The VC 10

[Rainboe]

I spent 6 1/2 years on BOAC VC10s at the start of my career from 1971. My very first impression after graduating from flying college and the Beechcraft Baron was that the step from Cherokees to Barons was more than the step from the Baron to the VC10. It was utterly viceless. Engine out was easy. The one time is was fairly critical was flap retraction at very high gross weight when you had about a 6 knot spread between minimum and maximum speeds as the flaps retracted. The undercarriage was delightfully soft, the noise levels were minimal, the flight deck fairly roomy. The F/E panel ws very complicated- the aircon/pressurisation panel seemed frightening. Beautiful plane- we were very proud of it. I did get a tad concerned at the mysterious vibration/shaking that used to set in during climb and descent, and eventually carried on during lower cruise, but I gather it was due to something making the 'beavers tale' vibrate. The Conways were prone to surging at altitude limits, they quite regularly used to 'let one go', which was tremendoulsy startling for those in the rear galley. You could count to 10 and they would burst onto the flight deck very alarmed! It would sound like a canon going off 6 feet away! The girls would lose their knicker elastic! The After Start checklist had a full check of the tailplane trim. Some Captains used to do it too early before full hydraulic pressure was established and the vibration from the screwjack could be felt all over the plane. I used to cringe because I thought the most likely failure would be the tailplane screwjack trim system. But it's done OK for 32 years since!

I still find it hard to believe in this day and age we used to set off across the Atlantic with Doppler and Loran and Astro, though we got INS from about 1974 onwards. I recall the pilot-nav once leaning forward and winding 50miles left of track onto the Doppler and saying 'fly that off please'. During the rest of the flight, he would start changing it progressively 10R, 8R, 15R.... Quite what our actual tracks were across the Atlantic were best not known! All very mysterious- navigation was a 'black' art at the time.

A wonderful time. BOAC had a wonderful young attractive cabin crew. We were showing the flag around the world. We even used to do transpacific flights via Honolulu and Fiji. It was the golden age, even if the airline corporations were losing a stack of money! We felt it our duty to show the flag around the world and provide a 'British' means of getting our people to and from the rest of the world to mix with Johnny Foreigner! I thought I'd gone to heaven! Pay wasn't much though! But the sight of a VC10 coming into an airport early in the morning for turnaround was stirring. Did ever an aeroplane look so good as BOAC's blue with the big gold speedbird on that gorgeous tail? How could they get rid of that for the garrish various BA red white and blue?

I would say the aeroplane always felt it was carved out of solid steel. The major checks seemed to be problem free whereas our 707s apparently needed more extensive and expensive work. It never had problems with door failures or other defects. There was a spell of flaps coming off, but it was easily handled (the flaps are 5 enormous sections on each side). The flaps were actually very unsophisticated. They were one piece and simply moved backwards and down, no split sections. Leading edge devices were excellent- all slats. All flying controls had independent hydraulic actuation. In bad turbulence, it was not unusual to see all low pressure lights on together- a bit disconcerting until you were used to it! The F/E had his own throttles. When kids came up, it was fun to get them to talk to the throttles and tell them to go forward or back one by one. The look on their face when they did it was lovely- the F/E stiffling a grin as he moved his. We had a tubby boy standing there with a headset on his head listening to the radio (when we got fed up with making conversation). There was a gauge on the F/E panel to align engine speed, showing Nos 2,3,4 in relation to No1. He leaned over and tapped the F/E on the shoulder and said cooly 'No3 is a bit slow!'. I saw the F/E 'bristle'- the little tyke didn't even know what it was for!

Funny stories abounded. The periscope sextant mount was a vacuum cleaner size hole you could open with a pull cord in the roof of the flight deck. Legend had it one genius decided to bring a vacuum hose and attach it, and open the valve and do some cleaning on the flight deck! It allegedly went berserk violently flying around the cockpit with everybody ducking. There was a periscope hole at the back in the roof for studying the engines and tail (with little folding steps), and another in the electronic bay underneath the fuselage to study the landing gear. There was a viewer in the electronics bay to see the nose landing gear which had a specially polished rivet- the fabled 'golden rivet' that some naughty F/Es used to make something of!

It paid for its superb build quality with a much higher empty weight than the 707. This limited its range in comparison making Pacific flights rather 'long' for it. Strangely enough when I transferred to the 747-100 next, there were design aspects I thought came off the VC10- I think some of the designers ended up at Boeing as British development wound down in the 60s.

I shall wheel myself back into the cupboard now! Nice trip on memory lane with the most beautiful aeroplane ever to fly!