Vickers Varsity

[Fareastdriver]

Varsity fuselage recovered from the fire dump at Aldergrove.

Could well have been the last Varsity I flew in about 1977. It was used by the MU to deliver ferry pilots to and from the Maintenance Unit rebuilding ex-Navy Tombs.

[T-21]

The 23 MU hack was WJ898 named "Wilhelmina". 23 MU was in letters on the fin. It was on the Aldergrove dump in 1982 and was one of the last Varsities in service. Thanks for all the input and news.

[forget]

GEE. Some interesting stuff on its first and and last days, 115 Squadron HERE.

[Tim McLelland]

Ahh the magnificanet Varsity!
I used to spend my childhood holidays at Mablethorpe, so I kinda grew up wth the sight and sound of Varsities chugging around, thanks to nearby Manby and Strubby. The big treat of the holiday was standing outside Strubby watching the Varsities come chugging down the taxiway, wheels squealing as usual - just magnificent.

I never managed to get airborne in one sadly - closest I got was a day when Don Selway had just displayed at Shuttleworth - we drove over to Duxford after the display only to find that Don had experienced some rather odd vibrations from the tail during the flight, so he was reluctant to fly her again without further investigation. But at least we managed to crank the old bird up and do a run down the runway. Poor old Don died of course and the Varsity never flew again.

I keep saying that when (hah hah) I win the Lottery, I'm getting a Varsity back into the air!

[T-21]

Tim, I lived at Manby and always remember the piston Provosts flying over my infant school at Grimoldby. My father was at Strubby on the Canberras and Dominies later. They shared a hangar with the Meteors,on the southern side of the airfield.

[Pom Pax]

they would fly close to maximum allowed TAS in level flight, about 40 kts faster than specified on the flight plan

145 + 40 = 185 For 50 years I've thought that 185 was as fast as the Pig would fly now I know why. IIRC it caused a 20% increase in fuel consumption.

This was used if the pilot had a date that night

No he was frightened of his wife's wroth if he was late for her dinner party.
I think he was 30 minutes late anyway!

[Amos Keeto]

Just picked up on this - yes here you are, a RAF College Cranwell machine taken at Kinloss on 1st October 1969.

[Tim McLelland]

ahh, what a beauty! Don't suppose anyone has a picture of a Varsity at Strubby by any chance? I keep looking and so far I've only managed to find one *sob*

[spekesoftly]

The best I can offer is rather poor quality B&W photo of a farewell formation flypast over RAF Strubby taken when it finally closed in 1972. I posted it on an earlier Varsity thread and here's the link:-

Varsity Formation over Strubby

[Tim McLelland]

Wow that's a lovely photo. Was it really 1972 when Strubby closed? I was convinced it was rather later, but I suppose it must have been, considering Finningley soldiered-on until 1976.

[spekesoftly]

I'm fairly sure that Strubby closed in 1972 - I was there at the time. The closure of its parent unit, RAF Manby, followed two years later. Some nice photos of Varsities at Manby here

Just for the record, RAF Finningley soldiered-on until 1996!

[aviate1138]

I flew in one, from Benson [1960], the Varsity was from Watton ILS Calibration Flight as Queens Flight was complaining about the ILS having a dip in the glideslope which coincided with a small hill north of the runway. As I was on duty in the glideslope 'shed' I was hauled on board by an irate Queen's Flight Sqdn Ldr to show me the error of my ways! We did 3 varying approaches and each time the beam \dipped' at the hillock. In the 'Shed' the meter needles were exactly where they should be.

Anyway Plessey or Marconi [I think] sent bods down with every electronic gizmo to find why, what, where was causing the problem. I seem to recall it turned out to be a huge lump of magnetized ironstone in the farmers hillocky field. Anyway that is what I was told. Being near the Thames Benson had some foggy days and I don't blame the pilots for not trusting the ILS when viz was minimal. The ILS was updated shortly afterwards.

I loved the Varsity, all throbs and oily airframe smells and to lie in a Cotswold field, sunny and cloudless sky and hear the drone of another Varsity on a Nav exercise? trundling east/westwards at I guess about 8,000 ft and fading gently away is as nostalgic to me as the sight/sound of a distant steam train's smoke/whistle puffing through the green Hampshire Countryside.

I later got 20+ hours in the LH Seat in a B-25J Mitchell [in California/Oregon/Washington] and often wondered if the Varsity was similar to fly. ISTR the B-25 was noisier!

[skyline15]

Hi all,

Re the Aldergrove MU Varsity....

Also saw WF382 operating out of St Athan in 1977 coded 23MU...anybody remember why it was known as "Alf" ? (was it Aldergrove Logisitics Flight maybe?????)

also see:

Photo United Kingdom - Air Force Vickers Varsity WF382

Cheers,

Skyline

[Tim McLelland]

Sorry, I meant that Finningley soldiered-on with the Varsity until 1976. Funny how dates get confused with the passage of time - I'd always told myself the last Varsity display I saw was at Finningley's BofB display in Sept 76 but I guess it must have been 75, as I seem to recall that most of the Varsities were disposed-of before the summer. Dunno why, but I'd assumed Strubby had closed shortly before then but as you say, it was evidently much earlier. God I feel even older now!

[T-21]

Great photo of WJ950, I flew in this aircraft at Cranwell on 24.10.69 with Flt/Lt Keith Broughton to Chivenor and back. We were moving an airman and the inside was full of packing cases and even a bicycle ! It was 1hr 20 down and 1hr 05 back at 9,000 feet @ 150kts. this aircraft ended its days on the Laarbruch dump.
Thanks for the Manby shots ,I lived in the quarters in the background. WF422 has no codes and look's to be fresh off overhaul by Brooklands Aviation at Little Staughton.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

OMG, massive nostalgia department ...

I was an ATCO at Strubby 65-67 with the Pigs [and Canberras, later the Dominie , known locally as the "VC-5"]. Some monstrously experienced ex-WW2 QFIs there doing the School of Refresher Flying. As Dave [fellow plt off ATCO] and I were basically the only young people on the Unit, we were sort of "pet plt offs" and treated wonderfully kindly by the "elders". We had our own flying kit, and would often be roped in as "co-pilot" for the occasional SCT or Air Test if we were off-watch from the Tower.

I can still remember some of it ... "Speed below 135, gear down, 2400 rpm, Co-synchronise, Air intakes Filter, Oil Coolers Auto, brake pressure [1200?], check 3 greens .... Checks complete [possibly?]. Dave and I used to be tearing our hair out in the GCA truck when the Refresher students used to take 3-4 minutes to do that!

Sadly, no photos to offer, apart from one of me in Approach ... UHF on the one-sided bakelite telephone headset, and VHF done with the bakelite telephone with the PTT button!

edit ... logbook only lists WJ905, WJ908 and WL429.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

@ T-21

Tim, I lived at Manby and always remember the piston Provosts flying over my infant school at Grimoldby. My father was at Strubby on the Canberras and Dominies later. They shared a hangar with the Meteors,on the southern side of the airfield.

The Meteors had gone when I arrived in 65 ... replaced by the Manby JPs, of course. The Canberras ["2 Sqn"] for the SpecN/StaffN School at Manby had moved to the hangar out on the East Side [Sqn Ldr John Sweet, later OC 85 Sqn at Binbrook]. The South side became all Varsity.

We still had the occasional Meteor ... Sgt Pilot B****** c/s 69 used to come up from Chivenor every Friday, to be met in the 2 Sqn dispersal by his tottie in her Jaguar Mk II, and would depart first thing on Monday to get the jet back to Chiv in time for their 2nd wave

[CharlieJuliet]

Arrived at Manby in September '64 straight from FTS at Acklington. I flew a couple of trips in the Varsity, and then was let loose as a co-pilot for the guys going through refresher flying on their 'solo' flights. Sadly I only recorded the registration numbers, but see from my logbook that I was co-pilot in 422 in Nov when we flew a Senior Naval Officer from Strubby to Thorney Island. From memory the SNO had an aircraft at Manby, but it was too foggy for Transport Command to take off. The Commandant CAW said 'my lads will do it' and we departed from a very foggy Strubby (we had a Varsity that had diverted there, and initially the weather was not too bad but fogged in as we drove down). The first low viz take off I had been in - I recall breaking fog at around 100 feet. We spent the night at Thorney and flew back the next day. I finished on the Varsity shortly after that, and had the very good fortune to complete AFTS on the Meteor at Strubby because the Gnats were not very servicable at the time. I much enjoyed the 'super pig' and was fortunate to be reunited with it again at Farnborough in the 80s were I flew quite a few test sorties on WL679. Delighted to see it stilll exists.

[red 5]

I seem to remember when my Father got posted to Wyton in 1976 that there used to be a Varsity parked just in front of the control tower that used to fly occasionally. I seem to remember it being there for a few years, just wondered if anyone can remember what it was used for and was it the last one flying in Air Force service.

[T-21]

I have WJ916 with the EWE & TU(Electronic Warfare Establishment & Training Unit ?)Wyton ,made its last flight from Wyton to Lyneham dump 28/2/77. WF424, CFS/17 ended up on the dump at Wyton around 1976.