Shipped by Antonovs I heard.
So she was a primary SAR machine then I new her well.
As you can imagine it was quite a challenge to develop, install and certify the original LN-450 avionic package. I don't think I'd want to go through all that again...... many loooooong night shifts.
Then many years after that I built a test bed in the old wooden huts at Redhill to aid the development of the new SAR avionic upgrade to include the EHSI. It was great, working with the manufacturer and Bristow design office, to present the EHSI with live GPS feed / RNAV, weather radar overlay, slaveable compass, to all and sunder such as the CAA, the manufacturer and operational pilots.............and all on a couple of tables. You wouldn't believe how much debate went into a wind arrow presentation! One of my more memorable projects.
Once the EHSI (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator) was certified I then toured the SAR bases to survey the four primary machines prior to their upgrade. Then back to Redhill, built a wooden S61 nose and centre console mock up and with the help of many we fabricated a complete enormous loom assembly which encompassed most of the avionic upgrade wiring. Then all we had to do was quickly snip out the old stuff and slot the new wiring in...............easier said than done.
The point of the above explanation is................
Yesterday, I sat in the cockpit of N751AW and looked in the nose..............and it's all gone!!!!!
Their maintenance supervisor reckons, one company bought most of the old 61s and "standardised" them back to mostly original fit including Primus Mk 1 Wx radar and auto-stab by the look of it.
As the RAF VC-10 flew its last sortie today I think it seems that that the life of these older aircraft matches our own working lives ......around fifty years........then we are both struggling...............