Flying the A4 Skyhawk with the Royal Australian Navy — Part 3
Guest column by Peter (‘Purps’) Greenfield
The days went by with lots of Combat Air Patrol (CAP) sorties out in the middle of the Tasman Sea. On one of them the controller requested my fuel state and I gave the reply “Lamb”, meaning that I could stay on station until Charlie (landing) time, but did not have sufficient fuel to accept trade. About five minutes later, I was advised that the tanker was being launched and I was to saunter, vector 225, meaning, turn onto heading 225 degrees and cruise at a slow speed. About 15 minutes later I heard the AWI call “Heads-up, 250 knots”, and then he came past me with the drogue streamed. The light came on in my mind, so I plugged in and just took fuel until he turned it off. As I backed out, I got a vector for a bogey and a buster call, so off I went. It was a successful intercept, but merely an RNZAF Hercules on its courier flight from Canberra to Whenuapai, plodding along at 21,000 feet and about 240 knots or so. Non-exercise traffic.
War games
There was another intercept where I was sent off climbing to ‘Angels 20’ (20,000 feet); “Your bogey is a shadower”, meaning it was a General Dynamics F-111. So the squadron had a method to deal with that which the SP (the Senior Pilot who was a Qualified Flight Instructor…
