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Fighter planes for sale in Oz.


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Guest nunans

just saw the story a few min ago, it said two of them were bought by two doctors in adelaide. makes me wonder how that came about! I wonder was it a peer pressure thing over coffee at work? "so I'm thinking of buying a two place jet fighter, hey why don't we both get one then we can go for a buzz on our days off?"

 

Oh, to have that sort of money...

 

 

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Guest ozzie

Ahh you are right, just stored at Perth and just retired from a 'Major' airforce. Plus aren't we now using those 'Hawks'.

 

 

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Guest SAJabiruflyer

Two are based at Goolwa, i've been in one of them. One is owned by a doctor the other a defence contractor, both really nice guys. Sitting in the back seat was GREAT fun, and hypothetically speaking, so was being able to fly them for a bit.. hypothetically of course.

 

 

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They're not all based at RAAF Pearce... There's a whole bunch sitting near The Aeroplane Company @ Jandakot (now obsolete) waiting to be sold. There's even some videos on Youtube of a few of them departing Jandakot. You need to buy two of these aircraft to make one complete A/C as apparently they're not that 'airworthy' :thumb_down:

 

-Andrew

 

 

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While having one of these "kind" of aircraft is only a pipe dream for most, this particular type of aircraft may be one of the easiest to own of the jet trainer variety. Think a lear or citation would be cheaper to keep, and has 2 engines, but then it's not a jet 'fighter" is it? Neither is this really. It's a basic jet trainer and most likely very easy to fly. ( as jets are). Nev

 

 

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While having one of these "kind" of aircraft is only a pipe dream for most, this particular type of aircraft may be one of the easiest to own of the jet trainer variety. Think a lear or citation would be cheaper to keep, and has 2 engines, but then it's not a jet 'fighter" is it? Neither is this really. It's a basic jet trainer and most likely very easy to fly. ( as jets are). Nev

Hi Nev

 

They might be easy to fly but I bet the endorsement isn't cheap :-)

 

Not like the days of the Korean war when the guys were converted from Mustangs to Vampires and their training consisted of reading the AFM and then doing it.

 

kaz

 

 

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Guest ozzie

Should be half as cheap as a Citation to run, same engine. Look like a lot of fun to fly, bet i could find some trouble to get into with one.

 

 

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ozzie you've got ejection seats and the build would most likely be less mass produced than the Citation and more expensive to service. Twins don't cost twice as much to service as a single. Only the motors are duplicated All controls hydraulics etc are much the same. Military spec stuff is expensive, like the DHC-1 Chipmunk. Very expensive airframe to live with.

 

The actual conversion time in the air on a plane like that should only be a couple of hours. There's not much to teach . ( No assy). much more difficult to do a tailwheel endorsement, or a light twin conversion. You might need to do some IF as I am not sure if VFR goes above FL 210. Most pilots with experience across a couple of planes would find it a very easy plane to fly. There's no swing or torque effect from the engine. You'd need a basic turbine course and pressurisation endorsement. Quite a few pilots I knew got the opportunity to fly the DH Vampire. pretty underpowered and had a few quirks but most just got into it and flew it straight off.. I reckon you would have to allow about $1500 per hour to run it (Which is relatively cheap) I could be wrong there, but I just have a feeling that this one might be one of the possibles to own.

 

It's not fast as jets go but if you are not sure where you are , you are getting lost at a fair rate of knots. When most get into their first fast plane (which is usually a Jet,) they can end up being a fair bit behind it. and that is not on. Simulator time would be nearly as good as reality and much cheaper to get up to speed.. It's still only got ONE engine although it would glide more than 50 MILES from 20, 000 feet ...

 

Go on.... Make it HAPPEN ..Nev

 

 

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Guest ozzie

Looking at the specs a lot of components are 'off the shelf' and it seems a pretty tough and straight forward airframe to work on and would be enjoyable.

 

Suppose there would be some requirements for working around an ejection seat, check pins etc, but that would be the only specialist job on it. Surprised they are leaving them in. Keeping ahead of it and paying full time attention to where you are is just a matter of a few hours as long as you are not one of the 'way too much money' crowd. easier than a 150 to keep on the centre line. One engine is OK most of us are used to that.

 

Only problem that i can see is when you land somewhere every price on the board will suddenly go up 20%.

 

ozzie

 

 

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They are still used in some of the ex service aircraft that fly in england. Think most warplanes fly under experimental in australia. so the ejection thing may not apply. Military pilots were told to eject rather than ride a dead engine down. Even If you succeed, it doesn't matter. Someone did it in an Avon Sabre at Williamtown NSW but still got Court Martialled Nev

 

 

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Guest Andys@coffs

Must admit I would find it hard to be told if that happens you must do this. I think most modern ejections seats are zero/zero rated (zero forward speed, zero altitude) and as such you get the opportunity to pull the handle almost all the way down (with some noticable restrictions such as roll rate, ie it takes say 0.6 sec after pull the handle to be fully clear of the aeroplane, in that case best that 0.6 sec happen to correspond with the aircraft being upright at the time you exit stage above, and not be opposite so you have a rocket powered burial...)

 

So given that there is almost always some physical damage from strapping on that rocket, I'd want to be absolutely sure that damage was going to be less than staying with the ride to the end.....

 

The reasonably recent F111C gear failure shows that, at least in the F111 it wasnt mandatory to pull the handle. That said their is probably no more complicated ejection system in any aircraft worldwide than that in the F111, and as such no guarentee that it would do as was intended..... could you imagine anything worse than the system going off, cutting all control lines and cables but then going no further so you just became a passenger on the way down....

 

If your interested in how th F111 ejection system works, check this out http://www.ejectionsite.com/f111.htm there's more complexity in that one survival system than in anything we have in RAA . I seem to recall that teh SMDC lines were quite fragile and a knock or side load could fracture the propellant which could see whatever that line was intended to do halt at the break.

 

Andy

 

 

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Guest extralite

I have a few hours in s211...very nice and easy to fly, great view as sitting high up in a bubble canopy and quiet. Singaporeans used them ab initio. When I looked at the advertisment, most had very little time left which would make them much more than $1500/hr would it? Not sure how much a life extension would cost.

 

 

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