Posted on 02/24/2009 1:48:24 PM PST by naturalman1975
After 45 years of proud service, the Air Force DHC-4 Caribou will retire at the end of this year.
The announcement was made on 19 February 2009 by Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, who said, “Our nation is extremely proud of the magnificent service that the Caribou has provided to the Royal Australian Air Force over the past five decades.”
RAAF took delivery of its first Caribou in April 1964. Operated by Number 38 Squadron, based in Townsville, the Caribou has supported ADF operations throughout the South West Pacific and in South East Asia.
It has seen active service in Vietnam, humanitarian relief in Kashmir, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, and has also supported peacekeeping operations in Solomon Islands and East Timor.
Its retirement was brought forward due to age-related factors including corrosion, fatigue and obsolescence issues, which made the aircraft increasingly difficult and costly to maintain.
A future Tactical Battlefield Airlift capability is being procured through Project Air 8000 Phase 2, with a scheduled in-service date of 2013. In the meantime No. 38 SQN will operate up to eight Hawker Pacific King Air light transport aircraft.
Sarah’ll have that sucker field dressed before you know it, eh?
I remember flying sideways in one of these to Saigon!
But a King Air to replace it? Looks like a girl's plane (in comparison)
I’m sure Ashley Judd is about to hold a press conference on her outrage that the US military is going to be retiring Caribou. Hopefully, nobody tells her its actually a plane before she flaps her gums.
C7s. Jumped outta the back of those many a time.
There’s a video of a Caribou crashing on YouTube. Apparently the pilot left the gust locks on at take-off..very sad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by7fzs6paic
I landed in one of these at FSB Buttons in 1970 between rocket attacks. The pilot put her on the left wing dropped about 2000 feet hit the runway, did a touch and go and was gone. At some point during all that I got off of the aircraft. At least it seemd to me like a touch and go. Ah, the good old days.
I used to love to watch them land at Chu Lai, the
approach was very steep, but they would appear to just
hang in the sky. Always wanted to ride in one, never got
the chance.
I used to love to watch them land at Chu Lai, the
approach was very steep, but they would appear to just
hang in the sky. Always wanted to ride in one, never got
the chance.
Oh , here’s a clip that looks close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uykSs3VKE8
Around 1990, I saw a pristine C7 in a hangar at Redstone Arsenal - found out that the Army kept it after transferring the rest to the USAF. It was still used to fly stuff to/from Ft. Bliss, TX. On those occasions when I hitched a ride in a Caribou in Nam, they always flew with the read door open which offered a great view of the countryside.
They flew Caribous between Meck Island & Kwaj in the mid 70s. It was the bus to work. Noisy things. They issued us earplugs. Don’t think they ever used more than half the runway on Meck (1200 or 1400 ft.)to land & pull off.
Don’t stop now.
Bump for later read
i really like this one...
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