RAN A4G 877 after becoming NZ6218 suffered a major 5168 accident during landing on a wet runway. The aircraft was repaired to KB fly again. Story of the aircraft in this PDF On 28/04/1980 RAN TA4G 878 suffered an engine failure during the 3301 'break downwind' into the circuit for landing at NAS Nowra. Leut Andy KB Sinclair ejected successfully, passing 500 feet, about 1NM south of runway 26.

TA4G 880

RAN TA-4G side number 881 had a long life until just before the cessation of use by the RNZAF it crashed on 20/03/2001 with the pilot ejecting successfully over water west of Perth WA. This PDF has TA- 5851 a glimpse of the rugged country around Nowra as well as some generic 4G 881 KB information about the 'leading edge slat' problem for an A-4 pilot from a USN safety magazine. The very last page of this PDF expresses hope for the remaining A-4Ks to have a flying future somewhere soon Former RAN Skyhawk A-4G 882 had a long service life until a fatal crash in 16/02/2001 at NAS Nowra while with the RNZAF as NZ6211. Previously this Skyhawk had been damaged in mid-air collision with 1438 NZ6210 during Kiwi Red practice doing the roll under break manoeuvre KB on 24/10/89, returned to service 17/11/90. Served with 2 Sqn RNZAF 2001. Crashed while conducting practice of barrel roll with NZ6213 hooked up at Nowra NSW. NZ6213 escaped. Tragically Sqn Leader Murray Neilson RNZAF was killed. The story of RAN A-4G 883 in pictures. Thanks again to usual suppliers of photos, John Bartels, Laurie Hillier, Don Simms and Calum Gibson and others (RAN and RNZAF official). If any further pictures 4224 or/and information can be supplied then that would be most welcome. KB

A-4G 882

A-4G 883

A-4G 876

A-4G 884 A-4G 885 A-4G 886

5180 Another long pictorial story about former RAN A4G 884 becoming KB NZ6213 - perhaps to fly again one day in the US of A The PDF shows the colourful history of RAN A-4G 885 before it went 5835 to "Davy Jones' Locker" on 21/10/1980. Thankfully SBLT David KB Baddams ejected at the end of the soft catapault shot, being rescued by helicopter minutes later with minor injuries 5893 RAN A4G 886 rolled off the flight deck on 24/09/1979. The last KB pages of this PDF demonstrate the rolling flight deck hazards

A-4G 877 TA4G 878

A-4G 887

A Pictorial history of A4G Skyhawk. This pictorial history of 887 in the RAN, with a swansong in the RNZAF compiled, unfortunately without photos of 887 in RNZAF garb; therefore the last 2 pages are of 3787 anonymous RNZAF A4s. The bird strike photos are of the actual KB former RAN 887 (NZ 6214) however. Thanks to Laurie Hillier, John Bartels and others for their excellent colour photos RAN A-4G 888 was usually referred to as "triple 8" until 23/05/1979 4500 when it was lost over the side of HMAS Melbourne after the arrestor KB wire broke during an arrest. LCDR K. Finan USN ejected successfully as the Skyhawk went nose down off the deck RAN A4G 889 was lost off the catapult due to catapult malfunction on 08/11/1973. SBLT Barry Evans did a great job surviving being run over 6068 almost by the ship, surfacing after it passed by, to be then rescued KB quickly by the plane guard Wessex. A video embedded in page 390 shows the story of this event in brief

A-4G 888

A-4G 889

Aussie A-4G Histories and DocumentsThe Royal Australian Navy operated A-4G and TA-4G Skyhawks from around 1968 to 1984. After this the remaining aircraft were sold to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, eventually to be come RNZAF A-4K's. In the ultimate irony they returned to their original home at HMAS Albatross in 1991 for a 10 year stint supporting the RAN. This page contains a large number of PDF's on various subjects related directly and indirectly to the operation of the A-4G Skyhawk by the RAN. Many of these PDF's contain video files and flash animations. For help on these PDF's you can try this e-mail address:

THE A-4 ALLEY

Navy Callsign All PDF's were created by Phil Thompson (Lucifer). We hope you enjoy them

lucyfer@msn.com.au

Photo by LCDR J.R. Brown RAN (Ret.)

LEUT Peter James LSO