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Old 29th Apr 2004, 21:05
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Pontius Navigator
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 81
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On a Micky Finn two Vulcan crews went from readiness 15 to airborne in under 3 minutes. They were at, I think, Brawdy and sunning themselves under the aircraft.

We had a spectacular 10 minute launch once. We were in a Vulcan near the ORP at Cottesmore when we went u/s. We shutdown and piled out into a crew bus that had been summoned. We were then driven flat out to the engine running spare in one of the mid-airfield dispersals. Once there we sprinted to the aircraft. The start crew captain was holding the ladder to show his authority. His crew formed a chain and slung all our baggage from bus to jet. Cocks away, doors closed and taxy. I sorted out the heap of junk and set about helping the pilots strap in. Strapped in I lived their seats and strapped in to mine as we rolled.

At rotate we hit a wall of snow that the other aircraft in the stream had dumped at exactly the same point on the runway.

It was, as I said, about 10 minutes from u/s to airborne in another jet. It was on that sortie that we attacked a French airfield at low level at a shade over 400 kts.
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