Blacksheep

Gulp! Bloody Hell! That mouldy old titfer was hard to swallow!

Isn't she magnificent?




Let's keep our fingers crossed that the ultimate in non-PC flying machinery can find a sponsor to keep her up there.




"Jumping Jack Flash" just came up on my iScream which immediately brought to mind the image of a certain Waddington Crew Chief from the late sixties, as he twitched into the jet efflux while doing the PFCU checks and gracefully bounced away, head over heels across the grass. We wrote new words for that song afterwards...

Then there was "Happy Jack" Helmsley...

Like This - Do That

Great news .... just read of this in the online Torygraph. Well done to all involved.

Sadly I will just have to accept that it will never be flown down here for an appearance at Avalon, for example. I think convincing the Domestic Sunray that another trip to the UK just to see an aeroplane might be beyond my means.

So....

Can someone PLEASE record a quality movie of the aircraft in all phases of flight. No silly twit chatting in the background; no 'muzak' playing; no jerky, handheld camera work, out of focus, featuring more of the back of spotters' heads and anoraks than of the aircraft ... etc etc. Just give us XH 558 NOISE in high fidelity, and crisp footage.

Please?

Well maybe, but FOR GOD's SAKE SCORE SOME TRIES!!!!

nacluv

Buy the "Vulcan Restoration Pt3" DVD from TVOC!!!! Available shortly, no doubt. The "limited edition box set" with all 3 parts won't be far behind either, I'll bet.

On a vaguely related note:

It's just our luck that the Discovery Wings channel recently died a death. Hours and hours of repeated bolox with no thought or effort, so inevitably they pull the plug - presumably the advertisers refused to spend any more money on a channel where everyone sees the same crap on a weekly rotation. Since when did steam trains have wings? Just imagine what imaginative programming such as in-depth studies of the whole cold war, including the vulcan returning to flight, etc etc would have done for the channel's popularity. Too late now. Feckwits.

Ewan Whosearmy

Vox wrote

Doing an OB when no one else is does not give you license to do a sloppy job of it. The Sky camera man was crap, and the reporter seemed ill-prepared and rather flustered.

As for his questions, I agree that it was reasonable to ask about the use of lottery money - but I thought that the fact he asked twice when the question was answered the first time suggested that he didn't know what else to talk about. That smacks of poor preparation.

gareth herts

The History Channel has already broadcast a documentary on 558 which is being repeated next Friday night and Saturday morning apparently.

Discovery Wings was "replaced" by Discovery Turbo, but despite this supposedly covering a range of transport programmes it is 99% full of repeated car related shows - other than occasional repeats of Martin Shaw's aviation series, A Year in The Life (Blue Angels) and A Plane Is Born.

Talk about cheap broadcasting - look at the weekend schedule if you get the chance sometime - occasionally the whole weekend will be devoted to repeats of just one programme and this actually repeats itself during said weekend. Shocking!

Chequeredflag

I recently heard a rumour that she is only cleared to fly for three years, then it's off to a museum? Cannot be right, can it??

gareth herts

I thought she was good for 10 / 15 years.

illuminate

all quiet on the tombstone front I see

i thought the limiting factor on 558 was the engine life

nacluv

She only has 3 (I think) cabin pressurisation cycles left in her if that's what you mean? Something to do with the main canopy seals and they cannot be replaced. So no flying above - what? - FL010? But that won't matter much on VFR anyway.

The service life is supposed to be 10 - 15 years, and then to Duxford Old Folks Home.

PhoenixDaCat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKIfQMzQJw

The Helpful Stacker

Just how smooth was that landing eh? Considering it was the first time in 14 years that any pilot had landed a Vulcan thats pretty bloody amazing.

(Well in my non-pilot view anyway).

nacluv

If the induction howl is your thing (and it should be!) try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VECwLl06ik0&NR=1

Only a short clip, but it's excellent all the same. Get the volume turned up... And full screen works well too.

By the way - how short is the take-off run? Could have done it from the car park!!

Tim McLelland

I agree that the take-off run looks impressive even by Vulcan standards. I guess that's what happens when you remove a lot of unnecessary equipment and keep the fuel load fairly low.

Right, when we starting a fund to get her painted in proper 1970-era camouflage with a nice black radome?!

The Helpful Stacker

Thanks for that Nacluv.

Howltastic.

airsound

BEags - that’s what airsound was telling everyone at Brunters who would care to listen. And - going to be in Paris to try and help celebrate the achievement of item 2. Only problem is - am trying to change Eurostar booking so as not to be on a train when item 3 happens.

But back to Brunters - it was a uniquely inspirational moment when those four Olympi gave their unearthly howl as they spooled up. Then when the Grand Old Lady picked up her skirts and rotated off the runway like a teenager, the Rolls Royce roar was almost drowned out by the sound of beery tears coursing down a few hundred seamed old cheeks and pattering onto the concrete.

And as for that landing. Wow. At the informal press conference afterwards, airsound asked ‘who did the landing?’ The first response was ‘why do you want to know?’, at which the fabled titter ran round the crowd. But then Dave Thomas graciously pointed to Al McDicken, who was roundly applauded again.

It was a day in a lifetime. The first day of a completely new life.

Btw, my impression was that she took about 5000ft of runway, for take-off and for landing (run). Marginally overpowered perhaps?

airsound

The Helpful Stacker

Has that ever been a bad thing with aircraft.

flipflopman RB199

Although 558 does have a finite number of pressure cycles remaining, the figure is far higher than 3. The issue with the pressurisation cycles is the actual structure of the canopy rail itself, not the seal. Unfortunately, this is an item that is cannot be replaced without enormous modification.

Now on to the good news! XH558 will not be pressurised. The system has been disabled, as due to the height restrictions the CAA have imposed upon her of FL150 there is no need for pressurisation. This removes the need to worry about pressurisation cycles!!

On a personal front, it was absolutely amazing yesterday to see XH558 returning to the air, and made me feel enormously proud to have played my own small part in it all. It was almost like watching a baby take its first steps, and at times felt very surreal!!! However, the magnitude of it all is only just sinking in today!! Probably something to do with the copious amounts of "Celebratory Alcohol" that was consumed last night!!


Flipflopman

Focks 2

So the pressures off, as it were.
Excellent job!

Flying Signman

FlipFlopman,

You have made a MASSIVE contribution towards the restoration project good sir.

I (we, I am sure) salute you, your colleagues and all those who have dug into their pockets to realise the dream

This is a major success story.


Many thanks once again from a Vulcan & Everything Aviation fan

Tim McLelland

Well done Flipflop and all your team. As you know, I've followed this saga for a long time, ever since 558 was withdrawn from RAF service, and even from the beginning I've remained optimistic and hopeful, even though it looked like being a lost cause so many times.
You all deserve congratulations not only for the work you've put in, but for your determination to succeed when it seemed like the odds were firmly stacked against you. I hope that the sponsorship now starts to flow and that we can enjoy seeing (and hearing) the monster back in the air again next year and beyond. At long last there's something worth heading to an air show for!