Hallo Mark,

 

I was told about your site by an old RAF comrade who I linked up again with via ' ServicePals.com' and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

 

I arrived at Woomera on 27th March 1958, my 23rd birthday, so I remember the date well!

 

Things that stick in my mind about Woomera are:-

°    The "road" to Port Augusta, thick bulldust in summer, mud when it DID rain, and rough as anything the rest of the time.

°    The "lost" Meteor following a failure in the control radio receiver, tracked by radar on course for Port Augusta, which it only failed to reach because     it ran out of fuel a few miles short!

°    The first Canberra pilotless test flight, which resulted in the aircraft stalling when given a 'go-round' signal, finishing up as a pile of ash. All filmed by     an RAAF photographer off to the side of the runway. I wonder where that film is now, it would be nice to see that on the Web.

°    Another Canberra, where a 'blank' missile cut across the fuselage just below the cockpit severing the controls. When a 'destroy' command was sent to     operate an actuator in the rear fuselage the plane obediently put its nose down , then carried out 2 or 3 outside loops before impacting the ground.

°    The time that a ground-to-air missile launched, but only released three of the four boosters, giving an interesting display of cartwheels before it
    finally hit the deck.

 

Those will do for now, I'm sure that others will come to mind in time and I will find time to send them in.

 

Thanks for an interesting site, to you and "Memories" contributors.

 

Regards,

 

Allan Dandridge

allan316dandridge@yahoo.com.au