The End

[Brenden S]

I think re engine the bou and put some nice avionics into it and she will have a new lease of life. However from previous experience on various "old" aircraft with new avionics it doesn't work terribly to well (ie 717 - DC-9, Seasprite etc etc)

[Gerard M]

19 Feb 2009

MIN16/09

RETIREMENT OF THE DHC-4 CARIBOU

The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, today announced the Government has accepted the reality that it will be necessary to bring forward the retirement of Australia’s remaining thirteen DHC-4 Caribou aircraft to December 2009.


“The Government has been left with little choice but to retire the Caribou and has reluctantly agreed to do so despite the fact that poor planning by the former Government has denied us the opportunity to produce a replacement aircraft before 2013,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“After 45 years of tireless and distinguished service with the Royal Australian Air Force, the Caribou fleet is suffering badly from a range of ageing aircraft issues, and contains asbestos parts which I am determined to weed out of the Defence Force.”



The rest can be read at :
http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/F...CurrentId=8789


It goes on to talk about replacement options and the transfer of the King Airs to 38 Squadron.

[Raymond Rowe]

God bless the reliable gravel truck. airshows will never be the same again.avalon will be a good place to say farewell.

[Mike W]

And we still don't know what's going to fill the void. There's been a serious amount of procrastination from successive governments and various committees, etc. Is it going to be a similar Aircraft, CASA C-295 or the larger and Herc friendly Lockheed Martin Alenia C-27J, or a Chopper... or something else?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Raymond Rowe

God bless the reliable gravel truck. airshows will never be the same again.avalon will be a good place to say farewell.

I hear four Caribous are being generated for Avalon, so hopefully at least two of them will get there!

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by Mike W

And we still don't know what's going to fill the void. There's been a serious amount of procrastination from successive governments and various committees, etc. Is it going to be a similar Aircraft, CASA C-295 or the larger and Herc friendly Lockheed Martin Alenia C-27J, or a Chopper... or something else?

Hopefully all will be revealed in the White Paper in April/May, and some concrete projects can get some funding in the follow-on DCP in July!

[Nigel C]

Originally Posted by Andrew McLaughlin

Hopefully all will be revealed in the White Paper in April/May, and some concrete projects can get some funding in the follow-on DCP in July!

How's our government going to afford any type of replacement when they're already throwing a good proportion of $42 billion into a black hole?

[Stephen Brown]

Ya gotta love the Bou!!

[Chris Griffiths]

Seems so very long ago but my dad was there at the beginning.....

RTFV Vung Tau 1964.
Dad is far right, back row.
Some more.... http://www.pbase.com/chrisg/rtfv

Cheers

[Jethro H]

Nice photo Chris. The plane shines with its new skin!
A colleague of mine Bev Barry was a navigator on the delivery then went off to Orions, I have asked him if he is in photo.

I also notice this on Wiki about the DHC-5 Buffalo:

New production
In December 2008 Viking Air, who hold the type certificate for the Buffalo, indicated that they intend to put the aircraft back into production at their factory in Victoria, British Columbia or Calgary, Alberta. The new production Buffalo will feature Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150 engines, a glass cockpit, enhanced vision and night vision goggle capability. The company intends to propose the aircraft as a replacement for the Canadian Forces fleet of existing DHC-5As

Does anyone know if this is a goer? Maybe the most suitable replacement for us too?