Did You Fly The Vulcan?? (Merged)
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Thanks for the reply, BEags....
Outside the brief and outside the envelope are never good things individually and particularly not collectively. Very sad story - I always feel for those not with a "hand on the stick", just along for the ride at this moment.
Outside the brief and outside the envelope are never good things individually and particularly not collectively. Very sad story - I always feel for those not with a "hand on the stick", just along for the ride at this moment.
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On the Wadington topic - I spent much of the early 70's sitting in the Horse and Jockey in Wadington of a Sunday lunchtime drinking coke was the barman called Lou?
YWIW senior met mother in Wadington on his first posting there in the early 60's and got married with the reception in the Horse and Jockey spot a pattern? He was then posted back as some sort of Nav with 101 in the late 60's/early 70's.
YWIW senior met mother in Wadington on his first posting there in the early 60's and got married with the reception in the Horse and Jockey spot a pattern? He was then posted back as some sort of Nav with 101 in the late 60's/early 70's.
Last edited by You want it when?; 10th Jan 2004 at 18:17.
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VX770 at Syerston:
I got the accident report from Kew last year. It was a R-R crew but the AEO was from Scampton.
Alamo
Vulcans in Camera
The landlord of the H&J was indeed Lou
I got the accident report from Kew last year. It was a R-R crew but the AEO was from Scampton.
Alamo
Vulcans in Camera
The landlord of the H&J was indeed Lou
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VX770 outside of brief, and spec, at Syertson! I didn’t know that, and hard to believe! I thought it was simply put down to ‘airframe failure’.
I joined Vulcans as ground crew (what you’d now call avionics) at Coningsby, February 1964, and stayed with the same aircraft when they moved to Cottesmore in November ’64, and then to Waddington in ’68.
There were two other losses, aircraft and crew, which I was close to and, only years later, did I question as being ‘self inflicted’ by unnecessary procedures in training.
The first was XM601, Coningsby, evening of October the 7th 1964.
The aircraft was doing practice approaches. At around 7.30 the crash alarm went off and we left the Castle Club when it was obvious from the fire in the darkness, within the airfield boundary a half mile away, that this was no drill.
It turned out that 601 had been doing asymmetric approaches with engines 3 and 4 at flight idle. This particular approach ended up, as witnessed by the tower, well to the right of the runway centre line. No FDR’s were carried but the Board of Enquiry concluded that the crew had decided on a very late go-around, and slammed all four throttles forward.
‘Slam-Checks’ were part of ground engine tests and the Olympus would take 9 seconds to spool-up from flight idle to 100%. In the case of 601, slamming all four forward at that speed caused thrust asymmetry well beyond the control surfaces. The Vulcan rolled right, the wing tip dug into the grass and the aircraft cart-wheeled. Had the crew been ‘lucky’ the front section and cockpit would have snapped off in the cartwheel, as I think it was intended to do at a production break, and fate may have kept them well clear of the burning wings and fuel tanks. It didn’t snap off quite soon enough and the crew died with the aircraft.
A preventable accident? Of course it was. Where on earth is the value in full asymmetric approaches in a four engined aircraft, at night. Training is to prepare for ‘likely’ eventualities, not all possible eventualities. Completely losing both on one side, at night, in a Vulcan. Likely??
A slight digression. Blacksheep, and others, have recalled that V force ground crews were not noted for their ‘military’ attention to uniform and dress code. For this reason the events of the days after the accident are still fairly clear in my memory. Two (?) families of the 601 crew wanted their husbands, sons, brothers buried in the Coningsby church yard, full military funeral.
The Station Warrant Officer visited Line Squadron and hangars asking for volunteer guard party and pall bearers. Against all the rules of never volunteer, he got the people he wanted, I as a pallbearer. The SWO spent no more than a couple of hours with us in a quiet hangar explaining positioning and protocols etc, and during the morning of the funeral we, and I’m certain the SWO and CO, were left in some wonder at the military dress and precision of we usual ‘scruffs’. One family was kind enough to write to the Group Captain, he later sent the letter around the station, saying that the distress of the day had been very much eased by the care and detail the ‘friends’ of their husbands, sons, and brothers had put into the proceedings. Least we could do, but I imagine the firing party came from the Regiment.
Back to preventable (in my opinion) losses. In the early sixties the Vulcans went low level to get through the opposition’s improved defences. Terrain Following Radar (TFR) was produced (or acquired from the US??) to allow crews low level vertical nav ‘through the mountains of Eastern Europe’. They certainly needed something, the Rad Alt at that time was a 50’s Heath Robinson cathode ray tube, at the AEO’s station; a green circle simply got smaller the closer you got to Terra Firma.
TFR was fitted during the mid-sixties, it was the small radome sticking through the front end of the nose. Vertical Guidance was from a simple ‘fly up fly down’ instrument nailed to the captain’s glare shield.
Cottesmore. On the early evening of February the 11th ’66 we’d seen off several aircraft from Line Squadron. Amongst these was XM536 on TFR training . At around 8.30 four or five of us had driven across the airfield for a break and, at 9, had gone upstairs to watch the BBC news. I think it was the first item. ‘News is coming in of a Vulcan bomber missing in the Brecon Beacons’. (Welsh Mountains).
We left the club and drove back to Line Squadron. XM536 and crew would not be coming back.
Preventable accident? Of course it was. TFR was new to the crews and, at that time, confidence in its ability to visually direct a ‘pop over, now down, now climb for the next one’ wasn’t particularly high.
So who on earth tasked a crew to increase this confidence - at night - in the Brecon Beacons? Got me Chief! Any answers?
I joined Vulcans as ground crew (what you’d now call avionics) at Coningsby, February 1964, and stayed with the same aircraft when they moved to Cottesmore in November ’64, and then to Waddington in ’68.
There were two other losses, aircraft and crew, which I was close to and, only years later, did I question as being ‘self inflicted’ by unnecessary procedures in training.
The first was XM601, Coningsby, evening of October the 7th 1964.
The aircraft was doing practice approaches. At around 7.30 the crash alarm went off and we left the Castle Club when it was obvious from the fire in the darkness, within the airfield boundary a half mile away, that this was no drill.
It turned out that 601 had been doing asymmetric approaches with engines 3 and 4 at flight idle. This particular approach ended up, as witnessed by the tower, well to the right of the runway centre line. No FDR’s were carried but the Board of Enquiry concluded that the crew had decided on a very late go-around, and slammed all four throttles forward.
‘Slam-Checks’ were part of ground engine tests and the Olympus would take 9 seconds to spool-up from flight idle to 100%. In the case of 601, slamming all four forward at that speed caused thrust asymmetry well beyond the control surfaces. The Vulcan rolled right, the wing tip dug into the grass and the aircraft cart-wheeled. Had the crew been ‘lucky’ the front section and cockpit would have snapped off in the cartwheel, as I think it was intended to do at a production break, and fate may have kept them well clear of the burning wings and fuel tanks. It didn’t snap off quite soon enough and the crew died with the aircraft.
A preventable accident? Of course it was. Where on earth is the value in full asymmetric approaches in a four engined aircraft, at night. Training is to prepare for ‘likely’ eventualities, not all possible eventualities. Completely losing both on one side, at night, in a Vulcan. Likely??
A slight digression. Blacksheep, and others, have recalled that V force ground crews were not noted for their ‘military’ attention to uniform and dress code. For this reason the events of the days after the accident are still fairly clear in my memory. Two (?) families of the 601 crew wanted their husbands, sons, brothers buried in the Coningsby church yard, full military funeral.
The Station Warrant Officer visited Line Squadron and hangars asking for volunteer guard party and pall bearers. Against all the rules of never volunteer, he got the people he wanted, I as a pallbearer. The SWO spent no more than a couple of hours with us in a quiet hangar explaining positioning and protocols etc, and during the morning of the funeral we, and I’m certain the SWO and CO, were left in some wonder at the military dress and precision of we usual ‘scruffs’. One family was kind enough to write to the Group Captain, he later sent the letter around the station, saying that the distress of the day had been very much eased by the care and detail the ‘friends’ of their husbands, sons, and brothers had put into the proceedings. Least we could do, but I imagine the firing party came from the Regiment.
Back to preventable (in my opinion) losses. In the early sixties the Vulcans went low level to get through the opposition’s improved defences. Terrain Following Radar (TFR) was produced (or acquired from the US??) to allow crews low level vertical nav ‘through the mountains of Eastern Europe’. They certainly needed something, the Rad Alt at that time was a 50’s Heath Robinson cathode ray tube, at the AEO’s station; a green circle simply got smaller the closer you got to Terra Firma.
TFR was fitted during the mid-sixties, it was the small radome sticking through the front end of the nose. Vertical Guidance was from a simple ‘fly up fly down’ instrument nailed to the captain’s glare shield.
Cottesmore. On the early evening of February the 11th ’66 we’d seen off several aircraft from Line Squadron. Amongst these was XM536 on TFR training . At around 8.30 four or five of us had driven across the airfield for a break and, at 9, had gone upstairs to watch the BBC news. I think it was the first item. ‘News is coming in of a Vulcan bomber missing in the Brecon Beacons’. (Welsh Mountains).
We left the club and drove back to Line Squadron. XM536 and crew would not be coming back.
Preventable accident? Of course it was. TFR was new to the crews and, at that time, confidence in its ability to visually direct a ‘pop over, now down, now climb for the next one’ wasn’t particularly high.
So who on earth tasked a crew to increase this confidence - at night - in the Brecon Beacons? Got me Chief! Any answers?
Thread Starter
Perhaps you're thinking of XD875, a 7 Sqn Valiant from Wittering which crashed on 12 Aug 1960?
But that was at Spanhoe (disused by then), not Syerston.
But that was at Spanhoe (disused by then), not Syerston.
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Syerston (2 FTS, Jet Provs) was my first posting and, as a brand new SAC rigger, I arrived there in Feb 1960. Even then, less than two years later, they were still talking about the Vulc incident. In fact, if I remember correctly, there was a "picture board" with photos along a wall in the Education Block's "Library" Room. I also recall going on my first mushroom-picking sallies out onto the airfield with a couple of the older line guys and still finding small bits of airframe and other detritus from the incident.
Minded of "V" incidents, I was at Wyton when the Victor went in after a particularly "spirited" take of in front of the TV cameras (Anglia's Look East?). Just fell out of the sky!
All those watching knew he wasn't going to make it, damn sad day that. 
Anybody have any details of that incident|?
Minded of "V" incidents, I was at Wyton when the Victor went in after a particularly "spirited" take of in front of the TV cameras (Anglia's Look East?). Just fell out of the sky!
All those watching knew he wasn't going to make it, damn sad day that. Anybody have any details of that incident|?
Yes, Him
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B(I)8,
Wasn't that one of the first Victor SR.2s of 543Sqn? I remember seeing it on TV. Seem to recall it did a wingover but didn't have the height to recover.
Wasn't that one of the first Victor SR.2s of 543Sqn? I remember seeing it on TV. Seem to recall it did a wingover but didn't have the height to recover.
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Gainsey
That's right, 543 Sqn. There was a rumour that the pilot (OC Sqn?) was not best pleased that day with the media attention and was determined to "put on a show". Remember seeing it fall out of the luft over a farm just outside the boundry. Loads of blokes watching, and all with one thought "He's not going to make it!". As I recall, the "Thunderbirds" were starting the motors of their appliances before it hit the deck! I know Crash One was rolling towards the crash gate.
That's right, 543 Sqn. There was a rumour that the pilot (OC Sqn?) was not best pleased that day with the media attention and was determined to "put on a show". Remember seeing it fall out of the luft over a farm just outside the boundry. Loads of blokes watching, and all with one thought "He's not going to make it!". As I recall, the "Thunderbirds" were starting the motors of their appliances before it hit the deck! I know Crash One was rolling towards the crash gate.
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For the benefit of those who did not have the luck (?) to fly the Vulcan we need to document the unusual (bizarre?) crew accomodation.
Perhaps one of our historians can answer a question for me. The pilots headroom was very restricted. In fact, we wore the old fifties edition two-piece bonedome so that we could fly with the outer hardshell removed. Otherwise you would have been flying with your head cranked to one side for the whole sortie.
I was told, and accepted, that the reason the headroom was so tight was that the aircraft was originaly designed for a single pilot who would probably have sat nearly centered in the cockpit, hence no headroom problem. This never made sense to me. If the cockpit was designed for a single pilot sitting centrally the cockpit canopy would have been far too big to see out adequately. If the design was indeed changed from one pilot to two why was the cockpit canopy shape not made bigger at that point? Any answers?
Perhaps one of our historians can answer a question for me. The pilots headroom was very restricted. In fact, we wore the old fifties edition two-piece bonedome so that we could fly with the outer hardshell removed. Otherwise you would have been flying with your head cranked to one side for the whole sortie.
I was told, and accepted, that the reason the headroom was so tight was that the aircraft was originaly designed for a single pilot who would probably have sat nearly centered in the cockpit, hence no headroom problem. This never made sense to me. If the cockpit was designed for a single pilot sitting centrally the cockpit canopy would have been far too big to see out adequately. If the design was indeed changed from one pilot to two why was the cockpit canopy shape not made bigger at that point? Any answers?
Crew Accomodation
Boing
When I read this
I thought that you were going to write about the dispersal caravans These novel items were usually parked in and windy and isolated spot on the airfield. They closely resembled a larger version of the starting boxes found at your local dog track. All that had to be done was ring a bell, the doors would fly open and 5 crew would appear from their individual hutches!
I was present at a dipersal at Finningley one evening when a 44 Sqn copilot left his immersion suit over the electric heater in his "hutch" (he was lucky, I never got one that worked). When he returned to go to bed he saw the smoke seeping from the door and correctly assumed that all was not well. He was about to go and call the fire section when he was intercepted by the crew AEO who had equipped himself with a fire extinguisher. "Open the door said the AEO". "No!!" replied the assembled audience taking a hasty few steps back. Unfortunately someone did open the door, flames shot out, the AEO hit the plunger on top of the extinguisher and threw it into the fire. "Close the bloody door" he was now heard to shout as he ran rapidly backwards! But what do you expect of a trade that rides elephants at 3 o'clock in the morning in Limmasol - that's another story!
YS
When I read this
For the benefit of those who did not have the luck (?) to fly the Vulcan we need to document the unusual (bizarre?) crew accomodation.
I was present at a dipersal at Finningley one evening when a 44 Sqn copilot left his immersion suit over the electric heater in his "hutch" (he was lucky, I never got one that worked). When he returned to go to bed he saw the smoke seeping from the door and correctly assumed that all was not well. He was about to go and call the fire section when he was intercepted by the crew AEO who had equipped himself with a fire extinguisher. "Open the door said the AEO". "No!!" replied the assembled audience taking a hasty few steps back. Unfortunately someone did open the door, flames shot out, the AEO hit the plunger on top of the extinguisher and threw it into the fire. "Close the bloody door" he was now heard to shout as he ran rapidly backwards! But what do you expect of a trade that rides elephants at 3 o'clock in the morning in Limmasol - that's another story!
YS
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We wore the Mk1 bonedome and inner because that was the design issued at the time; the Mk2 was issued to the fast jet world only. The Mk 3 came out, was issued to the fast jets and the Mk2 was made available to Vulcan crews. It had nothing to do with headspace in the cockpit. I wore both at various times and never had a problem.
The question of whether the cockpit was designed for one or two pilots has been the subject of much rumour an speculation over the years. I don't know the definitive answer, but I suspect that it was a 2-man design all long. Perhaps people got confused because the Avro 707 series was designed to fly with a single pilot - they were design testing platforms, since no-one had practical experience of delta aerodynamics.
And the one that broke up at Syerston was a Vulcan - see the photo above.
The question of whether the cockpit was designed for one or two pilots has been the subject of much rumour an speculation over the years. I don't know the definitive answer, but I suspect that it was a 2-man design all long. Perhaps people got confused because the Avro 707 series was designed to fly with a single pilot - they were design testing platforms, since no-one had practical experience of delta aerodynamics.
And the one that broke up at Syerston was a Vulcan - see the photo above.
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Strange things happened. As a new arrival in the Mess at Cottesmore I was assigned the upper room at the end of one of the wings. It did not take long to find out (exactly one night) that my room was directly above the QRA crew sleeping rooms.
When the QRA bell on the floor below sounded it must have taken me four months before I stopped leaping out of bed in the middle of the night to get dressed.
Another story on crew accommodation (aircraft type). There was a certain very senior officer who used to like to use a Vulcan as his personal executive jet. This involved a delux bed conversion in the visual bomb-aimers position plus VIP service to load his bags into the bomb-bay pannier when he arrived at the aircraft. Awaiting his arrival the bomb-bay doors were left open and a ladder of some sort was positioned against the pannier so that his bags could be immediately loaded and we were on our way.
It so happened that we were at a USAF base awaiting the VIP (it was dark) when several quite senior USAF pilot types arrived at the aircraft wanting to look around. Since we were busy I told then to help themselves. Shortly, from a distance, I saw the USAF types starting to climb the ladder to the pannier. I thought they were simply checking out the bomb-bay. It turned out that they thought it was the cockpit access. We ended up with one USAF pilot wondering how to get into the pannier, one on the ladder and the others waiting to climb up from below. Apparently they had watched "Thunderball" or something and thought we got into the cockpit via the bomb-bay. When they were shown the real way in I think they were even more surprised!
When the QRA bell on the floor below sounded it must have taken me four months before I stopped leaping out of bed in the middle of the night to get dressed.
Another story on crew accommodation (aircraft type). There was a certain very senior officer who used to like to use a Vulcan as his personal executive jet. This involved a delux bed conversion in the visual bomb-aimers position plus VIP service to load his bags into the bomb-bay pannier when he arrived at the aircraft. Awaiting his arrival the bomb-bay doors were left open and a ladder of some sort was positioned against the pannier so that his bags could be immediately loaded and we were on our way.
It so happened that we were at a USAF base awaiting the VIP (it was dark) when several quite senior USAF pilot types arrived at the aircraft wanting to look around. Since we were busy I told then to help themselves. Shortly, from a distance, I saw the USAF types starting to climb the ladder to the pannier. I thought they were simply checking out the bomb-bay. It turned out that they thought it was the cockpit access. We ended up with one USAF pilot wondering how to get into the pannier, one on the ladder and the others waiting to climb up from below. Apparently they had watched "Thunderball" or something and thought we got into the cockpit via the bomb-bay. When they were shown the real way in I think they were even more surprised!
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FJJP. I sat in the 707 in the hangar at Finningly (I think) several times. There was also a two seat delta (of the same series?) in the same hangar. I was impressed by how basic the instrumentation was and how small both aircraft felt. If I remember correctly, the 707 was painted blue and the two seater was in a lighter colour.
Saying you would spend the sortie with your head cranked over if you wore the hard part of the Mk. 1 helmet was a bit of an exaggeration. There was not that much clearance though. I suppose it depended on how you adjusted the Martin Baker. At one point my "fast-jet" bone-dome was withdrawn and I was reissued with a Mk.1. The helmet that was withdrawn was the type with the visor that stowed inside the hard, fixed protective cover and it had the lowering bar as opposed to the central track with an adjusting knob. Was that a 2 or a 3?
Saying you would spend the sortie with your head cranked over if you wore the hard part of the Mk. 1 helmet was a bit of an exaggeration. There was not that much clearance though. I suppose it depended on how you adjusted the Martin Baker. At one point my "fast-jet" bone-dome was withdrawn and I was reissued with a Mk.1. The helmet that was withdrawn was the type with the visor that stowed inside the hard, fixed protective cover and it had the lowering bar as opposed to the central track with an adjusting knob. Was that a 2 or a 3?
Thread Starter
BOING - that was a Mk 2. Horrible b£oody thing!!
The Avro 707C was a 2-seater; the 707A and B were single seat research aircraft.
The Vulcan cockpit was always intended for 2 pilots; however,I believe that Roly Falk once flew it with just himself at the helm as there was only 1 bang seat available on that particular day? Seem to recall reading that once.
The Avro 707C was a 2-seater; the 707A and B were single seat research aircraft.
The Vulcan cockpit was always intended for 2 pilots; however,I believe that Roly Falk once flew it with just himself at the helm as there was only 1 bang seat available on that particular day? Seem to recall reading that once.
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I recall that the original appearance of the Avro Type 698 at Farnborough was September 2nd 1952 with Roly Falk flying it solo, and with an orange coloured Avro 707A off one wing tip, and off the other flank was a blue Avro 707B.
This was the star of the show which sadly was marred by the spectacular crash on Saturday September 6th of the DH-110 prototype, and the death of John Derry and Tony Richards, plus 27 spectators.
The name Vulcan was adopted in December 1952.
This was the star of the show which sadly was marred by the spectacular crash on Saturday September 6th of the DH-110 prototype, and the death of John Derry and Tony Richards, plus 27 spectators.
The name Vulcan was adopted in December 1952.
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Ah! Those QRA caravans.
Recall one night before the big fly-off when the duty [non-flying] crew had hoofed it to the bar. To find their way back to their pits, they had plugged a sodium lamp into a socket, leaving the switch off. While they were gone, some herbert had removed the sodium lamp from the socket and plugged in the klaxon. Need I say more?
And there was a glorious occasion, not up to the standard of the 1 Gp Dining-in Nite perhaps, when a squadron dispersed, all aircrew armed with a 9mm and a bottle [apart from the CO who only had a 9mm]. It was freezing hard and crews knew they were not flying off the next day so some considerable pop was consumed. Unfortunately, some idiot decided to place a practice bomb on the ORP and crews were roused from their snores to taxi the aircraft to the other side of the airfield. In spite of the weather and the state of the crews, this was managed without incident. The next day, all were threatened with courts martial. But you can't court martial a whole squadron can you?
Recall one night before the big fly-off when the duty [non-flying] crew had hoofed it to the bar. To find their way back to their pits, they had plugged a sodium lamp into a socket, leaving the switch off. While they were gone, some herbert had removed the sodium lamp from the socket and plugged in the klaxon. Need I say more?
And there was a glorious occasion, not up to the standard of the 1 Gp Dining-in Nite perhaps, when a squadron dispersed, all aircrew armed with a 9mm and a bottle [apart from the CO who only had a 9mm]. It was freezing hard and crews knew they were not flying off the next day so some considerable pop was consumed. Unfortunately, some idiot decided to place a practice bomb on the ORP and crews were roused from their snores to taxi the aircraft to the other side of the airfield. In spite of the weather and the state of the crews, this was managed without incident. The next day, all were threatened with courts martial. But you can't court martial a whole squadron can you?
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Syerston crash
If I remember correctly I've got the book at home:
"Crash!: Military Aircraft Disasters, Accidents and Incidents"
Andrew Brookes
Hardcover 176 pages (24 May, 1991)
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing Ltd; ISBN: 0711019657
(available second hand)
with a thorough investigation on the Vulcan, Syerston crash.
Also contains the tragedy at London Heathrow with the crash out of a GCA-approach.
Very highly recommended!
P.S. Contains classic last sentence: "-- there are no new accidents, only new pilots."
"Crash!: Military Aircraft Disasters, Accidents and Incidents"
Andrew Brookes
Hardcover 176 pages (24 May, 1991)
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing Ltd; ISBN: 0711019657
(available second hand)
with a thorough investigation on the Vulcan, Syerston crash.
Also contains the tragedy at London Heathrow with the crash out of a GCA-approach.
Very highly recommended!
P.S. Contains classic last sentence: "-- there are no new accidents, only new pilots."
Last edited by normally left blank; 13th Jan 2004 at 21:48.
Helmets
The Mk 2A was the fast jet bone dome, with the visor inside a protective cover, and a G lock arm which brought the visor down in the event of an ejection. The Mk 3 was (generally) the helicopter version, with the visor on a central track, as per the Mk 1.
Both Mk 2 & 3 versions were fed from a central speaker which piped audio to the earpieces via a plastic tube. Next to useless when the earseals broke, and the gel dripped into the tube & blocked audio, or leaked into your ear, or down your neck & under the goon suit neck seal
The Shackleton crews also wore the Mk 1 bone domes, preferring the cloth headset for their long sorties. One trip out of Ballykelly, I turned up with the Mk 3, they were good enough to search out an old Mk 1 for me: the sort I used to use riding my motorscooter back when....
Both Mk 2 & 3 versions were fed from a central speaker which piped audio to the earpieces via a plastic tube. Next to useless when the earseals broke, and the gel dripped into the tube & blocked audio, or leaked into your ear, or down your neck & under the goon suit neck seal
The Shackleton crews also wore the Mk 1 bone domes, preferring the cloth headset for their long sorties. One trip out of Ballykelly, I turned up with the Mk 3, they were good enough to search out an old Mk 1 for me: the sort I used to use riding my motorscooter back when....
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Isn't there one of those Avro's in the RAAF Museum at Point Cook? I forget why, but it's there!
I watched the demise of the Victor at Cottesmore in 1961/2, and recall it was significant because all five crew got out. There was some problem with fuel transfer or fuses or something while on final approach and, as an avid observer of anything flying, I saw the first of the back-seaters leave before I took off to hitch a ride on the first crash vehicle to turn up! I wasn't actually on duty, but wasn't about to miss this one! So I ran, flat stick, and grabbed a passing crash vehicle. My eternally observant Warrant Officer Cockerton noted that as I was so keen, I could spend the night there! A lovely man nonetheless.
On approach, the Tower would tell you what the pilot's intentions were; landing, rolling, streaming etc, and at about three miles the Victor had a very distinctive nose-on appearance with the leading edge flaps down and those deep intakes. After the three crew had left, the aircraft took a turn for the worse with no power at all, and both pilots ejected.
It arrived in a paddock more or less three miles from touchdown at Stretton which is not far from the Ram Jam Inn, and of course the crash crew didn't know the pilots had gone, so made a brand new entrance through a hedge into the paddock with the MK6, leaving a hole through which everything else followed! Very determined lot!
I watched the demise of the Victor at Cottesmore in 1961/2, and recall it was significant because all five crew got out. There was some problem with fuel transfer or fuses or something while on final approach and, as an avid observer of anything flying, I saw the first of the back-seaters leave before I took off to hitch a ride on the first crash vehicle to turn up! I wasn't actually on duty, but wasn't about to miss this one! So I ran, flat stick, and grabbed a passing crash vehicle. My eternally observant Warrant Officer Cockerton noted that as I was so keen, I could spend the night there! A lovely man nonetheless.
On approach, the Tower would tell you what the pilot's intentions were; landing, rolling, streaming etc, and at about three miles the Victor had a very distinctive nose-on appearance with the leading edge flaps down and those deep intakes. After the three crew had left, the aircraft took a turn for the worse with no power at all, and both pilots ejected.
It arrived in a paddock more or less three miles from touchdown at Stretton which is not far from the Ram Jam Inn, and of course the crash crew didn't know the pilots had gone, so made a brand new entrance through a hedge into the paddock with the MK6, leaving a hole through which everything else followed! Very determined lot!