Originally Posted by
MPN11
WRT to the Vulcan crater, during my safe tour there as SATCO (’summer’ of ‘83, decidedly their winter!) the AM2 in the crater area had to be lifted to enable the RE to reinforce the substrate, as the planking had sunk slightly.
That would have been the second time, then! The centre of the Vulcan crater - which I can confirm from personal inspection on numerous occasions - was offset to the south of the RW centreline, but with the peripheral edge of the damage 'circle' affecting the centreline significantly. At one point, whenever a F-4 took-off, the (very obvious and pronounced) lateral rocking caused as the aircraft traversed the damaged area frequently rendered the F-4's AI radar US, leaving said F-4 with only 4 x AIM-9s and the SUU-pod to fend off the potential incoming hordes; the first call when airborne being the brevity code for the equivalent of WWII's 'weapon bent'! Therefore, it caused us as much of a problem as it did the previous, short-term, tenants as the crater continually 'settled'.
Towards the end of '82 the RE's were tasked with pulling up the AM2 matting in the area of the crater, back-filling it and also addressing the issue of the AM2 matting 'walking' through predominant use of RW 26; details of this amusing little exercise I recorded in another thread. (Mil Aviation - Nimrod queries post #11)