USAF KC135 Divert To LHR

[ATCO17]

Now at ten miles finals, there's a KC135 Quid30 inbound to Heathrow on a Mayday with hydraulic problems.

[Carnage Matey!]

That'll get the stop the war protestors up in arms.

[ATCO17]

Down safely! Needed 11000ft and MLD not long enough.

[Dan Air 87]

Pleased that they made it OK. I wonder who fixed the hydraulic problem? Also, did the crew carry theior baggage in clear plastic bags?

[we_never_change]

63-8033 was the serial, not sure if it's still in

WNC

[Jordan D]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Brize have 11000ft?

Jordan

[ATCO17]

Brize couldn't accept 'em at the time. Could be a multitude of reasons why - cross winds, runway condition, work in progress at BZN, weather etc...

[Jordan D]

Many thanks for the swift answer.

Jordan

[Pontious]

Why not Fairford or Macrahanish? They're both 11,000ft+ & FFA is or was a USAFE tanker base.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

But why not Heathrow? What does it really matter?

Apparently it had a hydraulic problem and was short of fuel, or so I read on an egroup.

No big deal - Heathrow was a diversion for V-bombers when I was there....

[Flightmech]

Now at ten miles finals, there's a KC135 Quid30 inbound to Heathrow on a Mayday with hydraulic problems.

How ironic. I thought containers carrying liquids were now forbidden at LHR:ok:

[chevvron]

Brize, Fairford, Campbelltown (NOT Macrihanish) all 10,000ft, Stansted also.

[ATCO17]

Remember too that some of these airfields are only activated by NOTAM nowadays.

[tonkatechie]

Why not Fairford or Macrahanish? They're both 11,000ft+ & FFA is or was a USAFE tanker base.
Er, guys - it was (apparantly) a MAYDAY. Remember that hydraulic failures (more often than not a loss of hyd oil) can affect the flying controls, so a diversion would be made to the nearest suitable runway. There may not be time to fly to Brize, and certainly not all the way to Scotland!
As to who fixed it, they would carry a / some engineer(s) on board who might be able to do a fix, otherwise it'd be a case of someone going to Hethrow with the required tools and spares.
Hope this clears up your questions / thoughts:)

[PPRuNe Radar]

Campbelltown (NOT Macrihanish)

Never heard of it ... unless you mean Campbeltown :p

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Ahhh Machrihanish. On good nights couldn't you see the Aurora from there?

[ATCO17]

HD, I take it you mean the pretty lights and not the fabled UAV?

[arem]

<<Er, guys - it was (apparantly) a MAYDAY. Remember that hydraulic failures (more often than not a loss of hyd oil) can affect the flying controls, so a diversion would be made to the nearest suitable runway. There may not be time to fly to Brize, and certainly not all the way to Scotland!<<

Unless the KC is vastly different from civil 707's - I seem to recall that the 707 didn't have much in the way of hydraulic flight controls other than the rudder boost and the flaps, and they were no trouble to extend on the electrical system, the rudder boost was only a problem if one had lost an engine.Dutch roll was hardly a problem at low levels.

The only speed increment I could find when quickly looking through my old flight manual was a 15kt increase in Vref if the LE flaps hadnt extended - and that was on a 320B/C with full span LE flaps - most of those old KC's I've seen only have the LE flap/slat between the engines. Providing the reversers work stopping was not a problem.

Which brings us back to the original question - why LHR? - unless of course the P1 was an AF reserve pilot and in his other life was more familiar with LHR than other UK airfields.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

arem.. The only person who could answer you question would be the aircraft commander. I don't know why there should be a query about the use of Heathrow - the commander made that decision and as it was a Mayday call ATC would have offered him the closest airport, which might just have been Hounslow International. End of story so far as I see it...

[zoink]

and a nice picture of said beast up at Mildenhall (based on the serial number give above!)

pic from airliners - http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1029906/M/ (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1029906/M/)

http://p.airliners.net/photos/middle/6/0/9/1029906.jpg

[Unwell_Raptor]

Were the - er- passengers - wearing fetching orange overalls?

[ATCO17]

Amazing how things go on these forums! In my original post, I intimated that the aircraft was suffering from "Hydraulic problems". Now, various contributors have upgraded the problem to "Hydraulic failure". As HD said, does it really matter why the Captain opted for Heathrow. It was undoubtedly the most suitable place to land at the time. :ugh:

[BLK 33]

From what I've heard, it was a Mildenhall-based aircraft inbound from the Azores with a, as stated, hydraulic problem. Due to cross-winds at its base they opted for EGLL, so must have been critical as I don't think the Mildenhall runway heading is more than 20-30 degrees different than Heafrow, correct me if I'm wrong. Suppose they could have had a completely different wind component at base.
Anyway, as long as everyone is safe then all's well.
Now, start the conspiracy theories....:p

[Conan the Librarian]

Think you will find that Heathport Airrow, has 12,000 ft of runway, which is over a thousand feet more than Fairford or Brize. Think Boscombe is longer than Brize and Fairford and that Bedford once was. If one assumes hydraulic issues include brakes, then the answer becomes possibly easier to grasp. Also, they have lots and lots of firecrews at Heathrow. A guess, I admit and although no fan of speculation on aviation issues, coudn't resist this one, for which I apologise.

Conan

[chevvron]

All the airfields mentioned by Conan are in fact 'Standard Nato' 10,000ft plus or minus a few feet, with the exception of Heathrow whose runways are 12,802ft and 12,008ft; Gatwick is next with 10,879ft; these are total paved lengths not LDAs by the way. Boscombe is slightly longer than Brize/Fairford but shorter than Gatwick.

[Skipness One Echo]

GOing back a page, Campbeltown Airport has nothing in the way of facilities to assist a jet like that. They are a small civil airfield owned by HIAL. The days of RAF Macrihanish are LOOOONG gone. Not that you could ever hide much there, the golf course has nice views of the airfield I believe.....:)

[airheads]

just inquiring, is there a legal obligation let commercial passengers know if the aircraft is in trouble?

[mok air]

GOing back a page, Campbeltown Airport has nothing in the way of facilities to assist a jet like that. They are a small civil airfield owned by HIAL. The days of RAF Macrihanish are LOOOONG gone. Not that you could ever hide much there, the golf course has nice views of the airfield I believe.....:)

Who says we dont have the facilities up here????

How do you know what still goes on here?

How did we manage with ORE ORI from Mildy last year?

We're still up there & can cope with the best of them.

[wileydog3]

<<Er, guys - it was (apparantly) a MAYDAY. Remember that hydraulic failures (more often than not a loss of hyd oil) can affect the flying controls, so a diversion would be made to the nearest suitable runway. There may not be time to fly to Brize, and certainly not all the way to Scotland!<<
Unless the KC is vastly different from civil 707's - I seem to recall that the 707 didn't have much in the way of hydraulic flight controls other than the rudder boost and the flaps, and they were no trouble to extend on the electrical system, the rudder boost was only a problem if one had lost an engine.Dutch roll was hardly a problem at low levels.
The only speed increment I could find when quickly looking through my old flight manual was a 15kt increase in Vref if the LE flaps hadnt extended - and that was on a 320B/C with full span LE flaps - most of those old KC's I've seen only have the LE flap/slat between the engines. Providing the reversers work stopping was not a problem.
Which brings us back to the original question - why LHR? - unless of course the P1 was an AF reserve pilot and in his other life was more familiar with LHR than other UK airfields.


Unless they have changed the systems, you're correct. The only powered control was the rudder. Ailerons and elevator were balance panels.. hyd system for the spoilers, flaps, brakes and landing gear. And back then on the A, we didn't have reversers.. didn't even have anti-skid.. in fact, we had more 'don't haves' than we had 'haves'. :)

But these were the water wagons and when I first got on them, they didn't have flight directors, HSI. The heading indicator was about the size of a basketball probably due to GCA being the prime recovery method.

One has to wonder how we ever flew them....:}