Interesting snippet for VC10 aircrew

[Navaleye]

I had a drink last night with a former Purser from BOAC who in is time has flown in Comets, VC10s, 707s and Concorde(s). He said that when he was on VC10s in the early 70s, they were suffering a severe parts shortage of certain items when the aircraft had gone out of production. The biggest problem was obtaining a rudder. Someone suggested (jokingly) about going to the desert and obtaining one from the aircraft destroyed by muslim terrorists (plus ca change!). The idea was taken seriously and this they duly did and BOAC chartered a CH47 and went to the site. On arrival, they found the rudder intact and also the four Speys which were retrieved and returned to the then BOAC maintenance base in South Wales and resued. They also discovered that the Russians had been to the site before them and stripped all three wrecks of their hydraulics systems and just about anything else that they could walk way with including radars and cabin food trolleys(!).

So, you may well be flying with a rudder or engines from that old VC10 blown up in the desert all those years ago.

Have a good weekend.

[BEagle]

Certainly hope that they weren't Speys......

All the ex-ba Conways went out of service aeons ago - about 20 years. Whether any rudder sections were ever recycled, I don't know.

[ZH875]

From VC10Derness (http://www.vc10.net) one of the few parts salvaged from the wreck was the Horizontal Stabiliser which was later cycled through the fleet and enabled the only really major fatigue modification on the aircraft to be completed without extending the Major Check downtime by 5 weeks per aircraft. Thus saving many hundreds of thousands of pounds! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/ZH875/dawson2.jpg
Not much of the VC10 was left intact.

[teeteringhead]

Ah! the Dawsons Field (Jordan) highjack. Amongst other things blown up was a cheque which young Fg Off Teeters had paid his RAF Sharjah Mess Bill with.

So amongst my souvenirs is a letter from the PMC saying "Sorry but your cheque was destroyed, can you give us another one!"

Can't remember if I did or not!;)

[Tonkenna]

That was (and I guess still is?) fairly normal. Lots of parts from the L1011 that crashed in the Everglades were used on other ac. Flt 401 if I remember correctly.

Tonks

[Impiger]

Tonks when you said that was normal I thought you were talking about Teeters' Mess Bill Cheque - before Dirct Debit days.
My pay book went down with the Atlantic Conveyer and when asked to report my advances of pay between Blighty and ASI I have to confess I had a bit of a memory lapse.

[BEagle]

Personal integrity, Impiger.................