Watch it unmissable, watch it. We had the ultimate PC, as in portable computer, all 1,400lbs of it made by EMI with radar by British Thompson Houston.
Forget,
Your recollection of 601 at Coningsby was spot on. Although I was at Butterworth at the time we were fully briefed. One of my nav course was the radar on the aircraft. The engines, as I recall, took rather longer to deliver full power from flight idle than 9 seconds.
The other cause of the crash was the automatic assumption that being a senior officer was synomymous with being at expert. The Captain was the new CO of IX Sqn. Ron Dick, a very experience Captain, se below <g>, said that it hd happened to him once when he was the non-flying pilot. He had never seen the horizon swing across the cockpit so fast. The only solution was to throttle back on all 4 and then bring the power back on slowly. The problem in 1964 was exacerbated by the use of unrestricted take-off power giving about 20k per donk.
At a later date Ron Dick was the display pilot for Farnborough. The Vulcan was kept out on a hold about 10-12 miles from the field awaiting its slot. Its slot came and went and the crew kept pressing for the time. Then the tower came on and gave them about 2 minutes. Sod's law, they were pointing the wrong way. They rolled in and Ron opened up the power and took the aircraft well over 350 kts which was the peacetime Vne. The ASI settled about 380 kts or just 5 kts over wartime low level cruise. The co, apparently concerned about exceeding the release to service, kept calling check air speed. Very experienced Captain, knowing that he knew the release to service, told the co it was OK. No CRM in those days.
As they sped down the approach they shot passed the Dakota that was on the approach ahead of them and swept onto the airfield. Then Ron re-checked the ASI. He had misread it by 100 Kts and they were doing 485 kts. My fastest at low level had been 415 kts but that was over France and another story; we had a Vatour chasing us.
The second incident was John MacDonald on another IX Sqn aircraft. They did not have TFR at that time. TFR was only introduced in 1967 and I had to ask the GSU for some operational questions for the aircrew mission quiz. No, John and his crew were doing map based terrain following. It should only have been done in daylight and VMC. The technique called for the radar to get accurate fixes and for the plotter to 'track' the aircraft using a chinagraph pencil and a half-mill chart. He would call the terrain height and height to fly while the radar would call 'cut-off' ie the black hole that marked the next ridge. As the black hole got smaller and returns appeared behind it the assumption was made that the aircraft was above the ridge. The fallacy was the 'hill behind a hill' when the second hill was much higher than the first. In this case there was 'no hill behind a hill' on their track. Unfortunately they were not on track but about 2 miles off.
In the absolute certainty that the nav team were in control the pilots followed the height calls in VMC. The height demanded meant that the aircraft just kissed the tops of the clouds. Unfortunately it was not cloud but ground mist. Once pilot was recovered dead but otherwise uninjured. I think the other lost a foot. Of the rear crew there were hardly any remains. A similar incident had happened 'at Scampton a year or so earlier called the 'Hills of St Clone' where the aircraft hit a saddle in ground mist.
Boing
Why be coy? 'twas Lord Louis himself. The VIP flight was for the 'Eagle River Conference' where senior members of the US military, Canadian, and UK could meet (4 star and above) for confidence building measures and discussing detailed military topics in a secure environment free from prying eyes. That Eagle River happened to be a first class fly-fishing river was purely coincidental. The second year one cheesed off liney spoke to his wife and wife, not being a signatory of the official secrets act spoke to the Sun. The Sun naturally led with the story which Lord Louis had to prove was false by appearing in London when he was suppoed to be in Goose. Story was killed and so was the stn cdr's career (he has already been mentioned earlier).
Forget,
Legh-Smith, otherwise known a Leg H.