Dingo Airlines

Farewell Caribou

“I received a phone call from CAF (Chief of Air Force) towards the end of 2008 to say he was coming up to speak to the squadron,” 38SQN Commanding Officer, WGCDR Tony Thorpe told us. “It was good that the squadron was basically the first to know that we were ceasing Caribou operations, and that part of that plan was the subsequent transfer of the King Airs from (Army’s) 173SQN to 38SQN plus the lease of an additional five aircraft.”

That 2008 decision was the ADF’s third attempt to retire the Caribou, with the previous attempt back in 2000 being stopped at the eleventh hour after the EADS-CASA (now Airbus Military) C-295 has reportedly been selected as its successor under Project Air 5190, when the then Howard coalition government put a freeze on all pending defence contracts.

“We came very, very close in 2000 when the project was suspended,” WGCDR Thorpe remembered. “We didn’t notice it too much from the aircrew’s perspective, but from the logistics point of view, the spares inventory had been drawn right down and a lot of resources had to be poured back into the aircraft.”

But this time round there was no reprieve – the limitations of the Caribou, despite its versatility and ruggedness, were becoming more apparent. Because of its lack of electronic warfare and other self defence systems, for some time it had not been relevant as a battlefield airlifter in a modern threat environment. On top of that, its piston engines meant it was slow and ungainly, and was the last platform in the ADF to operate with Avgas which was becoming increasingly difficult to source away from major airports.

“We’ve got an aircraft that was a great capability in its day, but is probably beyond its economical lifetime now,” CAF AIRMSHL Mark Binskin told us in a December 2009 interview. “We’re just not getting the return for the hard work everyone’s putting in. But the other factor is positioning ourselves in skills for the future force. With the Caribou, the plan… is for an interim aircraft based around King Airs to do that light tactical transport role, to supplement those with C-130s to do those larger loads that they need to do occasionally, and that will give the aircrews the skills with FMS and modern systems, glass cockpits etc to be able to jump to the Air 8000 Phase 2 (Caribou replacement) platform when it comes along.”

“There were mixed feeling about the Caribou leaving,” WGCDR Thorpe, himself a Caribou pilot for more than 10 years, reflected. “On the one hand there was a sadness in the unit – no one really wanted to be a part of the unit that retired the Caribou – there was a very strong association and there were a lot of people who, despite the frustrations, really enjoyed operating the aircraft because of what it could do.

But there were also frustrations in the amount of manpower that went into keeping it flying and the reliability issues – sometimes you’d send an aircraft away and you just couldn’t be sure it would complete the task or not. In many respects, reality had to overtake sentiment at some point. But when it counted, the aircraft was still out doing tasks such as (Operation) Kokoda Assist, so we were still doing things right through to the end.”

Once the decision was announced in early 2009, the squadron began the process of winding down and disposing of the Caribou while concurrently beginning the ramp up to the King Airs.

“It’s only after we started the disposal process that we realised how much equipment we had across the unit,” WGCDR Thorpe continued. “We didn’t see the first Caribou retirement until May that year, and they were then parked down at Oakey as they came up for R4 servicings. We had a lot of logistics input into the Caribou disposal plan, due to the amount of parts and stores we had to remove, and while still operating – CAF wanted us to continue to operate two aircraft right up to 31 December in case they were needed.

“Each aircraft had a certain personality, and many of the people in the squadron had flown or maintained them for a long time and had spent a large majority of their military career in and around the aircraft. The maintainers did a fantastic job keeping it going as long as they did. It’s a unique skill set and there are not a lot of people that can do that. It was a strange feeling seeing an aircraft depart knowing you’d never see it again – there was certainly the odd tear in the eye as the last three aircraft formation departed. It’s not something you experience very often seeing a type that’s been around for so long retire – the decision to buy the machine was made in my birth month, so that put it into perspective for me.

“We had the farewell parade and function here in early November, and about 1200 people came to the bash! It was a significant event because we chose that parade to retire the 35SQN colour as well, there were a lot of people here who had been with 35SQN and it was emotional from that perspective.”

What is to become of the Caribou airframes and spares inventory is yet to be determined, but WGCDR Thorpe said he expects some entrepreneurial types will jump at them. “There’s not a lot wrong with many of the airframes – but from an avionics and the engines perspective there would be support issues. You need the expertise – there’s a lot of moving parts in those things!”

Indeed, a Queensland-based company, appropriately named Caribou Cargo, has already proposed bringing a re-engined turboprop powered Caribou from the US to Australia for the civil and defence charter market to fill that medium lift STOL niche left vacant by the RAAF fleet’s retirement (see Newsdesk, May 2010), but at time of writing was still seeking financial backing for the venture.

Hello King Air

At time of writing, 38SQN had taken delivery of the three former Army King Airs and four of the five new build aircraft, with the final aircraft due to arrive early July.

The 173SQN aircraft arrived in mid November last year along with six aircrew who have come across to 38SQN for a contracted transfer period. No Army maintenance staff came across as the lease deal for the aircraft included a contracting arrangement with Hawker Pacific to provide the fleet’s maintenance.

The aircraft are affectionately known as the ‘400s’ or the ‘600s’ – the three former 173SQN aircraft which have been in service since 2006 have tail numbers in the 400 range, i.e. A32-4XX, while the new aircraft are 600 series numbers. “The aircraft are very similar and we made a specific effort to ensure that,” explained WGCDR Thorpe. “They’re all B300 King Air 350s and they all have ProLine 21 avionics and identical engines and cabin fit outs, but there are a number of very subtle differences in things like the air conditioning controls, and the 400s have UHF radios – but the average person would get in and not pick the differences. All the 600 series aircraft were built new and flown out from Wichita, Kansas, and were fitted out and painted by Hawker Pacific before delivery. They have very few mods over a standard 350 – our machines all have twin FMS (flight management system).”

The RAAF chose the King Air as it was already a known quantity within the ADF – Army already had its three aircraft, and the RAAF’s 32SQN based alongside the School of Air Warfare (SAW) at East Sale in Victoria also operates eight 350s – and the existing support structure with Hawker Pacific could easily be applied to 38SQN.

The five new aircraft have been leased for a 10 year period, and there are options to extend these and the former Army aircraft if necessary. Current plans will see the 38SQN King Airs possibly transferred to 32SQN to replace the older models there when the permanent battle field airlifter (BFA) enters service.

“32SQN are flying with the older ProLine 2 cockpit,” WGCDR Thorpe said. “We’re liaising closely with them from a procedural perspective and to learn from their experience, whilst also levering off 173SQN’s experience as well. The Caribou has always been the classic old machine – there’s no auto pilot so you have to hand-fly it all the way. It wasn’t spectacularly responsive all the time, and it’s only recently that the Caribou had GPS and the NVG capability established. The King Air, although a bit smaller in the cockpit, it is very tidy, is fully automated, and it has an all-glass cockpit. It takes a lot of the manual thinking and number crunching out of it and it changes your focus in a lot of ways. You have to concentrate more on system monitoring, functional awareness, checking settings, and if you set it up right, you can sit back and watch it all the way to landing. In the Caribou, you had to consciously manage everything – there was no FMS or altitude warnings, just the crew co-ordination.

“It’s a different flying style, but it’s still very much enforced in training that we operate the King Air as a two-man crew even though it’s certified for single pilot ops. What we’re aiming to have is two pilots gaining experience instead of one. The crew dynamic is still very much enforced in line with the ALG culture and mindset, so a pilot can move from one aircraft to another relatively easily, whether you’re sitting in a King Air or a C-17.”

Structure

As mentioned above, 38SQN has dramatically reduced in numbers of personnel during the transition to the King Air. “We were a squadron of around 210, but ultimately we’ll be a squadron of about 55,” WGCDR Thorpe explained. “Our numbers of pilots will be increasing – ultimately we’ll have about 30 pilots, but we no longer have a need for flight engineers, and the really big changes came in the hangar. We went from 160 maintainers, and I now have 15.”

The 38SQN maintainers are currently working on their civil tickets and will qualify as civil Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAME) in order to comply with work requirements as part of the lease agreement with Hawker Pacific. They are supported by 10, mainly ex-military engineers who now work for Hawker Pacific.

“It’s interesting to note that we have very few people that have come across from the Caribou,” WGCDR Thorpe continued. “A lot of the people we had here last year have either been posted on to another type or to a desk job – many of them had done their posting cycle and, for their own career development and air force’s throughput and flow, there was an opportunity for them to go. We’ve also had some pilots who’ve gone off to instructor’s course, and flight engineers who have gone to C-130s, P-3s and C-17s, but there are only a few aircrew that have stayed from last year including myself.

“While it’s an interim capability, the primary focus at the moment is generating aircrew so that aircrew who come here out of flying training or another area are going to get 300 to 400 hours a year on an all-glassed cockpit, pressurised, radar, TCAS, fully coupled FMS, autopilot type operation, with a view to moving on to other types. It’s a very technically capable aircraft and they have the opportunity to quickly achieve a captaincy and the experience that comes with that. That allows us to feed not only the instructor pilot requirement for CFS (Central Flying School), but also other aircraft types.

“It’s a two to three year posting to 38SQN, so in that period they can achieve 1000 hours or potentially more. And for someone who’s come straight here, potentially half of that will be as a captain, which is good hours. It’s also fairly steady, so it won’t be a case of deploying and getting a bunch of hours, then coming back and sitting around.”

While conversion training is one aspect of 38SQN’s role, it’s in the light transport role where they will specialise. The squadron has an A-Flight which is the operations flight, and B-Flight which is responsible for the conversion, training and standards.

The King Airs can be ‘flat-floored’ in the back with the removal of the cabin fittings, but they do not have a cargo door and therefore cannot carry anything too bulky. The standard interior configuration is eight passenger seats and a small galley. “For liaison visits it’s great for carrying people,” said WGCDR Thorpe. “We have a number of ADF Commanders who have geographically widespread responsibilities, and we give them an efficient ability to visit their detached units without having to rely on commercial transport – some of the places they have to visit would be a commercial nightmare! We work closely with 3 Brigade (3BDE), and 51FNQR (51st Far North QLD Regiment) – we used to do that with the Caribou, but because the King Air has the speed, we can get them around much quicker.

“The King Air is a very reliable aircraft, so we are expecting a high level of operational serviceability. We’re looking at an annual flying rate of effort of over 5500 hours, which per frame is a respectable total, so the pilots coming to the unit should expect some good hours.”

The six Army pilots who came across to 38SQN are on a one or two year phased program, and will be given an opportunity to either service transfer to the RAAF at the end of their tenures, or return to Army. There will also be two permanent Army pilot positions within the squadron in order to give Army Aviation the opportunity to maintain a fixed wing skill set and to provide Army qualified flying instructors (QFIs) to 2FTS and BFTS. Army also has two ground liaison (GL) positions from 6BDE within the squadron to act as conduits to the unit’s main customer.

The agreement with Hawker Pacific was a natural progression from those already in place at East Sale and the Army Fixed Wing (AFW) contract at Oakey. Apart from the 10 maintenance personnel, the company also has 14 logistics support, administration and management staff on site, and operates the squadron’s life support and aircraft spares operations.

38SQN also has its newest member and unit mascot, ‘King’, a purebred dingo from Townsville’s Billabong Sanctuary. The unit now uses the callsign ‘Dingo’ for all King Air operations and has rebadged as ‘Dingo Airlines’. a new identity while maintaining a connection with the distinguished history of the Caribou ‘Wallaby Airlines’. Once the new unit identity was announced, the unit established the relationship with the sanctuary which allows ‘King’ to attend unit parades and ceremonies.

“When I talk about 38SQN, I mean the whole organisation, including our Army and Hawker Pacific members,” WGCDR Thorpe said. “We have a great partnership with HP who runs the operation as if it were a third party MRO (maintenance and repair operation), but with only one customer and one fleet.”

Niche Capability

Whether the ADF still has a requirement for the STOL mission, the King Air will not be the aircraft to fulfil this. Under the current Defence Capability Plan (DCP), the long running Air 8000 Phase 2 project is expected to mature in the next couple of years, with a new battlefield airlifter scheduled to enter service sometime after 2015.

“It’s an interesting discussion at the moment at the lower end about what is required,” said WGCDR Thorpe. “A lot of people have asked in the past, what do you buy to replace the Caribou, and the only answer really is another Caribou. But what does the gap between a Chinook and Herc need to be; does it need to be a small Herc, or does it need to be a lighter aircraft like a Twin Otter or similar?

“In reality, we probably practiced the STOL mission more than we would ever use it operationally, and I think the operational tempo of the ADF had taken that away. There was a time where during Timor when we did it every day – there were a lot of parallels with what we did with the Caribou in Vietnam – but now that our focus is further overseas and the complexity and the level of operations we do now isn’t the same.

“I envisage we’ll be flying King Air here for a good five years if not a little longer, and I think it may end up becoming a capability that becomes too useful. When we really get up to an operational strength and full operating capability, and the wider ADF appreciates what we can do, I think we’ll have a niche role.”