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Old 21st Dec 2015, 10:01
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BEagle
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
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During weapon acceptance, part of the check was that all bomb release button flaps were closed with a lead sealed restraint wire - and that it wasn't possible to reach the button without breaking the seal.

This was tested during the annual visit by the team from Collyweston - woe betide any crew who cocked up their weapon procedure. During one such visit, our Nav Radar brought the test to a halt by claiming that his bomb release button hadn't been sealed properly - although it didn't seem to have worried the previous 3 or 4 crews.....

We stopped the test, got out and waited for the loading team to reseal the nav's bomb tit. As I walked out of the zone, I noticed something metallic poking out of a pile of snow in front of one of the undercarriage legs. It was a large picketing pin - which would have undoubtedly have destroyed the tyres if the aircraft had been scrambled. So I picked it up and gave it to the WST umpire - "Oh bugger, we didn't put that there and no other crew noticed it...." I don't know what they decided, but we passed our test OK in the end.

I'm sure that we still used 'Bomb Doors...AUTO' when I was flying the Vulcan?
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