PIREP Leg 29 YPDN Darwin International to YBSG Scherger. – The main event

[J G 927]

Leg 29 YPDN Darwin International to YBSG Scherger. – The main event

 

For those who read the prequel you will know that my life is hanging in the balance as I being hunted by a criminal mastermind and his goons. I found myself in a hanger at Darwin Airport under armed guard. I still didn’t know what I was to fly for the next leg, but I knew it was next door in the hanger.

 

 

Having had a good night’s sleep, I decided to go through into the hanger to take a look at what Jasmine had lined up for me. What I saw both pleased me and disappointed me.  For inside the hanger these was a Tornado. Awesome! However this wonderment was soon curtailed. The aircraft had on engines in it at all One was in a steel cradle next to the aircraft and the other completely in bits some distance away from the airframe.

 

So that wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

 

I sensed someone behind me. I turned to find Jasmine walking towards me. “Hi”, she said. “What do you want to do? Wait for her to be fixed or switch to plan B?”

 

“How long is the wait going to be?” I asked.

 

Don’t know, they haven’t got to the cause of the problem yet, could be a couple of days or a couple of weeks.” She stated.

 

I looked at the state of the dismantled engine and took in the fact that the second engine was also out of the aircraft. “It’s going to be more than a couple of days” I thought out loud. I was so looking forward to flying this aircraft. “What’s plan B?” I asked reluctantly.

 

“Don’t know just yet, got a couple of possibilities, we will see. There will be something for you to fly in a few days.” She replied.

 

“Ok.” I said, “I will give the Tornado five days whilst you sort out plan B, if the Tornado isn’t fixed then I will make a decision on plan B.”

 

For five very dull days I was confined to my room and bored ridged. There had been a lot of noise from the hanger, but no call to step up to the pilot’s seat. It was time to decide if I should stay longer.

 

Pros:

• A chance to fly the Tornado. A superb aircraft and not an opportunity to be sniffed at. 

• An aircraft that would easily out run Putinfeld’s men.

 

Cons:

• The baton would be late. Or should I say later still. It was behind already.

• I didn’t know what I was to fly as Jasmine didn’t want to colour my judgement on that score.

 

The thing that swung it was the chemical toilet in the hanger.  It was dangerously full, and I desperately wanted to escape that. It too was not to be sniffed at but on a completely different level. So reluctantly I went for option B, thinking that this was where I find out my plane is a Grob Tutor of some such thing. The reality was somewhat different. We hopped into some transport and headed off to the military part of the airfield.

 

There were a mixture of RAAF aircraft, several in most shelters, with some shelters empty and one with a single aircraft in front of it.  It was an RAF Typhoon.

 

 

Not as exciting to fly as the Tornado as the Typhoon had a shed load of computers to help you out on flying the aircraft, but it would do, oh yes, it would certainly do.

 

Originally the plan was for Jasmine to travel in the back seat of the Tornado, but as that wasn’t going to happen now I had a bit more work to do in preparation before I could fly. The flight planning had been done for the Tornado by Jasmine, so it was just a case of her and me going through it to convert it into a plan suitable for the Typhoon.

 

 

I was to fly an interceptor style flight. On take-off I was to fly to well over 45,000 ft in a flat out climb and then follow the flight plan to Scherger. The climb was for my practice and also to avoid any unwelcome attention from the Putifeld gang, you never know it they had a shoulder launched AA capability. We were reasonably sure that they didn’t know my destination, and hopefully the operation to close the net around them would at last free me from this pursuit.

 

Leaving Darwin was fairly straightforward, the plan would take me eastward and avoid the restricted areas that are all around Darwin.

 

 

 

I had a scheduled fuel stop at YMGD Maningrida a remote airfield about half way through my flight. This was chosen because it was remote and could be well guarded by the Australian Army.  This had a relatively short runway that would make fore an interesting landing.

 

And then the approach to Scherger was not so simple. Technically I was a civilian flight and so had to avoid restricted areas when they were in use by the RAAF. They were closed at the moment, ironically being used for military operations that hoped to bring Putinfeld to book.

 

 

This meant a diversion south to Kowanyama and then a northward leg to Scherger. The final plan being as below

 

 

Flight details complete, I turned to the departure details for Darwin. Simple enough, I would be taxing the aircraft from its RAAF hanger to the fuel box at the end of V1, and once fuelled, be asking for taxi to the active.

 

 

The location of the hanger I was to collect the Typhoon from is not marked on the civil authority maps. It lies south of the main runway and east of runway 18/36. It is part of the RAAF base here that shares the civilian runway. The ariel photo above shows the two military area as large circles with five hangers evenly spaced around them, in the corner of runways 11/29 and 18/36. Taxiways from them connect at A4, A5 and to runway 18/36

 

 

On the way to Scherger I was to make a fuel stop at Maningrida.

 

 

 

Scherger was an RAAF base and so I envisioned no problems in landing there, although the approach was to be a little strange because of the closed military airspace.

 

 

The civil map for Scherger is sparse, this is probably because Scherger is an RAAF base and only a small amount of it is available to the public. Its full extent can be seen below. It too has the circular sets of five hangers.  It seems to be a common if somewhat strange layout for RAAF hangers.  If you ask me they look like big target rings from a satellite.  Which, come to think about it, is exactly what they are if you are Russian or Chinese.

 

 

I was ready. Tomorrow was to be the day, so it was early to bed for me in my hanger annex. I slept well knowing tomorrow would bring an end to my self-imposed imprisonment.

 

I slept well, better than I had for some time. Probably because I had some certainty ahead of me. After breakfast I went to be briefed on the flight.  The briefing was A bit different, and very interesting. I was to be flying a fully armed aircraft. The load I would be carrying was to be an interdiction/strike load. This load included Meteor BVRAAMs (Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missiles), ASRAAMs (Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missiles). A couple of AIM9 sidewinders, and four Paveway air to ground missiles.  All live ordinance, not dummies. Oh and there was to be a couple of 1000 litre supersonic able fuel tanks as well. Unfortunately now that the ALARM missiles had been retired, there were no anti-radiation missiles available. I was authorised to use the weapons if I needed to.

 

I was astounded by this. Why? I asked. The reply was that there was a high risk that Putinfeld would attempt to shoot you down between here and Scherger, either from a ground based AA weapon, or from another aircraft.

 

 

I was driven to the aircraft and did my walk round. It took longer than usual as I made a thorough inspection of the loaded weapons.

 

That completed I was strapped to the aircraft, ready to start her up. I went through the pre-start checks, and sparked the MFDs cycling through all modes to ensure everything was in order. Then I commenced the engine start processes; throttle to idle, Fuel boost pumps on, Start number two engine, verify RPM (over 10 percent), engine pressures and flows checked. I then repeated the process for number one engine. 

 

 

 

With both engines turning and burning, I proceeded through the remaining checklists until I was ready to taxi.

 

Clearance obtained I taxied to the active and was quickly given take-off clearance. I lined her up and pushed the throttle right forward and lit up the after burners.

 

 

Not so long ago I flew a Lighting F6, performing the classic take-off low level flight while the aircraft is cleaned up, and then the vertical climb to dizzy heights. In all my time in the Typhoon I had never attempted this and was keen to give it a try. The acceleration down the runway of a Typhoon is something to experience, the more modern engines providing an huge amount of thrust .  Very soon I was gently pulling back on the stick and the aircraft was airborne, again the modern wing was fare more efficient than the old Lightning's.  I cleaned up the aircraft and took here in a wide arc to line up on my planned course.

 

 

Then I put the pedal to the metal and pulled back on the stick. The afterburners kicked in and the cockpit came alive. The altimeter went crazy, spinning like a top, my fuel flow meter did the same, flicking up from a sedate 1,000 litres an hour to a gluttonous 8,000 litres an hour. I reached 50,000 feet in what seemed to be a blink of an eye despite my weapons load.

 

 

At a stupid height of 51,320 feet I leveled off and went into a cruise. The wicked climb had taken me a little off course, and so I turned back onto to my planned path and settled into a high level super cruise.

 

 

I did an instrument check and noted my fuel situation.

 

 

I had used exactly half my fuel so far, and made a mental note not to use the after burners again until after the planned fuel stop. I flew unhindered until it was time to start my decent into Maningrida, and was given clearance to land. There usually is no ATC at Maningrids, but the RAF had set up a temporary field aircraft control for this exercise.  The landing was going to be interesting as the runway was short.

 

I bought the aircraft in at almost stalling speed, and as soon as the wheels touched deployed the ‘chute, and heaved open the massive air brake to its full extent.

 

 

The airfield was deserted save from the military and a single Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 . I taxied to the fuel point and soon had the tanks filled to the brim.

 

 

 

I was soon in the air again and did a low level turn back over the airfield back to my course.

 

 

This part of my leg I wanted to try something I had never been allowed to do in this aircraft in the UK. I headed out over the coast and flew parallel with it as I wasn’t sure the Australians or the RAF would be too pleased with me for doing it.

 

 

In Australia there is a lot of nowhere. I believe it is called the “Great bugger all”, or known more politely as the outback. Flying where I was, probably wasn’t technically the outback. Here was not the baron waste land I had flown across in the Fiesler Storch in ATWC 5, here was miles and miles of dense rain forest, without a sign of a population in any direction.

 

I reasoned that this was a kind of “Great green bugger all except trees”.  So….

 

I took the aircraft down to 2,000 feet and then pushed open the throttles to maximum dry heat, the aircraft speed wound up and up. Soon I was doing 932 knots with just dry thrust. Somewhere back along the coast I had made a very big sonic boom.

 

But this was not enough. Oh no indeed not enough at all.  In for a penny in for a pound. I lit the afterburners. Soon I was zipping along the coast at a speed of 1,350 knots. A quick check of my fuel and I chickened out of doing more. Off went the afterburners and I set the throttle to minimise the fuel flow.

 

I had only just picked another aircraft in front of me on the forward looking radar (FLR) when Schergar contacted me. “We have an unidentified bogey at 36,000 feet at your 12 o’clock, there are not transmitting a transponder signal. It can be seen below on the left MFD.

 

 

I did some rapid fuel calculations before replying that I would investigate. My one thought was – could this be my pursuers’?

 

I accelerated hard and climbed rapidly to 38,000 and using my radar, positioned myself behind the target. The range to target was decreasing rapidly, but the aircraft showed no signs of taking evasive action. I slowed to meet it and armed my ASRAAMs.

 

The first visual sign of the aircraft was its vapour trail. I slotted myself into the track of the vapour trail, slightly above and let the aircraft come to me.

 

 

 

It was a China Eastern Airways Airbus A330 with a dozy crew. They had a shock seeing an armed fighter off their port wing and promptly contacted ATC to ask what was happening, and after the explanation was given were very apologetic and switched on their transponder immediately. So not the mob then. Just as well really, listening to the growl and then lock on of the ASRAAMS were a sobering reminder that this aircraft was not a toy and was designed and built to perform a deadly role.

 

By the time the intercept was over I was rapidly approaching Scherger, and so I started my decent.

 

Scherger is an Australian Air force Base, so I knew I would be protected there from the mob after I had landed. Having obtained landing permission, I was soon on finals and touched down perfectly. ‘Chute out and when the aircraft slowed enough, I left the runway for my designated parking spot in with the RAAF F-18s.

 

 

When I had finished my taxi and parked, what I found next to me was not Australian, but out from the USA. No less than a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. What was she doing here? I would probably never know.

 

 

Another leg over, albeit a late one thanks to the Tornados problems. I hope this base isn’t dry like the US ones, I could do with a beer and to get shot of the baron.

 

But first I was debriefed by the RAF for the flight. It seems that Putinfelds mob wer not prepared to attack a Typhoon so there was no sign of any thret to be during the leg. The exception was the unidentified aircraft I had intercepted. I was thanked for the interception of the airbus, but it was noted that I had made a transgression before that part of the flight when I went supersonic at low level after the fuel stop. For this I was mildly chastised, although they couldn’t complain too much as without that burst of speed I wouldn’t have been in position for the later intercept. It would seem that, because my transgression was noted, the great green bugger all except trees, wasn’t so bugger all after all. If you see what I mean.

 

Now where is the bar?........

 

Aircraft:    Just Flight’s Eurofighter Typhoon

Scenery:  Orbx Global
                  Orbx Global Vectors
                  FS Global 2010
                  REX 4

 

Footnote.  The Forward Looking Radar, or FLR, actually works in the Just Flight Typhoon. The intercepted aircraft in this leg is pure AI traffic and its placement was not engineered in any way at all. it was just good fortune that I was able to pick up on this target of opportunity in the flight, it was my only one and I was able to intercept it with relative ease.

 

 

 

[mutley 4,487]

Cracking PIREP JG 

 

You had my full attention all the way with this gripping adventure.

 

Still no news on the software update for the Tornado but I am sure we can get it positioned for a future flight   

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Nice job staying well above trouble. I was worried for a sec that the intercept might be a ruse, but no such bad luck.

 

Also interesting to see your charts of the Darwin area...I had No idea all that restricted space was around there, and I just happened to come in through one of the clear zones at the finish of my leg...sheer luck with some help from ATC I guess.

 

Cheers.

[J G 927]

.......Also interesting to see your charts of the Darwin area...I had No idea all that restricted space was around there, .......

 

 

 

For every leg I fly I like to do at least some research, for my education and for that of the reader who has the patience to read my pathetic ramblings. It is part of the fun for me.  So I am pleased to have educated you just a little Matt, even if I have filled you mind with useless facts  

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Excellent leg JG - be prepared for something a little faster though next leg!

[J G 927]

Faster? Faster than 1300 knots? Wow! I look forward to that Kieran!

 

Errm I didn't park next to your aircraft did I?

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Not quite John, not quite.....

[brett 2,285]

Enjoyable pathetic ramblings JG,  and some great shots too of that sharp looking tool.  

 

Must admit that I too suffered some bad feelings about hoping a friend would be attacked during the flight.  Of course knowing full well that there was a good chance you would prevail.

 

I have to ask though, I thought it took Mack 1 for a sonic boom, 932 knots just wouldn't do it, right?

[Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142]

My word, John, it certainly takes a shed hangar-load of military hardware to keep you out of trouble — but I'm delighted that it worked and you reached your destination safely!   

 

(Scherger, you say? Always thought that was a racehorse...).

 

Congratulations on a fun flight and an entertaining PIREP, with great pics.   

 

Cheers,

 

bruce

a.k.a. brian747

 

[J G 927]

@Brett - The speed of sound at sea level is about 660 knots, so a big bang was in order:)

[brett 2,285]

@Brett - The speed of sound at sea level is about 660 knots, so a big bang was in order:)

 

My bad, I always thought it was 1200 or something along that speed.   Maybe the brain is starting to leak.......

 

[J G 927]

@ brett.  Nobody likes brain leak. I generally plug mine with beer.  You will find the dark warm stuff is best.

[stu7708 244]

Superb PIREP John, loved the shots and commentary. To bad the Tornado didn't get it's engine fixed in a quick fashion.

 

Have you heard if it's airborne yet?

[J G 927]

My contact in the RAF tells me that the Tornado is fixed now so watch this space.  However, I worry that the the delay I had over the Tornado may have given the bad guys time to get ahead of me.   

[stu7708 244]

Shall be interesting to see if the RAF can bring that Tornado to our aid further along the road then