THE A-4 ALLEY 

Kiwi Skyhawk's in Aussie

From February 1991 to 2001 6 Kiwi Skyhawk's of No 2 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force were based at HMAS Albatross  on the South Coast of New South Wales in Australia. 
Their role was to provide realistic adversaries for the Royal Australian Navy's ships along with the training of Skyhawk pilots for the RNZAF's No 75 Squadron. They regularly deployed to Darwin and Perth to carry out this task.
They also regularly exercised with the Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A Hornets and F-111's..

All photos not credited belong to me

Photo's from 2 Squadron's final flights can be found on The End of a Era Page

					RNZAF A-4's in Darwin 2001, (Lenn Bayliss)
					RNZAF Skyhawks on exercise in Australia. These photos are Copyright Ex RNZAF Pilot now professional Aviation Photographer  Mike Jorgensen  Check out his great web site at www.actionairimages.com

					RNZAF Skyhawks of No 2 Squadron and RAAF AF/A-18A Hornets of No 77 Squadron at RAAF Townsville. Unfortunately a  RAAF F/A-18B was lost on this exercise with the loss of both crew.
					No 2 Squadron RNZAF Skyhawks on the flight line at HMAS Albatross, Nowra NSW Australia in 1993
					15 RNZAF T/A-4K's of No 2 and 75 Sqn's on the line and over  HMAS Albatross February 1999. Photos courtesy of Don Simms.
					Skyhawk's on the Line at Nowra late 1999 showing the difference between the new and old paint schemes.
					15 RNZAF T/A-4K's of No 2 and 75 Sqn's on the line in 1993
					These pictures show a TA-4K undergoing maintenance in the hanger at HMAS Albatross. The second shows RNZAF Ground crew Hot Refuelling a TA-4K. Hot refuels via the refuelling probe were considered safer than doing it via the normal pressure refuelling point in the aft hell hole, where there was a lot of heat from the engine. Any fuel leaks in that area with the engine running would have been big trouble. However a considerable amount of fuel sprayed out on hose connection/disconnection to the probe. This wasn't a fun job
					The Following shots were taken at Nowra, February 2000. they show of aircraft leaving and returning from sorties against RAN warships. Some aircraft are "armed" with CATM-9L sidewinders and TGM-65B/G mavericks. One TA-4K is also configured as a tanker
					Aircraft returning to HMAS Albatross
					A No 2 Squadron ground crewman making a few artistic improvements to  No 75 Skyhawk whilst they were passing through HMAS Albatross, Nowra NSW Australia in 1993.The 75 Sqn logos on the intakes were modified with a 2 Sqn spear through a modified Tiki (actually a "squashed frog"!).  (As he still serves His identify has been disguised to prevent recriminations)
					These 2 Photos taken were during a media visit to No2 Squadron RNZAF shortly after our move to Nowra. These pictures appeared in various aircraft magazines and newspapers both in New Zealand, Australia and around the world. We were told to go and do something to make it loo like we had work to do. Flying that day had been cancelled due to bad weather. BTW I am one of the people in these pictures. (photographer unknown)
	This photo was taken during an air-to-air photo mission I went on with 2 Squadron, RNZAF from NAS Nowra, Australia. A combined RAN/RNZN naval group was operating 50 miles off the coast of Australia and three A-4Ks,"my" TA-4K, two AF-18As, and a RAN BAe HS748 were involved in the mock attacks on the ships. The Skyhawk's were flying at 50 feet, but the Hornets were only able to fly down to 250 feet. ("Way up in the stratosphere", according to the Kiwi pilots. <g>) We flew out 100 miles, turned around and came back in for the attacks. This shot was taken during the first attack. The A-4K in the photo is NZ6217 and was flown by the squadron's CO. Other than climbing to 5000 feet to get above the haze for photos when we went back out to see to regroup between attacks, this was the highest any of the A-4s flew. The rest of the time, all of us went between the ships because at 50 feet, we were too low to go over them. You can see how hard the ship is manoeuvring by its wake. As we went past, I could see guns and missile launchers tracking us. Some of the ships were similar to some of the Royal Navy frigates used in the Falklands and aside from being 50 miles from land rather than near islands, this flight gave me a bit of a taste of what the Argentinean pilots faced in that war. This photo and text is copyright © Jeff Rankin-Lowe/SIRIUS 1993. All Rights Reserved. It may not be published or posted elsewhere without his permission.
					3 Shots from one of my rides in the back seat of a TA-4K. The second shot shows Jervis bay under the A-4K
					The first photo shows 2 Sqn Skyhawk's flying past a RAN Adelaide Class FFG. (owner unknown). The second photo shows RNZAF A-4K's over HMAS Albatross (RNZAF Official) The last 3 show Skyhawk's of No 2 Sqn RNZAF over HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay, Australia 1991. (Don Simms)

					The Flight Line
					Fly past
					Dispatch
					Sundown

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Photos by Glenn Alderton

Here are a range of excellent shots taken by Glenn Alderton.  Glenn has kindly given me permission to display them here.Many of his photographs appear in aviation magazines in Australia and on web sites such as Airliners.net.
The best place for his work however is on this web site  warbirdz.net.  Check it out for some seriously good aviation pictures.
All the images in this section are his and are copyrighted as such.

					These shots were taken at HMAS Albatross, at "Air Days in September 2000 and April 2001.Except for the last 2 which are a bit contain a bit of Photoshop magic (Glenn Alderton)
					Temora, October 2001. (Glenn Alderton)

  

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