The Vanguard had it's good points - fast, block times LHR- CDG of 1 Hour and a 20 tonne payload. Great cockpit - they used it again on the VC-10. But it also had some real drawbacks, like a nightmarish electrical system, no constant speed drives, so, frequency-wild AC (used for tailplane de-icing) then rectified for sundry other stuff and finally inverted to constant frequency AC for electronic purposes. All this performed in a huge electrical bay by massive banks of rotary inverters and TRU's. When things went wrong, a large ganged switch performed non-reversible load shedding, leaving one in almost total darkness and wondering where all those lovely instruments had gone.
The control forces were quite unbelievably heavy, so it had a two speed electric rudder trim. But a touch of high speed trim in the wrong sense for an EFTO would send one winging earthwards (thank goodness for simulators)
Deploying Climb Flap produced a vast trim change that would seemingly instantly elevate the aircraft 1000ft. This would also defeat the rather pathetic torque limited autopilot causing it's disengagement unless countered by judicious use of the two speed electric trim.
When converted to freighters, the floor was apparently stiffened, causing unexpected changes to the flexing of the fuselage in turbulence. This caused at certain frequencies of heavy chop, a diverging oscillation of such violence that 'eyeball bounce' was induced, (I hadn't heard of it either) resulting in one being unable to see any of the instruments or much else. This was all very terrifying to a young airman and my survival a testament to the strength of the aircraft. It was eventually resolved by inserting a spring in the elevator control rods of the correct stiffness.
An anecdote of a Base Training detail on the sale of the first aircraft to Merpati. On a demonstration of reversing under power, the BEA Training Capt. emphasised the importance of not using the brakes to stop, then invited the Indonesian Capt. to have a go. When told to stop, the trainee stamped on the brakes causing the nose to rise into the air. The trainer prevented the machine from settling on its tail by quick use of full power and then bollocked his embarrassed trainee. The trainee accepted all this with many bows of the head and 'Sorry Captains', then said 'Excuse me Capt' as he turned round to give his Merpati co-pilot sitting on the third seat a thorough slapping about the face.