When they were in service, the F111 "dump and burn" was an annual treat for people in Brisbane, in conjunction with the Riverfire festival. The aircraft used to fly straight over our house, and would light up when directly overhead at fairly low altitude. I swear they used our roof as a navigation way-point! 😆 What a spectacle!
I remember as a kid in southern nsw one night hearing an unusual noise and racing out the back of the house and hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing the navigation lights of a jet flying away (it had already passed by the house) at extremely low level and could only think that it was some military jet, not knowing what model it was at tthe time. Years later coming to know it was an F-111. More years later I had the chance to visit East Sale airforce base and see 2 pigs (F-111's) preparing for flight and taking off it was a great experience at the time :)
I thoroughly enjoyed watching him explain the systems of the aircraft. I always thought the F111 were beautiful planes, and while I'm not Australian, thank you for your service, sir.
I served as a jet engine mechanic at Takhli RTAFB, Thailand with that aircraft from September 1972 to March 1974 and later at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho from 1977 to 1980. Worked in-shop and on the flightline, engine run certified. Part of the "Family Affair" at Takhli, a group of six F-111s each named after a character from that show.
A sobering thought indeed, particularly after you learned the TFR had an average operational working life before failure of less than 20 hours. An amazing machine nonetheless.
Only recently had a close look at the one preserved at Caloundra with my Dad who was ex RAAF and flew the F-111 then became an instructor at CFS and a Roulette. The size of them is enormous but the stories of their capability were insane. They were Australias' right fist for a long time.
Great walk through of this amazing Plane . I was in the ADF through the 70's and early 80''s and have seen this beast in action . We had a fire power demo at the Singleton Army base , which included , APC's , Artillery , Mortar and infantry . The F-111's did a strafing run with the gatling gun then dropped there bombs ( total of 8 x 2,000lb bombs ) in one run . This was at the time the biggest drop of 2,000 bombs and nobody knew what would happen , We stood on top of a hill 3klm away from the impact sight and you could see the pressure wave coming towards us , when it hit in nearly knocked as over . The sound was damn loud . The dump and burn was another sight at the end of the demo . As they say , memories, I did have photo's , but over time they have been lost . I strongly believe that the F-111 could still be flying today . Do up grades etc and you have a tank flying around . The original " PIG " To you sir I say , " Thank you for your Service " .
My old man was based at Amberley in mid 70's, took my brother and I on base for a bit of a tour on a weekend (so much easier than now to get on base, showed his Id at the gate and your in lol) and there was an F1-11 on the apron with stairs to cockpit that was open and we got to sit in pilots seat, was nearly as good as being there the day they arrived and broke sound barrier overhead, civilians had no idea, his section passed out the earmuffs for protection, pretty sure never broke sound barrier over populated areas again. RAAF still flew Hueys and Chinooks back then so got to walk through and scored the gunners seat ride at a Cadet camp over Maroon dam in an Iroquois. loved growing up as a RAAF kid.
I had tears in my eyes that final day as they flew over Brisbane escorted by 2 of their replacements the super hornets, grew up with the pigs regularly flying over Brisbane and Moreton Bay, sadly missed 14 years later😢😢.
Wonderful!!! Thank you. As an opinion and certainly not a criticism, we seem to be the best in the world at keeping old and obsolete planes flying and serviceable.
I went on a deployment with this aircraft A08-109 when at 6 squadron. We were trialling a new air to ground missile the AGM-142 at RAAF Edinburgh. I was the equippo. Late 2001 I think. Loved the pig!
Over here in New Zealand there was a regular exercise where the F111's would fly from the airbases up by Auckland and 'raid' the Port at Tauranga which is a few hundred kms south east. The route was low level and through some pretty twisty mountain ranges which made for some great viewing if I happened to be visiting family who lived directly under the flight path, I guess the pilots were using the terrain following radar?
It's a pretty special alliance Australia & NZ have even with Anzac and all, nowhere else in the world would aircraft usually be allowed to operate over someone else's territory. Other countries have war games etc and yes flights are sanctioned but considering NZ doesn't have a fighter force that's saying something in my view.
@@Mr-Damage The NZDF has been gutted and dismantled since Vietnam so sad. The government doesn't understand the loss of social welfare and citizen building the Armed services provide. Just penny pinching.
The mention of evens head to Amberley baught back memories. I had the opportunity to watch some training runs at evens, but the highlight was sittingbin the surf or around the headlands on the tweed coast or Coolangatta or working on highrises up the coast. The pilots would come in low and hug the coastline tightly, on the deck just out to sea. On some occasions they would loop back around for another run, give a wave. I still drive to evens air mueseum to have a look at their f111. Thank you for a very informative and engaging video
I was at an F-111 base when the usaf told the maintainers they were all losing their jobs. In 1987 there was an F-111 that crashed in Idaho. They ejected but the aircraft inverted. So the capsule rocketed into the ground. This was all at Mtn Home AFB
They are a wonderful aircraft, our farm was below a flight location beacon and the sudden big green thing above you would induce a brown moment, amazing to see the Pig climb from the gully to the hill top , 200 foot I reckon they were that low you could see the rivets 😊 . I am sure it would have got the adrenaline pumping flying over the Bunyar's .
1971 late January, Rosewood High school organized a bus tour for a handful of us to Amberly to walk around a couple FB 111s. Awesome aircraft up close.
Saw a couple of 'dump and burns' by an F-111 when I lived in a high apartment in Waverton, Sydney. One was during the Sydney 2000 Olympics when an F-111 flew down the Harbour from west to east trailing a huge flame. The other occasion was on the night of an RAAF celebration around Darling Harbour when an F-111 flew north to south over the North Shore and when it reached Darling Harbour it went near vertical and did an impressive dump and burn. Another interesting occasion was in Sep / Oct 2010? when I was visiting a friend living on a ridge line property in the Scenic Rim in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Late morning one day we were working outside when from nowhere came the roar of jet engines and as soon as the sound started it vanished. The whole event couldn't have lasted more than 5 seconds. We both spun around looking for the plane but couldn't see it. This plane definitely wasn't flying at any great altitude as the abruptness of the start / finish of the sound meant that this aircraft was flying nap of the earth over ridge lines and across valleys. Someone having a last joy flight before the F-111's were decommissioned? I can't think of any other plane capable of giving us this experience. Have no idea which direction he was travelling in but we were about 30km from the Army live firing area between Canungra and Nerang. Perhaps he was going to give the army boys a surprise visit?
Was living in Darwin in 2007 I saw what I believe was the last dump and burn in Australia over Darwin city, absolutely spectacular something I will never forget.
They were in fact moved up to Darwin during the Timor Crisis. More a deterrent in case things escalated. Theres Great story behind how they let that info "slip out". A couple of them did actually do low level passes over Timor. Absolute Beasts.
Last F111 to take off, was scrambled after another had a fault, took off with a tail wind many minutes after the others that participated in the final day.
Thanks Phil (and your previous introducer) you should do a bit of a talk on your training etc..,No...how you got to sit in one ..your background, motivation , training etc you need more than a drivers licence to get there..
I friend of mine knew 2 guys that got killed in a low level swoop! Mark fallon & Billy pike back in the 1980s @ Tenterfield may they both rest in peace!!
Interesting n my favourite, i had chanes to listen podcast with 2 US F111 crew talking about E model n difference between E n F, i do wonder how advance was C over E n was it close F specs especially in last form was digital? RAAF did operate G model too, there was rumour that RAAF F111 were going have stealth features added like air intake with raven EW tail but at last minute went with F18G.
The Yanks did look at digitizing them but the price tag was gonna be 1/4 billion each to do it... so they didn,t 😮😢😅. The one that went down in the Hauraki Gulf just out of Auckland was a Dag. Local fisherman saw it all chugged over hooked up tow and headed for Airbase Hobsonville in Auckland. The 2 x local Comedians had a field day McPhail and Gadsby (both sadly deceased now) came on the telly in RAAF uniforms saying an F111,s ❤ didn,t Crash 😢😮 we were just testing one of our new Submarines....😅. We always enjoyed having the Australasian F111,s here in NZ. 😊
The US Navy version, the F-111B, was developed in colaboration with Grumman. In the end it was cancelled on the grounds of being too heavy and not pious enough, as a US admiral would confess to the purchasing commitee: "There is not enough Christianity in the world for the US Navy to accept this plane."
@@KapiteinKrentebol…. A USN Admiral went to Congress to tell them the F-111B was the wrong aircraft for the navy. After which he retired. Secretary of Defense McNamara was livid at the navy for refusing it
According to Wikipedia that there's different information for &/or about this actual (F1-11) Jet Aircraft as far as funny &/or nicknames are concerned which are, (Q1) Why was the F-111 called the pig (???????) (A1) In Australian military and aviation circles, the F-111 Aardvark was affectionately known as the "Pig", due to its long snout &/or nose and terrain-following ability. The F-111Cs gave the RAAF a powerful strike capability but were never used in combat, of course. (Q2) Why is F-111 called aardvark (???????) (A2) The word "Aardvark" is Afrikaans for "earth pig" and reflects the look of the long snout &/or nose of the aircraft that might remind one of the snout &/or nose of the Aardvark. The origin of the name has been attributed to F-111A Instructor Pilot Al Mateczun in (1969), as the aircraft had not received an official USAF name, of course. Sometime before the (F1-11) Jets came into the (RAAF Royal Australian Air Force) service, Sometime between the years of (1970 & 1973) that the (RAAF Royal Australian Air Force) had a Number of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Jets that they had leased from the (USAF United States Air Force) which they are (2 Two-seated, Twin-Engine, All-Weather, Long-Range Supersonic Jet Interceptor and Fighter-Bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy & they were mainly based at Amberley (RAAF) Base outside both of Brisbane (Brissie) & Ipswich in Queensland of course.
Yeah I was tossing up between walkaround and walkthrough, but I went with walkthrough, as in "walk us through the aircraft". No doubt if I had named it walkaround someone would have said "don't you mean walkthrough?" Can't win either way lol.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
When they were in service, the F111 "dump and burn" was an annual treat for people in Brisbane, in conjunction with the Riverfire festival. The aircraft used to fly straight over our house, and would light up when directly overhead at fairly low altitude. I swear they used our roof as a navigation way-point! 😆 What a spectacle!
I remember as a kid in southern nsw one night hearing an unusual noise and racing out the back of the house and hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing the navigation lights of a jet flying away (it had already passed by the house) at extremely low level and could only think that it was some military jet, not knowing what model it was at tthe time. Years later coming to know it was an F-111.
More years later I had the chance to visit East Sale airforce base and see 2 pigs (F-111's) preparing for flight and taking off it was a great experience at the time :)
I thoroughly enjoyed watching him explain the systems of the aircraft. I always thought the F111 were beautiful planes, and while I'm not Australian, thank you for your service, sir.
I remember going to HARS a few months ago and having Phil explain this wonderful Aircraft, truly one of the most unique in RAAF History
I served as a jet engine mechanic at Takhli RTAFB, Thailand with that aircraft from September 1972 to March 1974 and later at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho from 1977 to 1980. Worked in-shop and on the flightline, engine run certified. Part of the "Family Affair" at Takhli, a group of six F-111s each named after a character from that show.
Great to hear from an f-111 WSO, and their knowledge of a great aircraft. Cheers to him and the channel 🙂
A beautiful aircraft. Imagine being told to go hands off for the first time that close to the ground back in those days.
A sobering thought indeed, particularly after you learned the TFR had an average operational working life before failure of less than 20 hours. An amazing machine nonetheless.
It's more a bomber than a fighter
@@misterbig9025 To think the US Navy were forced to attempt making it a carrier based *fighter*.
Only recently had a close look at the one preserved at Caloundra with my Dad who was ex RAAF and flew the F-111 then became an instructor at CFS and a Roulette. The size of them is enormous but the stories of their capability were insane. They were Australias' right fist for a long time.
Great walk through of this amazing Plane . I was in the ADF through the 70's and early 80''s and have seen this beast in action . We had a fire power demo at the Singleton Army base , which included , APC's , Artillery , Mortar and infantry . The F-111's did a strafing run with the gatling gun then dropped there bombs ( total of 8 x 2,000lb bombs ) in one run . This was at the time the biggest drop of 2,000 bombs and nobody knew what would happen , We stood on top of a hill 3klm away from the impact sight and you could see the pressure wave coming towards us , when it hit in nearly knocked as over . The sound was damn loud . The dump and burn was another sight at the end of the demo . As they say , memories, I did have photo's , but over time they have been lost . I strongly believe that the F-111 could still be flying today . Do up grades etc and you have a tank flying around . The original " PIG " To you sir I say , " Thank you for your Service " .
My old man was based at Amberley in mid 70's, took my brother and I on base for a bit of a tour on a weekend (so much easier than now to get on base, showed his Id at the gate and your in lol) and there was an F1-11 on the apron with stairs to cockpit that was open and we got to sit in pilots seat, was nearly as good as being there the day they arrived and broke sound barrier overhead, civilians had no idea, his section passed out the earmuffs for protection, pretty sure never broke sound barrier over populated areas again. RAAF still flew Hueys and Chinooks back then so got to walk through and scored the gunners seat ride at a Cadet camp over Maroon dam in an Iroquois. loved growing up as a RAAF kid.
army still has chooks and wish they had hueys with so many issues since both choppers absolutely brilliant in theatre
Great presentation.
I've seen other walkarounds here in the States, but this gentleman nails it. An amazing level of knowledge and detail.
I had tears in my eyes that final day as they flew over Brisbane escorted by 2 of their replacements the super hornets, grew up with the pigs regularly flying over Brisbane and Moreton Bay, sadly missed 14 years later😢😢.
Exceptional walk around and seems a really nice fella. Thanks for your service!
Wonderful!!! Thank you. As an opinion and certainly not a criticism, we seem to be the best in the world at keeping old and obsolete planes flying and serviceable.
I went on a deployment with this aircraft A08-109 when at 6 squadron. We were trialling a new air to ground missile the AGM-142 at RAAF Edinburgh. I was the equippo. Late 2001 I think. Loved the pig!
Entered service mid 1973, retired end 2010, 37 years of service
First flight was Dec 1964
A remakable Aircraft & an amazing story! Thank you.
Over here in New Zealand there was a regular exercise where the F111's would fly from the airbases up by Auckland and 'raid' the Port at Tauranga which is a few hundred kms south east. The route was low level and through some pretty twisty mountain ranges which made for some great viewing if I happened to be visiting family who lived directly under the flight path, I guess the pilots were using the terrain following radar?
It's a pretty special alliance Australia & NZ have even with Anzac and all, nowhere else in the world would aircraft usually be allowed to operate over someone else's territory. Other countries have war games etc and yes flights are sanctioned but considering NZ doesn't have a fighter force that's saying something in my view.
@@Mr-Damage The NZDF has been gutted and dismantled since Vietnam so sad. The government doesn't understand the loss of social welfare and citizen building the Armed services provide. Just penny pinching.
The mention of evens head to Amberley baught back memories. I had the opportunity to watch some training runs at evens, but the highlight was sittingbin the surf or around the headlands on the tweed coast or Coolangatta or working on highrises up the coast. The pilots would come in low and hug the coastline tightly, on the deck just out to sea. On some occasions they would loop back around for another run, give a wave. I still drive to evens air mueseum to have a look at their f111.
Thank you for a very informative and engaging video
I was at an F-111 base when the usaf told the maintainers they were all losing their jobs. In 1987 there was an F-111 that crashed in Idaho. They ejected but the aircraft inverted. So the capsule rocketed into the ground. This was all at Mtn Home AFB
Got to visit and see it last year, fantastic museum ❤
They are a wonderful aircraft, our farm was below a flight location beacon and the sudden big green thing above you would induce a brown moment, amazing to see the Pig climb from the gully to the hill top , 200 foot I reckon they were that low you could see the rivets 😊 . I am sure it would have got the adrenaline pumping flying over the Bunyar's .
Fantastic video 👍👍
1971 late January, Rosewood High school organized a bus tour for a handful of us to Amberly to walk around a couple FB 111s. Awesome aircraft up close.
Another great video from AMAH. Amazing that in 2024 we still don't have anything like the strike capability these provided 50 years ago.
I hope I meet someone who loves me as much as he loves the F111
This is just around the corner from my place! You should have let me know & I'd have let you buy me a beer 😂
Saw a couple of 'dump and burns' by an F-111 when I lived in a high apartment in Waverton, Sydney. One was during the Sydney 2000 Olympics when an F-111 flew down the Harbour from west to east trailing a huge flame. The other occasion was on the night of an RAAF celebration around Darling Harbour when an F-111 flew north to south over the North Shore and when it reached Darling Harbour it went near vertical and did an impressive dump and burn.
Another interesting occasion was in Sep / Oct 2010? when I was visiting a friend living on a ridge line property in the Scenic Rim in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Late morning one day we were working outside when from nowhere came the roar of jet engines and as soon as the sound started it vanished. The whole event couldn't have lasted more than 5 seconds. We both spun around looking for the plane but couldn't see it. This plane definitely wasn't flying at any great altitude as the abruptness of the start / finish of the sound meant that this aircraft was flying nap of the earth over ridge lines and across valleys. Someone having a last joy flight before the F-111's were decommissioned? I can't think of any other plane capable of giving us this experience. Have no idea which direction he was travelling in but we were about 30km from the Army live firing area between Canungra and Nerang. Perhaps he was going to give the army boys a surprise visit?
Brilliant Vid. Thank you!
F111: A bona fide legend.
Was living in Darwin in 2007 I saw what I believe was the last dump and burn in Australia over Darwin city, absolutely spectacular something I will never forget.
🇦🇺 Thank you, great commentary. Obviously knows his F111 very well!
Thanks for this... we have had 2 F-111's crash here in NZ unfortunately 💩 happens but still a cool plane.. thanks mate👍🇳🇿✈️
A beautiful aircraft, i was with 3AD and we repainted a few.
Just a beautiful big pig
They were in fact moved up to Darwin during the Timor Crisis. More a deterrent in case things escalated.
Theres Great story behind how they let that info "slip out".
A couple of them did actually do low level passes over Timor.
Absolute Beasts.
I read that the reconnaissance version did some flights over East Timor after the troops initial landings.
Last F111 to take off, was scrambled after another had a fault, took off with a tail wind many minutes after the others that participated in the final day.
Great insights, thank you
My dad flew in these, the last Aircraft he served in for the USAF
I wonder if it complete. Engines, avionics, radar.
Awesome.
Good commentary Dapto - we should catch up.
great video!.. 😊👍🏼
Thanks Phil (and your previous introducer) you should do a bit of a talk on your training etc..,No...how you got to sit in one ..your background, motivation , training etc you need more than a drivers licence to get there..
I friend of mine knew 2 guys that got killed in a low level swoop! Mark fallon & Billy pike back in the 1980s @ Tenterfield may they both rest in peace!!
Interesting n my favourite, i had chanes to listen podcast with 2 US F111 crew talking about E model n difference between E n F, i do wonder how advance was C over E n was it close F specs especially in last form was digital? RAAF did operate G model too, there was rumour that RAAF F111 were going have stealth features added like air intake with raven EW tail but at last minute went with F18G.
What a legend
The Yanks did look at digitizing them but the price tag was gonna be 1/4 billion each to do it... so they didn,t 😮😢😅. The one that went down in the Hauraki Gulf just out of Auckland was a Dag. Local fisherman saw it all chugged over hooked up tow and headed for Airbase Hobsonville in Auckland. The 2 x local Comedians had a field day McPhail and Gadsby (both sadly deceased now) came on the telly in RAAF uniforms saying an F111,s ❤ didn,t Crash 😢😮 we were just testing one of our new Submarines....😅. We always enjoyed having the Australasian F111,s here in NZ. 😊
amazing capabilities big scare for jakarta but how much risk for Maintenace personnel, visited base often back in the day. awesomely fast pig
Did Grumman make the F-111?
General Dynamics
The US Navy version, the F-111B, was developed in colaboration with Grumman.
In the end it was cancelled on the grounds of being too heavy and not pious enough, as a US admiral would confess to the purchasing commitee: "There is not enough Christianity in the world for the US Navy to accept this plane."
@@KapiteinKrentebol…. A USN Admiral went to Congress to tell them the F-111B was the wrong aircraft for the navy. After which he retired. Secretary of Defense McNamara was livid at the navy for refusing it
@@KapiteinKrentebol Get the damned quote correct if you're going to use it.
Whats on the piece of paper say? Couldnt see a thing because its over exposed.
According to Wikipedia that there's different information for &/or about this actual (F1-11) Jet Aircraft as far as funny &/or nicknames are concerned which are,
(Q1) Why was the F-111 called the pig (???????) (A1) In Australian military and aviation circles, the F-111 Aardvark was affectionately known as the "Pig", due to its long snout &/or nose and terrain-following ability. The F-111Cs gave the RAAF a powerful strike capability but were never used in combat, of course.
(Q2) Why is F-111 called aardvark (???????) (A2) The word "Aardvark" is Afrikaans for "earth pig" and reflects the look of the long snout &/or nose of the aircraft that might remind one of the snout &/or nose of the Aardvark. The origin of the name has been attributed to F-111A Instructor Pilot Al Mateczun in (1969), as the aircraft had not received an official USAF name, of course.
Sometime before the (F1-11) Jets came into the (RAAF Royal Australian Air Force) service, Sometime between the years of (1970 & 1973) that the (RAAF Royal Australian Air Force) had a Number of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Jets that they had leased from the (USAF United States Air Force) which they are (2 Two-seated, Twin-Engine, All-Weather, Long-Range Supersonic Jet Interceptor and Fighter-Bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy & they were mainly based at Amberley (RAAF) Base outside both of Brisbane (Brissie) & Ipswich in Queensland of course.
Greg Bower thats a carton!
Do you mean 'walkaround", maybe?
Yeah I was tossing up between walkaround and walkthrough, but I went with walkthrough, as in "walk us through the aircraft". No doubt if I had named it walkaround someone would have said "don't you mean walkthrough?" Can't win either way lol.
@@raafdocumentaries If you had any experience as a pilot you know it's called a pre-flight walkaround. You don't walk through aircraft.
@@bertg.6056Hearing you Bert - I'll change it.
The Pig...🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
A beautiful multi-role aircraft for Australia except for the cleaning of their toxic fuel tanks. Sad to see them decommissioned.
Air Show At Richmond AIR FORCE Base 1991 see the F111 nice show 👌