Originally Posted by
BEagle
Yes - in a word!
If we took it with us, it had to be lashed securely in the vis.bomb-aimer's position.
In the early years the ladder was invariably left on the door. Later, as we became more cautious and more risk averse we started to worry about the delay that unlatching the ladder would take.
The first solution was simply to unlatch the ladder and leave it loose on the door. Unfortunately there was a risk of it moving and jamming. The alternatives were, as BEagle said, was to ditch the ladder before flight or stow it forrad.
Leaving it behind was the 'best' option although this could present difficulties in the case of diversion. For agile rearcrew members this presented few problems - slide down door, hold door jack, reach out with foot onto nosewheel leg etc. Getting back in you climbed the nosewheel leg, grabbed the door jack and with a mighty bound . . .
The alternative of stowing the ladder forward had problems too. The prone bomb aimer's position was normally covered by a drop down panel which protected the T4 bomb sight or the F95 camera. This panel was modified to take two clips, identical to the door clips, so the ladder could be similarly stowed forward. In BEagles time it was not necessary to lash it down unlesss ...
If dropping bombs it was quite useful for the nav rad to watch them leave the aircraft and I could do this after bomb release by moving down to the nose. The ladder and stowage would have been in the way. Also we occasionally needed access to the F95 camera.
In Cyprus, with only one potential diversion, we usually left the ladder behind. I do not know what the position was in UK with less certain weather factors etc.
If we were doing a transit trip and the cabin was full of baggage we could not stow the ladder. Usually however baggage would be in the 4000lb or 750lb bomb bay pannier.