Darwin – Planes and Plants

This week started with us looking to wind up the visits to things we need to see in Darwin.  We visited an open day at the Air Force Base, walked the Botanic Gardens and strolled around Cullen Bay Marina area after a picnic at the beach.

The Air Force(s) Open Day was really interesting and very well organised.  We were surprised and pleased at how close we could walk to the aircraft and how interesting it was to talk with the pilots, bombadiers, soldiers, and other service people.  The feature aircraft on display were the American built F15 Eagle, F16 Falcon, FA18 Classic, FA18 Super Hornet and the Russian built Sukhoi 27SK and 30SK. These are all fighter bombers.  The biggest aircraft were the transport planes a C130 Hercules, a huge mid-air refueller and a Gulfstream jet converted to carry in air early warning radar systems.  The aircraft came from the Australian, Singapore, and Thai Air Forces.  The most interesting display we found was the Army Attack Helicopter which was complimented by a pilot who was happy to tell us all about its capability.  He had been flying them for 4 years. They are a 2 seater helicopter with the pilot up front and the co-pilot sitting above to the rear and mostly used to operate the weapons.  He likened the co-pilot role as the closest thing to Xbox games being remote from flying and concentrating on using the laser sighters and electronics to see things up to 8,000m away and shoot the crap out of them with missiles up to 8,000m away and rockets and cannon up to 4,000 m away.  Most weaponry can be linked to the heads-up display projected in front of the pilots eyes inside his helmet so that all he has to do is look at the target and fire the weapon.  The missiles can track to a laser spot locked on to a target or fly to a pre-determined GPS location.  Apparently the laser sights can identify and lock on to a number plate on a vehicle up to 8kms away and then track it automatically if it moves.  All pretty scary stuff if you find yourself as the target.   The current exercise has been one of the first opportunities for the Aussie pilots to match themselves against the Russian Sukhoi’s and also allows a real test of the FA18 Classic (30 yrs in Aust) and the new FA18 Super Hornet, only a couple of years.  According to a bomb loader we spoke to the older FA18 Classic’s are outperforming all other aircraft.  They have been surprised by the speed of the Russian Sukhoi but seem comfortable with the FA18’s ability to out-manouver it.  I asked how much fuel they used and the best answer I got was that with normal on-board fuel tanks they could not make Darwin to Newcastle in one hop.  There is the option of adding 3 extra tanks (1 under each wing and a 3^rd under the body, each carrying 1,200 litres) but I gathered the boys would rather carry more guns, missiles, and rockets than extra fuel.

Hercules Transport with a queue waiting to walk through

Faithful old transport for those not requiring a window seat.

Mid Air re-fuelling tanker - rear view

Gulfstream converted to carry long range radar - note bumps along side

Fuel Tanker - front on

Russian Sukhoi SK30

Sukhoi behind Army Helicopter

Army Attack Helicopter - stiff rotor blades allow loop the loops

FA18 Classic - we saw these in Rocky when Fabs was in High School

Trainer with 8 FA18 Classics parked with wing tips folded up.

King Air for transporting the important people with F15 Eagle behind

F16 Falcon

F15SG Eagle

Heavy Duty Cop Car!! - spot the Darwinite looking to pinch the wheels already

The Army version of a high speed pursuit vehicle

Hate to tell him but he really stood out in a crowd of civilians!!

Loading the Hercules

FA18's not on display - note the high tech security vehicle!!

Across Darwin Harbour to Mandorah directly behind us

Marina with expensive houses on the right and the city in the background

The other displays were all very interesting also with the MP’s Riot control armoured vehicle surprising me.  If they need something that serious to control unruly servicemen then we obviously need to be pointing our servicemen in a different direction. 

I felt sorry for the soldier with the full cammoflage kit on.  Who needs to be standing in the sun all day with a full length shaggy dog coat on and carrying a pack and rifle.  Maybe he was being punished for running amok in Darwin the night before.  I had a bit of a yarn with the recruiting officer who told me that they were indeed chasing new servicemen and women at the moment.  I offered the names of a few ex and current politicians who I thought would benefit from a stint in the Army.  He wasn’t that sure of his training capabilities however and we drifted to the subject of how hard it must me to mold some of today’s youth into energetic, conforming, predictable, reliable team players.  He shrugged his soldiers and said that “we have to work with what we get”.  I am sure he retreated into his tent heading for a cup of tea and another handful of anti-depressants so I apologised for reminding him of the task ahead and moved on.  They breed them tough in the training corps.

As we were leaving we managed to watch a Hercules being loaded with huge pallets of gear from a purpose built walking floor truck loader.  It is amazing how much you can stuff in one of those planes and they can still fly.
We visited the Botanic Gardens in the city and had an easy wander around the different areas and read the history.  They seem to have been constantly re-building the place following cyclones, and wars but it was still a very relaxing place with plenty of open grassy spaces and lots of interesting trees.  The orchids, bromeliads, and ginger plants were beautiful as they were all flowering and fresh looking even though it is still officially winter.  They have a cute area for members of the public to grow their own plot of veges, herbs, or flowers which are watered by the gardens staff.  There were some healthy plants growing and the plot owner’s signs were also amusing.  We weren’t tempted to test the security surrounding ownership of the veges growing but I would be concerned that some members of our multi-cultural society fully appreciate the notion that “see one take one” does not apply here.   

Relaxing in the greenhouse - solid chairs

Cute little orchids

Eyelash flowers - they've probably got a more scientific name??

Pretty Ginger

We then enjoyed a picnic lunch by the beach at Cullen Bay.  The Marina with boardwalk cafés and restaurants opposite million dollar mansions with huge play boats moored outside the back door was a pleasant walk for us.  It is a very neat, new, and expensive looking area to own real estate but obviously a lot of people have the money to enjoy it.  The ferry across the harbour to Mandorah leaves from the Marina.  There are still a lot of high rise unit blocks going up on the hill overlooking the Marina and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be sitting in your million dollar unit on the 25^th floor of a building on a hill 300m from the water and directly in the path of the next cyclone. Nervous would describe it, I think.

In the days since the Air Force Open Day it has become more interesting to watch the planes leaving for and returning from their exercises.  Yesterday they treated us to some low level formation flying as they came back home.  Of course the best view was of 4 FA18 Classics flying wing tip to wing tip and very low over the park but they forgot to ring ahead and tell us to get the camera ready.  The next group of 6 were also impressive as was the Gulfstream Radar Warning plane and they were photographed.

Formation Flying - a bunch of F16's I think

Radar Plane

I have finally included a photo of our home site for the last 10 weeks which has had the benefit of at least 5 megalitres of water added to it and more than 2 tonnes of leaves raked off it in that time.  Carol disagrees but I am sure that there are at least 6 more blades of grass to show for all the love and attention I have given it.  No, we have not had to mow it yet.  Carol has been busy sewing and has built quite a collection of young persons’ garments and accessories which she intends to sell at a large Baby Market in Brisbane next week (Sat 25/8).  Previews can be found at her Facebook page called “TheVintageCaravan”.  Please Like It if you haven’t already.  She also posted a garment for sale on an Auction page to benefit the parents of Daniel Morecombe whom we met at Isobel’s school some months ago.  They are ordinary people motivated to do extra-ordinary good for others no matter what the past has dealt them.  The garment on that site is beautifully modelled by Miss Violet.

Lovely shady large site

Also must mention Emily's cousin Jade who returned from the Olympics during the week after having represented Australia in the Hockey team.  Well done and what an experience for Em, Elliot and Violet to be at the hangar to welcome all the Olympians back.

"TheVintageCaravan" sweatshop