Victor owner - talk about getting your retaliation in first! As far as I am aware all of the stuff you say about your own aircraft (ex RAF aircrew, full flying kit etc) apply at Bruntingthorpe, with the exception of the brake parachute. I also know the pilot involved and I think you have sailed pretty close to the wind in the matter of not naming names on these threads, you've cut the possible names down to single figures at any rate - still you are a probationer so perhaps we should make allowances.
I would just like to say that I have flown with him, and would be happy to do so again - we dont yet fully understand why the aircraft got airborne - what is incontrovertible is that he got it back down in one piece with an unharmed crew, and that counts for a lot in my book.
A Mk2 Victor rolled over once at RAF Wyton with the expected outcome...
I dont quite see what that has got to do with this case. The aircraft in question as I recall was attempting a practice assymetric landing and the accident was caused by a gross imbalance of power when full throttle was applied on the two "live" engines at touchdown. Entirely irrelevant here.
In addition to the above the rear mounted airbrakes were not used (according to the photographs) which is concerning, there are no limits on their usage.
I think its a fair estimate that the photos were taken within a few seconds of the aircraft becoming airborne - would you have had them out that quickly?
More generally I have been pretty disgusted by the amount of backstabbing and unfounded criticism on this thread. It might be as well if a few contributors had just waited for the full story to emerge before getting the knives out.