RNZAF A-4 Skyhawks On Low Level Sortie

Several Douglas A-4 Skyhawk's of the RNZAF's No 75 Squadron take off from RNZAF Base Ohakea and fly a low-level sortie across the central North Island of New Zealand.

Wing Commander John Lanham

We could give a very good account of ourselves, simply because we were a good dog fighting aircraft, and of course that point was well made that in the Navy's Top Gun program.

But the Navy's Top Gun program was designed as an operational readiness exercise. It's been found over the years, in all of the wars, that the most dangerous time for a fighter pilot or a strike pilot is his first ten missions, and so if you can simulate those first ten missions in some training program, the pilot has a much greater chance of surviving.

So the Navy's Top Gun program and the United States Air Force 'Red Flag' program were set up and designed to try to create, as much as you can without firing real bullets, your first ten missions, and they were enormously realistic in that you did have missiles fired at you but they were paper mache, the missile radars would go off, they would use guns to fire, they would track you on radar and play it all back.

And of course, they had the famous aggressor squadrons in the Air Force equipped with F-4s (Phantoms) and the adversary squadrons in the Navy equipped with Skyhawks who simulated Soviet aircraft, and the aircraft were actually painted in Soviet colors. The pilots wore Soviet uniforms and they flew Soviet tactics, and flying with these guys was an eye-opener.

Of course, we did have the chance in my time as commanding officer in the early 80s when the Americans and New Zealand were still allies. We went to a couple of those programs. We couldn't get to the States, but the American Air Force had a smaller version of Red Flag in the Philippines, which it called Exercise Cope Thunder, and it was effectively just a small Red Flag.

So the squadron went three times to that program, and that was incredibly realistic. I went twice on that program—once as the squadron commander and once as the deployment commander when I was OCS of the strike wing.

The incredible thing was, even with a basic analog Skyhawk, just how good an account we could give of ourselves because our tactics were effective. They involved very low flying.

When I was the CO and went on the second Cope Thunder program, we used very widespread, wide-space tactics to fly eight Skyhawks, and we flew at 50 feet. Now, the Americans' general limit for their strike squadrons was 500 feet, and their elite squadron, the Fast FAC squadron of Phantoms that did Fast FACcing—you know, where they raced through an area at 600 knots, marking targets, and the strike units followed to hit the targets—they were allowed down to 100 feet, as I recall.

But we flew at 50.

Now, because our formation was very widespread—2000 meters apart between aircraft—it was hard enough for us even to see the Skyhawks ahead or behind, but the Skyhawk was so tiny and at 50 feet, they did not see us.

In the two-week program that I went to, flying two missions a day at eight Skyhawks—one in the morning, one in the afternoon—we were never intercepted, and that really smoked the Americans.

They were getting seriously angry towards the end that they were not getting this Kiwi squadron. Their radars were not picking us up because we were so low until too late, and then we were just dropping dumb bombs, which were streamlined bombs without high drag.

So we had to drop relatively high, pulling up to about 2-3,000 feet and then down in a 20-degree dive.

But of course, in the Philippines, it was dead calm.

So, literally, once you'd finished jinking and everything else, for a couple of seconds, you'd fly level, put the pipper on the target, and then, because we were well-trained and had a lot of weapons practice back at Ohakea, in 35 to 45 knots, gusting 55, hitting the target up there was a breeze.

No pun intended.

So, our weapons scores, again, totally astounded the Americans.

[end]

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Copyright © 2016 Historical Aviation Film Unit

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[TonyFromarty]

1980, I was up a microwave tower along the Napier Taupo road (Whaktau from memory). The RAAF were over on a training exercise with I think with F111s. An A4k came up the valley below and I swear he went under the powerlines on the pylons below us. He was being chased by an F111, he flew right past us on the tower and banked as he went past so we could see him clearly. Then he dived down into the valley to the east. The F111 wasn't going anywhere down there so sat at about hilltop height chasing. Best airshow I have ever been to!

[evilrs]

We used to have a dry stock sheep & beef farm in eastern Taranaki at Pohokura in the early 90s, we were out doing some goat culling & were having a rest on top of a ridge line on day & we could hear this roaring in the distance, next minute 2 Skyhawks drop into the valley below the ridge line, we were eye to eye with the pilots, the obviously seen us as a few minutes later they came back around and did the traditional wing tilt wave and the Piolts actually waved as well . Was such a awesome experience

[nmelkhunter]

My dad was an engineer at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and one of his best friends was an A-4 pilot in Vietnam. He told once told me the A-4 was an incredible aircraft and its abilities were unbelievable.

[CaptainSensibleJr]

51 years ago, in 1974, my father changed our school from Orawia School to Ohai School in Western Southland, at the bottom of the South Island, New Zealand. Soon after starting at Ohai School, there was a tremendous ripping noise in the sky, one day. Everyone in our classroom, including our teacher, Mrs Grindlay, rushed to the windows as a long rumble echoed off the big hills near Ohai. As soon as that rumble died away there was another big ripping noise, and two RNZAF Skyhawks shot across the sky, very low to the ground. One waggled its wings from side to side. Then followed by the rumble echoing from the hills, they headed west. Someone told me the pilot who waggled his wings was born and raised in Ohai, and always waggled his wings flying low over his old school.
I was tremendously excited to see the Skyhawks, and saw them once again before I left for High School in Invercargill in 1978.

[johnfisher]

Australia got some great fast jet pilots out of NZ who went on to become great FA-18 pilots too. One door closes, another door opens!

[darrellwright]

Just reading the comments and it brought back memories of my forestry job, , , a gang of us sitting on a ridge in the slopedown forest in the late 1970's, , two sky hawks came over the ridge and down a gully, , , , and gone, , , , left quite an impression

[mrivantchernegovski]

1986 Waioru Training depot, we were out by the three sisters and a pair of Skyhawks flew past very very low, so low you could smell the the exhaust, i said to my buddy, man i would not wanna to be shot at by those things, sorta by the time you heard them they were already past you and gone lol very cool aircraft and a few years later saw them doing bombing runs at the bomb range towards the end of Muriwai Beach and the great footage of a pair of Skyhawks doing their thing on the great movie "Sleeping Dogs"

[nztitirangi]

Wow - this brings back the memories. Served 2 wonderful years with 75 and loved every minute of it.

[MaoriMan]

All through the 80s right up til they had their last days in early 2000s... Miss that roar of the Skyhawks flying low and the pilot's waving out lol 😆

[aussie]

Kiwi A4 pilots were awesome (I had one on my OTC in the RAAF) highly skilled and fearless, what a loss to the RNZAF when they stopped being an air force.

[TinyPirate]

I remember sitting in a bach about 50ft above the sea at Kawhia as a kid and looking out from the deck as a couple of skyhawks zipped down the harbour at practically eye-level. Cool moment!

[hamishglenn]

I once interviewed John Lanham at an air show. He knows everything about military aviation history!

[Onan-ub]

Back in the early 1980s I had a platoon operating as one of the enemy party for a combined Australia, Canada, U.S. U.K. Fiji. & NZ exercise.
On this occasion we were in a place called Waiouru in a desert in the middle of North Island.

Having just yipped up a bunch of slack Yanks, a couple of us were high tailing it away. A Skyhawk pilot must have seen what was going on, and as I, (last one), crested the top of a rise and dived for cover, the pilot flew overhead with about 20 feet ground clearance. He hit the afterburners directly overhead, and I was lifted and carried about 400 odd feet into the other side of the gully.
Amazing feeling, came down soft in the grass and sat watching as my fellows struggled up to where I was.

The pilot had wagged his wings as he left, so I have no doubt he knew exactly what he was doing.
I saw those Kiwi pilots fly those things in places an aeroplane has no right to go.

[corvanphoenix]

I saw the RNZAF A-4's a lot growing up near Albatross on the NSW South Coast. It was awesome seeing them on missions & at air shows! They were here to train RAN guys in anti-aircraft operations. Unfortunately, they weren't great at that due to the limitations of the terrain & the quality of radar by the 90's. So I'll always love the A-4 ❤

[fragglerock]

Remember as a kid growing up in Taupo, many times over the years hearing a distant roar get louder and louder, run outisde and see 1, 2, 3 or more skyhawks blasting overhead and down over the lake.. bloody brilliant to see! You had to look ahead of where the sound was to see them as they were always fair hoofing it, pedal to the metal!! Im sure they waved their wings a couple of times too.
Cheers to those pilots, thanks guys, great memories! :)

[timsbitsca]

A Sad day for NZ when the A4 was dropped.

[damienstewart]

It was my dream to be a fighter pilot that was crushed before i finished primary school salty with the chairforce i would join the army instead, loved it

[zooknz]

I remember going to the Ohakea airshows and seeing the Skyhawks and Strikematers. Beautiful to watch. And then came Helen Clarke

[stockcars]

Was onboard HMNZS Waikato (Leander Class Frigate) in Company with HMNZS Wellington exercising in the Hauraki gulf prior to being deployed to the Far East. Another Frigate Southland was out there as well and she had a Family day going on and nothing to do with us, 3 Skyhawks were supposed to do a display for Southlands family day but they gave it to us instead, Apparantly the comms guys gave them shit. So anyway here we are steaming along with Wellington off on the Port side and we were aft of the flight deck having our Rum issue. The 3 A4's came racing up between us, Lead aircraft in the middle and one either side. We watched them coming and man they were low at full noise, The aircraft closest to us flicked the aircraft sideways and his canopy was at deck level to us that how low he was, If he hadnt flicked it on its side he probably would have lost a wing on the stern. As he flew past he was giving us the middle finger. We all just pissed ourselves laughing. To fly that fast and low as well as giving us the finger took some skill and balls. Big thumbs up and kudos to that pilot. Never forget that

[gregggiddens]

I remember looking down and waving to them while in the hill’s mustering. Was crazy how low they got, bring back some air defence I say