Did You Fly The Vulcan?? (Merged)

[Waddo Liney]

forget - thank you for the kind welcome. I don't think the Southern Cal sun has addled my brain just yet, although, as they say, a picture, is worth a thousand words. It would appear that you have made your point, however, I can't just roll over and play dead.
My flight line experience on the B2 was limited to late 1962 - early 1963 at Finningley, which was early in the B2's service. From that time, I have a very distinct memory of a visit to the OCU by some local ATC cadets. As they stood around in group adjacent to the nosewheel area, watching us work, I very clearly recall asking one of them to support the 28vdc cable while I climbed the ladder to plug it in at the location described in my earlier post. The young lad eagerly complied, much to the envy of his fellow cadets. The 28v connection at that location was very inconvenient, and it was really a two-man job to connect or disconnect...one man supporting the cable while the other manipulated into or out of the receptacle, and a ladder was definitely involved. I would even go as far as saying that it was on the starboard side. So I'm wondering if perhaps the Powers-That-Be sanctioned a mod to move it to the location in the photos - which frankly makes a lot more sense.
Also, the plugs shown in photos 15 and 16 do not seem to resemble the plugs that I recall. In my time, the 28v cable terminated in a NATO socket - 2 large pins and 1 small one, and was flattish in shape. The 200v socket(also NATO standard) had a cubic appearance to accommodate the larger number of pins (4 large and 1 small, I believe).
BTW, how does one "quote" another posting on this thread?

[forget]

I think you are mixing up your B1As and B2's. The first was mainly DC generators with Inverters for AC, the latter AC alternators with TRUs for DC. 'Blacksheep' knows all about this and will correct - if wrong. To quote - copy and paste the words you want into the Reply Box, highlight, and then click the third icon from the right in the Reply Box.

[sooty655]

I think the 28v receptacle referred to (stbd side adjacent to nose wheel bay) is a dedicated connection used for refuelling, and ensures no other electrical systems are energised at the same time.

[forget]

Interesting. Do you have this 28VDC connector on XM655? I was ECM/Comms with 655, and others, for seven years in the '60s and I don't remember this connector. If it's there it must be a mod. (Personally, I don't think it is - there, that is.)

[Waddo Liney]

I think you are mixing up your B1As and B2's.

Not really, forget! The only Vulcans I worked on at 230 OCU were the B2's, and while other memories fade or get fudged, this one is very clear.

Sooty655 - Neither do I think it was a dedicated connection that related to refuelling (there never was such a thing in my experience).

I'm going to do some fact checking off line...there's a source I can contact who was on the OCU at the same time and later became an instructor teaching the B2 electrical system at Finningley. One problem is that my memory of this is "frozen in time", so if the connection point was later moved, the original location may not be remembered by those who continued working on the B2.
As for confusing B1A's and B2; I was a "lecky" and therefore intimately involved with the two different electrical systems, viz a viz 110vdc and 200vac. However, I did forget the correct terminology for the 200vac/28vdc conversion units. I had referred to them as "static converters" in my earlier post, but you correctly called them TRU's (transformer rectifier units). I think, but am not sure, that these two components were located in the nosewheel bay, which would go some way towards explaining why the 28vdc NATO socket would have been plugged in where I described. I do know that the Frequency Changers were in the n/wheel bay, but that has nothing to do with this discussion.
The connections to the B1A were much easier to handle, not least because of the nose up attitude of the B1A tipped the back end downwards, making it an easier reach to access the receptacles.
P.S. thanks for the help on how to include a quote.

[Yellow Sun]

This is sad, but I have just dug out my Mk2 OCU notes! The following paragraphs also appear in the Aircrew Manual:

External Power supplies

200 Volt AC Ground Power Units.........the 6 pin snatch disconnect plug is in the port wing root......

28 Volt DC Ground Supply A 28 volt, quick disconnect ground supply plug is in the port wing root angled rearwards. This supply feeds all ground service lighting, all normal 28 volt services and, if the battery switch is ON, charges the battery......
For ground refuelling only, a separate 28 volt supply may be plugged in on the starboard side of the nose. This isolates the gound refuelling circuits from the normal 28 volt system, which remains de-energised during refuelling.

That would seem to settle it, the sun and waccy baccy hasn't done for Waddo Liney's after all!

YS

[Pontius Navigator]

IIRC there were two other services that could be plugged in at the front end but generally were not.

One was the AVS feed but never remembered that being used - we suffered until the cabin conditioning kicked in. The other was a plug in for the cabin conditioning - hot or cold. In practise the cooling pipe was just put in to the cabin.

[forget]

Nice one YS, but we're getting a little confused here. It was sooty655 who suggested the dedicated refuelling 28VDC; the jury is still working on Waddo Liney's theories

So far as the dedicated refuelling 28VDC goes, thanks to YS we now know what the course notes say - but what about reality. With three years in the hangar and three on the line I don't ever remember seeing this connector. With a bit of luck sooty 655 will provide a photograph - or not.

Anyway, we've at last sorted the matter of the 'quick disconnect ground supply plug(S) is (ARE) in the port wing root angled rearwards'. Suits me.

[Waddo Liney]

An extra passenger

...the sun and waccy baccy hasn't done for Waddo Liney's after all

Can't speak for the sun, but can say with all honesty that I have never partaken of the waccy baccy. Now, a nice glass of Napa Valley Merlot...that's a whole different story!

Briefly back to the current topic of discussion; my subject matter expert has not responded yet, so I cannot say any more for now, but the refuelling suggestion seems to have legs. In the meantime, please allow me to regale my readers with a story of yore.

It's night shift, circa 1963-64, the location - Echo dispersal, Waddington. Oh dear, a crew-in snag! The crew are aboard and the engines are running, but there's a problem with the generator load-sharing. A corporal electrician is despatched to deal with the situation, and is accompanied by a young, wet-behind-the-ears SAC electrician, not long out of trade-training, whose main job on this occasion is to carry the tools and test intruments. Both climb a ladder into the power compartment of the B1A.
After some tweaking of black boxes and mumblings of magic chants, the corporal emerges and confers with the crew chief, who then checks with the AEO. The snag is declared fixed, so the corporal returns briefly to the power compartment and instructs his lad to replace covers, gather up the tools and test equipment and close up the power compartment, while said corporal heads for the igloo to clear the 700.
Meanwhile, the crew chief, anxious to get the aircraft on its way, and apparently unaware of the SAC still inside the power compartment, stands on the lower rung of the servicing ladder and slams the power compartment closed, then latches it and removes the ladder. The lad trapped inside frantically hammers on the hatch door, but no one can hear him above the noise of the engines. A few minutes pass, and then the engines mercifully shut down because the AEO is still unhappy with the load sharing. Only then is a frantic hammering noise heard coming from the power compartment. The hatch is hastily opened and a pale, decided unsettled SAC emerges on wobbly legs. This is witnessed by all of the starter crew.
A few minutes later, the crew deplane, and as the captain emerges, one particular starter crew member, well known for a tendency to shoot off his mouth, remarks laughingly to the captain, "Sir, you nearly had an extra passenger with you tonight!"
The captain, with a polite smile replies, "What do you mean?"
Our trusty ground crew member then proceeds to fill him in on the young electrician's plight, but, to his dismay, the captain fails to see the joke. In fact, the captain's countenance becomes decidely grim. And, just to cut a long story short, the crew chief very soon appears on the carpet and receives a "severe dig" for his carelessness.
Later, those of us who worked with the young SAC asked him what he would have done had the Vulcan taxied out to the runway and took off. His answer was that he would have started ripping out fuses and wires to create a problem that would cause the sortie to be abborted. But I wonder to this day, and shudder at what might have happened had the sortie continued and no one realized soon enough where the SAC had disappeared to.

[sooty655]

Unfortunately, I don't have access to 655 at the moment, as I spend the summer months canal cruising. However, I have asked a fellow enthusiast to see if he can get you a photo.

If not, I will get it when I visit for our Wings and Wheels spectacular on 20th June.

[alisoncc]

Also, the plugs shown in photos 15 and 16 do not seem to resemble the plugs that I recall. In my time, the 28v cable terminated in a NATO socket - 2 large pins and 1 small one, and was flattish in shape. The 200v socket(also NATO standard) had a cubic appearance to accommodate the larger number of pins (4 large and 1 small, I believe).

They are exactly the same as the ones I remember, also from 1963/65 Finningley, and they were definitely B2's. Being with B Sqdn 230 OCU never got to play with the "obsolete" A Sqdn B1's.

We used to dispatch aircraft to Woodford on a regular basis, and they always returned very different. I would suspect there was continuous programme of upgrades and modifications taking place, so it may be difficult for anyone to be quite definitive about what was fitted where and when.

As for the story about an SAC magician being locked in the power compartment prior to takeoff. I have heard similar stories about air radio fitters climbing into the bomb bay to "sort out" the STR18 aerial coupler and almost getting an unintended flight. Came close on a couple of occasions myself.

[Waddo Liney]

They are exactly the same as the ones I remember, also from 1963/65 Finningley, and they were definitely B2's.

allisoncc - your comment persuaded me to take a second look, and on closer inspection of photo 15, I can see that the left hand cable does indeed terminate in a flat, NATO type socket. The rim of the receptacle is also visible to confirm it. Also, the right hand (red) cable appears to terminate in a squarish-looking socket. So it turns out they really are both the same as I remember them.
Sounds like you were posted to 230 around the same time I left there for Waddo (March 63).

[Ramshornvortex]

So far as the dedicated refuelling 28VDC goes, thanks to YS we now know what the course notes say - but what about reality. With three years in the hangar and three on the line I don't ever remember seeing this connector. With a bit of luck sooty 655 will provide a photograph - or not.

Here is the 28v refuelling ground supply socket on XM655 as advised by my colleague Sooty:




RHV

[forget]

Thanks. Can't argue with that. A Blue Steel peculiarity I thought - but 655 was never Blue Steel. Perhaps a Tanker Mod? But then I find a photograph of a non Blue Steel aircraft in proper colours, below with white belly, long before tankers were thought of. There's the 28VDC plug. Anyway, at Coningsby/Cottesmore it must have still been on the secret list as no-one knew about it.

PS. I just wonder if it was even connected as there are no placards, below. Fresh paint job and no placards? Very odd.

http://www.pprune.org/4046823-post4.html

[alisoncc]

There were no covers on ours. We just hung on the cable until it came out and the airy just went. No time on QRA/ORP to pratt around fastening dzus clips.

[Waddo Liney]

I just wonder if it was even connected

Yup! It was definitely connected. The fasteners were the small dzus type, which could be fastened by hand, i.e twisting the wing-nut type wings.

[Pontius Navigator]

That the tacan aerial?

The QRA power recepticals, IIRC, were fastened with spring-loaded latches. I think the theory was the snap-shut action when the cable was snatched would cause the latch to snap and lock the door.

I think more often than not there was too much paint and gunge on the sprung hinges and on the latch and it didn't latch automatically. For a scramble we would go with the hatch sprung shut but not latched.

[tantalite]

GPU Connection

As an ex Gen Fitt permanent staffer on various dispersals, did a quick 6 weeks relief at Leuchars before a year at Goose. This was November/December 1970 and I had just turned 21. Did the first Mick that became a Tacheval, launched the 2 x B2s at the end of the excersise and got a clean break from the power cables using the NATO frame to support them, unfortunately the earthing cable went with one of the aircraft along with a fair amount of alternate panel fastenings (bodge tape!!).
For the purists, we had kidnapped 43s Fighting Cock and rechristened them the fighting cooks. Attendees will remember 43 stopping our whistling tit on the runway and politely requested the birds return, duly done I hitched a lift to Waddo on the Argosy, Happy Days

[exem657]

Tony Regan

I was unfortunate enough to "take" Tony on his first ranger from Waddo.
We managed to "lose" the crew Landrover on a liaison trip to Valetta. As senior crewchief I got the blame via the skipper who got it from the station co.
Lost Brownie points over that...but a memorable trip nevertheless!
Ask your dad!

[Turbo542]

Loss of Landrover

I had hoped he had forgotten about that.