anyone remember the Caribou

[jack404]

flying gravel trucks
boo
wallaby airlines

all names for our old mate

retired now , the Historical aircraft restoration society here (Hars.org.au) has just got their one up and flying this morning ( it flew over head here so i know )

spent lots a time in them eh

[venustus]

Thanks for the pics Jack.
What location is the second photo?

[jack404]

have not a clue eh ! lookin for better pic's than what i have left and stole this from a blog , but it may be near canberra , theres a chute training field that looks similar

and the bags without troops looks like a troop drop ( fly in from holsworthy, jump , assemble , patrol back to the field )

[jack404]

totally wrong emailed the bloke who took the pic ..

Air Force personnel unloading a Caribou aircraft of No. 38 Squadron at Townsville's High Range Training Area in support of Exercise Northern Station 2007. You know 35 does Holsworthy you nong !



sorry if i'da taken a proper look i'd have seen all that .. good its put right ..

[venustus]

Cheers mate.

[Snakedriver]

Oh yeah, the fixed wing transport plane that the U.S. Air Force begrudgingly allowed the U.S. Army to keep in its inventory after they split-off and went their own way..........................................great aircraft and tough as nails!

The Army should have mounted hardpoints on the wings for bombs and rocket pods just to drive the Air Force guys crazy.

[jack404]

we did have one here with a pair of Mini guns mounted in the tail on the ramp but after Cambodia ripped them out

i did see our one "bombing" drop from a boo

they rolled out a daisy cutter just like a pallet drop, chute opened it hung in the air dropped into the tree's then WHAM instant landing pad for choppers

we shoulda used it against troop concentrations ..

a great old bus

[Snakedriver]

Jack, I've seen Daisy Cutters deployed from C-130's, CH-47 Chinooks and CH-54 Flying Cranes. The effect when they go off is unblievable.

Here's a photo of a Huey landing in an improvised landing zone created by a Daisy Cutter impact:

[jack404]

yeah bloody impressive eh

whats left you can drop a team with chain saws and have it totally clear for loads in a few minutes

hey you folks still flying the 54's ?? they where way cool birds , we have one out here for firefighting we named Elvis , its such a star performer ...

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by jack404

yeah bloody impressive eh

whats left you can drop a team with chain saws and have it totally clear for loads in a few minutes

hey you folks still flying the 54's ?? they where way cool birds , we have one out here for firefighting we named Elvis , its such a start performer ...

No, our Army took them out of their inventory quite some time ago. They never really found an appropriate way to use them despite all the variouse accessory items that could be used on them. As you say, we still have some being used in the States to fight forest fires and such. They are awesome powerful helicopters.

[RJay]

Aye, I remember the Caribou, also the de Havilland Otter , another fine aircraft the Air Force took away from the army because it was infringed on their " Mission ". If the Air Force would get their head out of their high performance fighter jets only arse and buy more ground support aircraft no one would need to " infringe on their mission. They still hate it that the U S Army has helicopters. I also remember the OH-23 Raven, the OH-13 Sioux, the CH-34 Choctaw, the Big and ugly Ch-37 Mojave. My sling wing roots go way back.

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by RJay

Aye, I remember the Caribou, also the de Havilland Otter , another fine aircraft the Air Force took away from the army because it was infringed on their " Mission ". If the Air Force would get their head out of their high performance fighter jets only arse and buy more ground support aircraft no one would need to " infringe on their mission. They still hate it that the U S Army has helicopters. I also remember the OH-23 Raven, the OH-13 Sioux, the CH-34 Choctaw, the Big and ugly Ch-37 Mojave. My sling wing roots go way back.

RJay, you're the man! The Hiller OH-23 was the first helicopter I ever flew and the supercharged version of the Bell OH-13 was the one I took my instrument training in.

[RJay]

In reference to the H-13, the 4Th INF, Division was still using the OH-13's in 1966. I guess for observation, they had M-60s mounted on the skids.

[SF Mike]

Camp Ha Tanh 1967.
Outgoing 155.

[Little Rooster]

weren't they illegal to fly in the US?

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by SF Mike

Camp Ha Tanh 1967.
Outgoing 155.

Really hard to recover from that one!!!

[jack404]

carabous where legal it was the platius porters we fly here that where outlawed in the US ( canadian backwoods folks like em ) ..

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by jack404

carabous where legal it was the platius porters we fly here that where outlawed in the US ( canadian backwoods folks like em ) ..

Porters were really cool planes! Air America flew them in & out of some of the places we hung out at in Vietnam and I swear they could almost hover. Roll-out between landing and take-off was almost nonexistent.

[jack404]

our "field" for the platius in siem riep was 250 meters with a clif at the end , coming in to land they'd fly Up to it , cut power and "crash" into the hill slope.

great pilots , kept us going for years ..

[Little Rooster]

Originally Posted by jack404

carabous where legal it was the platius porters we fly here that where outlawed in the US ( canadian backwoods folks like em ) ..

Okay I kew it was one I I was familiaar with It's a shame the STOL Porters are outlaw here. I think every country in the world has the Porter now that I googled it. I would think they be great in the wilds of the Amrican NW


Air America use to land between the taxiway and the Main runway in Thailand while i was there. Use to think those guys were best piolots I had ever seen. I know now maybe not the best but about the most fearless. Their inventory of aircraft amazed me

[SF Mike]

Caribous and 123s were the main supply trucks to the A Camps in VN.

I believe the AF had given the obsolete Bous to the army and then took them back when they proved still useful.

Believe there were fatigue issues with the tail, but I flew many miles in them and nobody seemed concerned.

Coming back from leave on a chow run some enterprising VC stiched a bunch of holes through the bird as we were on final. Sounded like rocks on a tin shed.
Pilot grabbed the throttles and it seemed like we went straight up.

I tried to get him to land at Song Be, but he flew a hundred miles to Vung Tau.
No real damage, apparently.

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by SF Mike

Caribous and 123s were the main supply trucks to the A Camps in VN.

I believe the AF had given the obsolete Bous to the army and then took them back when they proved still useful.

Believe there were fatigue issues with the tail, but I flew many miles in them and nobody seemed concerned.

Coming back from leave on a chow run some enterprising VC stiched a bunch of holes through the bird as we were on final. Sounded like rocks on a tin shed.
Pilot grabbed the throttles and it seemed like we went straight up.

I tried to get him to land at Song Be, but he flew a hundred miles to Vung Tau.
No real damage, apparently.

Damn, it's a pretty long way from Song Be to Vung Tau. After that combat experience he must have needed some R & R in Vung Tau to recover.

When I was in Vietnam, the VNAF were flying most of the 123's into all kinds of small fields around the country. We saw them do some really stupid stuff!!! Watched them ball one up at Kontum one day. It was comically sad what bad pilots they were.

[RJay]

I never knew the correct name for the Porters, We just called then "Storks" becasue of the long landing gear struts. And as posted it was pretty amazing to watch them land and take off. They were used in Ban Me Thout to transport some very intresting people, which by the way we wern't allowed to ask about Also IIRC they had some heavy duty mufflers which also made them very quite and sneaky.

[Snakedriver]

Originally Posted by RJay

I never knew the correct name for the Porters, We just called then "Storks" becasue of the long landing gear struts. And as posted it was pretty amazing to watch them land and take off. They were used in Ban Me Thout to transport some very intresting people, which by the way we wern't allowed to ask about Also IIRC they had some heavy duty mufflers which also made them very quite and sneaky.

Yep, I'm still real good friends today with one of those strange cats!

[Little Rooster]

Here is some interesting records from the now defunct>cough< Air line. There's a tally of what happened to many of the caribous and many of the other pieces owned/lent/leased by the company

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/AirAmeric...AirAmerica.htm