A long Memory Stretch
Interesting to see this thread back on line. I was on Victors from 1960 to 1967 and lived through all the fun days!! Reading through the thread, there are some inaccuracies, and some new bits worth adding.
Early on it states that the sqn numbers peaked in Jan 63. It then lists the squadrons but ignores No 139(Jamaica) Sqn - the first Victor 2 free fall squadron.
Bruntingthorpe was indeed a Victor 2 dispersal, with a nice pub in the village; I remember happy hours there! The dispersal flights, especially in the middle of the night to a wide, poorly lit and apparently short runway, always got the adrenaline flowing! It is still a "dispersal" as the home of the Cold War jets collection. A Victor K2 is kept in running condition and does public "fast runs" on open days. The next is on 3 May and all are welcome!
The Victors certainly did "live" QRA with Blue Steel. To meet take-off requirements, the inertial nav system had to be kept at its operating temperature 24/7. I also remember the drama of HTP temperature monitoring - and supporting drills. My crew did an emergency off-load at about 1am one night! Plastic suits, water hoses, floodlights and all! Happy memories!!
The Victor Force was fully involved with dispersal exercises with both "Dry" and "Wet" Blue Steel inert missiles. Flying with a "Wet" missile was not uncommon, but led to a couple of immediate landings at the nearest suitable airfields when the HTP temperature was uncertain.
I think there may be some confusion over the Blue Steel release plans. The method to be employed was developed with the type of release to be used. Initially everything was planned for a high level release at maximum BS powered range, but there was a fall back of an unpowered free fall release. Then, if I remember correctly, we went low level, and the release range was much shorter following a mini-pop-up attack. From low level, if BS had to be released unpowered, the plan was to accelerate to about 400 Knts (?)and do a major full-power pop-up to a pre-determined release height, about 12000 Ft, input a quick NBS correction, drop and run!! I remember practicing one of these releases at Goose Bay in the winter and the full power climb was nearly vertical!
The auto-land situation was described earlier. It is worth noting that the Victor 2 was also equipped for auto-land. The ILS aerial was moved from the port wing tip to a small bullet in front of the Bomb Aimers position to put the aircraft on the centreline, it is still there today on the K2. It had an enhanced radar altimeter fitted, but the operation of the whole system depended on twin ILS leader cables being installed at the airfields. Wittering was not equipped because of the A1, and the "blind landing" requirement went away as noted earlier. That said, as I recall, the system was given "switch on" clearance only, following Boscombe Trials, to 250 Ft, and sometimes when we were bored, we did Auto-ILS approaches.
Back to memory stretching!!