sad looking VC10
Ich bin ein Prooner.
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Herod,
I have come to realise the error of my post, and duly stand corrected. I realised that when I saw the trailer again last night.
Thank you.
N.Z.
I have come to realise the error of my post, and duly stand corrected. I realised that when I saw the trailer again last night.
Thank you.
N.Z.
KelvinD
When I was on 99 Sqn Britannias we did Khormaksar - El Adem in around 6hrs 30mins and El Adem - Lyneham in around 5hrs 30mins, so not sure which route you flew if it took 20hrs.
Britannia in CASEVAC role
we had to endure 20 hours from Aden to Lyneham!
Britannia in CASEVAC role
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Warmtoast: Now that would have been a nice route! When I travelled (October 1967), we had upset the Arab states, with allegations the RAF had bombed Cairo during the 6 day war a couple of months earlier. This resulted in the RAF being banned from overflying Arab states so our track went:
Aden sort of easterly toward Oman, left turn up the Gulf to Bahrain
When we arrived in Bahrain, I remember thinking "how are they going to deal with this now we have Arab countries all around us?" We left Bahrain and crossed the Gulf, headed toward Iran in a generally northerly direction.
From Iran, we avoided Turkey and flew over Armenia and Georgia. Bearing in mind this was the height of the Cold War, that surprised me. The Captain very helpfully sent a chart for us to see. The chart was covered in a heavy polythene and the route was marked with a good old chinagraph and he had highlighted the 2 Soviet territories.
We skirted Turkey until we hit the Black Sea and swung around in a big curve, flying over (I think) Bulgaria and Greece and headed for Cyprus.
From Cyprus, we flew to Malta and finally to Lyneham.
The in flight catering consisted of thin cheese sandwiches and lemon squash on every sector. Departing Aden, the crew apologised for the catering and said we would get a hot meal in Bahrain. We got coffee" Departing Bahrain, more cheese sandwiches and another apology with a promise of a hot meal at Akrotiri. At Akrotiri, we got coffee and Keo brandy which we bought ourselves.
Departing Akrotiri, guess what; more apologies and a promise of a hot meal at Luqa. We picked up a few forces families in Malta (a couple of wives and kids) and set off for Lyneham.
As we were about to cross the Channel, the crew came round with a hot English breakfast along with customs and immigration forms. Lovely breakfast but a bugger to eat while filling in the forms and watching the UK coast getting ever closer!
The flight made it into the news the day after we arrived. When the aircraft parked, the ground people placed a big wooden ramp alongside the aircraft and an ambulance began backing up toward the ramp. Along came HM Customs and shooed the ambulance away. According to some of the casualties the Customs people boarded and went through the CASEVAC section like a dose of salts. One told me later that they used thin dowels to poke into bandages and casts to check if anything was hidden there! We walking passengers were given a real 3rd degree in the terminal and everybody paid customs duty on every bloody item. My return was 4 days short of a year since departure and I had bought a new watch while away and despite it being very close to a year (that was the threshold for duty payable), I was hit with the full import duty. Someone (whether passenger or crew, I don't know) told the newspapers. I heard later that HM Customs didn't attend inbound CASEVAC flights over the following days.
So, quite a trip! One abiding memory I have was during the flight over Iran, I noticed a large ring bolt in the bulkhead/deckhead and during this part of the journey I watched the amount of frost and ice that grew on this bolt. I presumed this bolt must have been through the fuselage and it was extremely cold outside!
Thanks for the photo. In all those 20 hours, I never did get to see that part of the aircraft.
Aah! Looking closely at your photo, I can see the ring bolts, holding the vertical supports for the stretchers. We were curtained off in the front. The first time I ever sat in seat 1A!
Aden sort of easterly toward Oman, left turn up the Gulf to Bahrain
When we arrived in Bahrain, I remember thinking "how are they going to deal with this now we have Arab countries all around us?" We left Bahrain and crossed the Gulf, headed toward Iran in a generally northerly direction.
From Iran, we avoided Turkey and flew over Armenia and Georgia. Bearing in mind this was the height of the Cold War, that surprised me. The Captain very helpfully sent a chart for us to see. The chart was covered in a heavy polythene and the route was marked with a good old chinagraph and he had highlighted the 2 Soviet territories.
We skirted Turkey until we hit the Black Sea and swung around in a big curve, flying over (I think) Bulgaria and Greece and headed for Cyprus.
From Cyprus, we flew to Malta and finally to Lyneham.
The in flight catering consisted of thin cheese sandwiches and lemon squash on every sector. Departing Aden, the crew apologised for the catering and said we would get a hot meal in Bahrain. We got coffee" Departing Bahrain, more cheese sandwiches and another apology with a promise of a hot meal at Akrotiri. At Akrotiri, we got coffee and Keo brandy which we bought ourselves.
Departing Akrotiri, guess what; more apologies and a promise of a hot meal at Luqa. We picked up a few forces families in Malta (a couple of wives and kids) and set off for Lyneham.
As we were about to cross the Channel, the crew came round with a hot English breakfast along with customs and immigration forms. Lovely breakfast but a bugger to eat while filling in the forms and watching the UK coast getting ever closer!
The flight made it into the news the day after we arrived. When the aircraft parked, the ground people placed a big wooden ramp alongside the aircraft and an ambulance began backing up toward the ramp. Along came HM Customs and shooed the ambulance away. According to some of the casualties the Customs people boarded and went through the CASEVAC section like a dose of salts. One told me later that they used thin dowels to poke into bandages and casts to check if anything was hidden there! We walking passengers were given a real 3rd degree in the terminal and everybody paid customs duty on every bloody item. My return was 4 days short of a year since departure and I had bought a new watch while away and despite it being very close to a year (that was the threshold for duty payable), I was hit with the full import duty. Someone (whether passenger or crew, I don't know) told the newspapers. I heard later that HM Customs didn't attend inbound CASEVAC flights over the following days.
So, quite a trip! One abiding memory I have was during the flight over Iran, I noticed a large ring bolt in the bulkhead/deckhead and during this part of the journey I watched the amount of frost and ice that grew on this bolt. I presumed this bolt must have been through the fuselage and it was extremely cold outside!
Thanks for the photo. In all those 20 hours, I never did get to see that part of the aircraft.
Aah! Looking closely at your photo, I can see the ring bolts, holding the vertical supports for the stretchers. We were curtained off in the front. The first time I ever sat in seat 1A!
KelvinD
There was a particularly nasty customs man at Lyneham at that time, can't remember his name, who was even worse after his beloved Swindon Town had lost - so most of the time!
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Yep, remember him well, but not his name. There was one case where a crewmember has a demijohn of wine from Cyprus, and was going to be charged some ridiculous amount. He proceeded to pour it onto the floor, at which point said personage stated that since the floor was UK territory, duty was still payable.
Lots of chat about this on the RAF Khormaksar thread on Military Aircrew. The first VC10 I ever saw was a BUA one at Khormaksar in 1966, when they had the trooping contract and I was so impressed. Like KelvinD I flew out and back on Britannias, but RAF, not British Eagle. I did fly out to Singapore on a British Eagle Brit the following year. Heathrow - Kuwait- Colombo - Paya Lebar - 24 hours which was long enough for me, so I sympathise with Ian16th who had to endure the Hastings!
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Lots of chat about this on the RAF Khormaksar thread on Military Aircrew. The first VC10 I ever saw was a BUA one at Khormaksar in 1966, when they had the trooping contract and I was so impressed. Like KelvinD I flew out and back on Britannias, but RAF, not British Eagle. I did fly out to Singapore on a British Eagle Brit the following year. Heathrow - Kuwait- Colombo - Paya Lebar - 24 hours which was long enough for me, so I sympathise with Ian16th who had to endure the Hastings!
See the following link.
Vickers VC10 Srs1101 - BOAC | Aviation Photo #1244563 | Airliners.net
Last edited by MReyn24050; 4th Oct 2017 at 12:30.
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KelvinD: That route over Iran and Turkey to/from Cyprus was known to those of us in the trade as the CENTO route. And it was in regular use from at least February 1967, before the 6-Day War - with a falling out with Egypt over issues in South Yemen the more probable cause for its adoption.
All the sonar anti-submarine gear was stripped out from the Wessex and they operated in the troop transport role flying from Thurmier Airstrip in the Radfan Mountains. The Wessex shown in the accompanying photo whilst operating in the Radfan - XM873 - crashed at Wadi Misrah in June 1964 during a landing at 5000ft elevation in the mountains, rolled over 5 times and fell 150ft into a gully, sadly with the death of one of the troops.
Note the harp on the side of the helicopter - at that time we were 'sponsored' by Guinness!
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ICM: Thanks for that. It was the Captain who told us it was due to the 6 day war that we were persona non-grata. If it had been Egypt only, we could have made it over Saudi Arabia, Jordan etc. It was interesting to see that route was already in use. I am still amazed we had the USSR being so friendly, while we had to make a huge circle to avoid Turkey, supposedly our CENTO mates.
BOAC Standard VC10 G-ARVL a shuttle from Khartoum - Aden - Khartoum on 28 April 1967.
The whole trip had been London - Tripoli - Khartoum on the night of 24/25 April. Then the shuttle to Aden and back on the 28th, followed by the return flight to London via Tripoli on 2 May.
The whole trip had been London - Tripoli - Khartoum on the night of 24/25 April. Then the shuttle to Aden and back on the 28th, followed by the return flight to London via Tripoli on 2 May.
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KelvinD: This is getting rather off the VC 10 topic but my apologies for not reading your original post thoroughly. If you were in a RAF Britannia, then I have difficulty in believing that you flew over Armenia and Georgia, and I suspect that a very thick chinagraph had been used on that Pax Map. Flying from Bahrain or Sharjah, the CENTO route that I mentioned passed over Iran, up into eastern Turkey, and due west over the mountains until it was time to turn southwards for Cyprus. Overflight of Bulgaria would have been out of the question and there was no need for overflight of Greece. The same routing was used in reverse.
The 6-Day War did not help things in the area as rumours started and spread that RAF aircraft had flown from Cyprus in support of Israel. I was with an Argosy crew positioned at Masirah as standby support for a Lightning Trail to the Far East (Op Hydraulic) over those days, and I've often wondered whether the mix of Victor tankers and Lightnings operating through Akrotiri at the time might have helped spark those rumours.
The 6-Day War did not help things in the area as rumours started and spread that RAF aircraft had flown from Cyprus in support of Israel. I was with an Argosy crew positioned at Masirah as standby support for a Lightning Trail to the Far East (Op Hydraulic) over those days, and I've often wondered whether the mix of Victor tankers and Lightnings operating through Akrotiri at the time might have helped spark those rumours.
before the VC-10 actually entered service with BOAC
I am still amazed we had the USSR being so friendly
There was a particularly nasty customs man at Lyneham at that time
we avoided Turkey and flew over Armenia and Georgia
Did you look down on The Caspian coast to see the Ekranoplan - alias Caspian Sea Monster ? The prototype must have been trialling about then.