RAAF Base Townsville - 1986-89 - Kodak Gold 100 film

 I served over 20 years in the Royal Australian Air Force.  One of my postings was to RAAF Base Townsville in May of '86.  I was there for about 2.5 years.

The one thing I really enjoyed about Townsville was that it was an operational flying base, regularly visited by the F/A18 Squadrons and Transport Squadrons.  When I found that a Squadron was visiting, I used to obtain permission from security to get photos.  

A fav spot was to perch on the roof of the old 10 Sqn Hangar and catch the aircraft on approach or take off.  This was also a good place to observe what happened on the Airfield Apron where the aircraft would taxi, park and have some maintenance done. 

Whilst I was there, I was lucky enough to score a stint working out of the Control Tower when 36Sqn (C130s) was visiting.  It was 1988 and 36Sqn deployed to Townsville whilst the Sydney Air Show was on at the RAAF Base at Richmond north west of Sydney.  Luckily, the Squadron Leader from the Control Tower was more than happy to take me onto the Airfield to get photos!

During a meal break one night shift, I went out with tripod and got some great photos under the security lights.

My camera at the time was a Pentax A3 (sold as A3000 in the USA).  35mm Film Camera, it was an Aperture Priority Camera, which meant that all I had to do was set the Film ISO on the camera, select the f stop (aperture) and the camera would work out the shutter speed.  It had a top shutter speed of 1/1000.  It was a great camera to learn on.

I originally scanned these same photos from prints.  I had a standard printer/scanner/fax in those days and it got me through but left a lot to be desired for sharpness and colour.

Long story short, I was going through some 'stuff' in the Garage about 2 weeks ago and discovered a stash of film negatives.  They were from my time in Townsville.  I was pretty excited because a couple of years ago, I had decided to buy myself a film scanner (Epson 850V Pro) because I still shoot film and, I could scan these negatives and get a much better result.

Not all were suitable for scanning; some negatives had deteriorated over the years and could not be saved.

I did have some problems with colour cast with some of these.  Older negatives tend to get an orange tinge to them which is fixable when scanning or digitally editing.  Some of these had that orange and some had a slight magenta cast.  It was made difficult too because at the time, Townsville was in a bad drought and the grass around the airfield was absolutely dead in places which I think added to the orange cast.  

All of these photos came from rolls of Kodak Gold 100 (Kodak GA 100 printed on the film).  I had to adjust colour on some that had faded and could not be corrected in scanning by the Silverfast Software.  That may be the answer to why some still have a slight orange cast to them.

I'm kicking myself now because I did have more negatives than the ones I found.  Back then though, I had considered that the print was sufficient and threw the negatives.  Hindsight is a great thing isn't it!

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Tail markings for trainer aircraft from 2 Operational Conversion Unit (based in Williamtown at the time)

Top & Bottom - An 11SQN P3C Orion (A9-662) in the 'Bird Bath'.  The P3C would fly low over the ocean and get 

covered in salt water on sorties.  They needed a good rinse down on return.

Above & Below.  RAAF Winjeel used as a Forward Air Control. 

Above.  F/A 18 of 2OCU, P3C of 11 Sqn.  In the background on the left is a retired 10 Sqn Lockheed Neptune that was

re-furbished and was displayed at the front gate of the RAAF Base.

Above & Below.  This is one not taken on the Base.  Our Married Quarter was right on the Flight Line Approach for the Airfield.  One afternoon I was sitting in my lounge room and mentioned to my wife that I could hear a lot of aircraft approaching.  I grabbed my camera (which was always in reach) and went out onto the front landing.  35 Sqn, the Townsville based Squadron that provided tactical support for Army Units in Northern Australia, was returning from and exercise/operation.  Their callsign was 'Wallaby' from the nickname 'Wallaby Airlines' given during service in the Vietnam War. In 1988, the Squadron flew De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou and the Bell UH-1H Iroquois.  

Above.  Not sure why this 35 Sqn Caribou was sporting a Desert Style Camouflage. 

Above & Below.  35Sqn Bell UH-1H Iroquois Gunships (affectionately known as 'Hueys') 

Above.  36 Sqn (based at Richmond in Sydney) C130H on finals into Townsville.

Above.  Famous landmark in Townsville; Castle Hill.  

One of my favs, a 36 Sqn C130H on approach.

Above.  C130H of 40 Sqn - RNZAF (Royal New Zealand Air Force) pays a visit to Townsville.

Above & Below.  A US KC130 In Flight Refueller.  

Above & Below.  The roof of the old 10 Sqn Hangar was the place to be to capture aircraft on approach.

F/A 18 lined up on the Apron.  The aircraft in the front is painted in the tail livery of 75 Sqn.

We often had the P3Cs flying in after flying Ops in the Pacific Ocean and Coral Sea.  This one is from 11 Sqn

based in Edinburgh, South Australia

This is another of my fav photos.  Caught this 36 Sqn C130H straight on as they were turning onto the

main runway.

At the finish of a Night Shift in the Comms Centre, I walked out to get this photo.  So glad that I did because I

didn't really have many photos of me in uniform; I was always too busy getting other photos to ask someone

to take mine!  Set up Tripod, mount Camera, set Timer, press button and rush to get in the shot!