Vulcan tried to escape from Wellesbourne, 16th Sept 2022
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Be interesting to see their risk assessment (if it exists) on doing a fast taxi towards a main road and a pole which says "Gas Main" on it, with a non-airworthy aircraft. What could possibly go wrong?
While the Vulcan may not be air-worthy or covered by any CAA regs, the aerodrome itself is and is licenced and thus must ensure that all activities on the licenced area, whether air-worthy or not, are safe and reduce the risk to members of the public to ALARP.
While the Vulcan may not be air-worthy or covered by any CAA regs, the aerodrome itself is and is licenced and thus must ensure that all activities on the licenced area, whether air-worthy or not, are safe and reduce the risk to members of the public to ALARP.
Basic maths-Equations of Motion(s,u,v,a,t) should have been used in pre-planning,instead of reliance on the ASI.Most mobile phones will give a good Groundspeed read-out,and a stopwatch for timing,Markers along the edge of the runway for distance to `stop`...Going for a practice `blast`,after low speed steering and braking check seems a little `enthusiastic`....
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The BBC has a couple of photos: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-...shire-62930756
The gear doesn't appear to have suffered a lot, but that's speculation of course.
The gear doesn't appear to have suffered a lot, but that's speculation of course.
Let's hope they - or their lawyers - don't read PPRuNe.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the CAA have no jurisdiction or interest and the AAIB would probably decline to offer any input, even on a consultancy basis. Whether any investigation could lead to a prosecution is anyone's guess, it gets a bit complicated when both volunteers and employees are involved.
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YS
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I can't help thinking that throwing 170,000lbs of 4-engine Bomber down a runway at a CAA licensed aerodrome, ultimately resulting in a near miss with a public highway is going to make somebody curious from a regulatory and safety viewpoint. "The ASI wasn't working for 2 seconds" does not suggest an obvious multi-layered approach to risk assessment.
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The fact it wasn’t ‘airworthy’ will mitigate some issues, obviously at an unlicensed aerodrome or non aviation site it’d purely be an HSE issue incident. The fact Wellesborne is licensed will probably attract aviation regulatory interest, and perhaps consideration of appropriate RFFS category. It’s currently A1 + A2 on request, that’s assuming there’s no additional cover deployed when these tests/demonstrations take place.
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This has obviously attracted a lot of attention elsewhere ...some reports saying this was going to be the last fast taxy run for example, others saying the last one was five years ago, so presumably they've been doing regular anti-det runs in the interim...along with speculation this will be the end of such runs and a significant hike in insurance for types that can still be ground run.
There again, the Vulcan has always had an all terrain capability....three managed to land on Halton's grass runway after all.
Possibly it got a bit fed up looking at the same view day after day and decided it wanted a look down Tiddington Road....which is one of the more expensive in the UK.
There again, the Vulcan has always had an all terrain capability....three managed to land on Halton's grass runway after all.
Possibly it got a bit fed up looking at the same view day after day and decided it wanted a look down Tiddington Road....which is one of the more expensive in the UK.
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This has obviously attracted a lot of attention elsewhere ...some reports saying this was going to be the last fast taxy run for example, others saying the last one was five years ago, so presumably they've been doing regular anti-det runs in the interim...along with speculation this will be the end of such runs and a significant hike in insurance for types that can still be ground run.
There again, the Vulcan has always had an all terrain capability....three managed to land on Halton's grass runway after all.
Possibly it got a bit fed up looking at the same view day after day and decided it wanted a look down Tiddington Road....which is one of the more expensive in the UK.
There again, the Vulcan has always had an all terrain capability....three managed to land on Halton's grass runway after all.
Possibly it got a bit fed up looking at the same view day after day and decided it wanted a look down Tiddington Road....which is one of the more expensive in the UK.
Judging from the images, the Wellesbourne Vulcan tried to get away but was reined in before it jumped the boundary fence. I hope everyone is safe and sound. I'm sure the airframe will find its way back onto terra firma soon.


Images courtesy of cg_341 at this UKAR thread.


Images courtesy of cg_341 at this UKAR thread.
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What sort of anti-skid system does the Vulcan have?
If it is MaxArret type, I would have expected to see some rubber on the runway as the brakes locked and then released, assuming someone had there toes firmly on the pedals.
If it is MaxArret type, I would have expected to see some rubber on the runway as the brakes locked and then released, assuming someone had there toes firmly on the pedals.
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Be interesting to see their risk assessment (if it exists) on doing a fast taxi towards a main road and a pole which says "Gas Main" on it, with a non-airworthy aircraft. What could possibly go wrong?
While the Vulcan may not be air-worthy or covered by any CAA regs, the aerodrome itself is and is licenced and thus must ensure that all activities on the licenced area, whether air-worthy or not, are safe and reduce the risk to members of the public to ALARP.
While the Vulcan may not be air-worthy or covered by any CAA regs, the aerodrome itself is and is licenced and thus must ensure that all activities on the licenced area, whether air-worthy or not, are safe and reduce the risk to members of the public to ALARP.
Amazing to see the boring "health and safties" wade in as usual. GET A LIFE!!
These type of operations have been under the radar for a while (perhaps excepting the Bruntingthorpe Victor) They will only remain so if they are performed sensibly and H and S professionals aren't given a reason to investigate.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
Fair enough if they were playing with their own toys in private. However, this came very close to being an event where it went through the hedge and hit passing traffic, at which point we would be into a Shoreham Pt 2. If that were to occur then just as we have seen airshows and historic jet operations hughly affected then similar taxi runs would be closely controlled or scrapped even if they were sensibly undertaken.
These type of operations have been under the radar for a while (perhaps excepting the Bruntingthorpe Victor) They will only remain so if they are performed sensibly and H and S professionals aren't given a reason to investigate.
These type of operations have been under the radar for a while (perhaps excepting the Bruntingthorpe Victor) They will only remain so if they are performed sensibly and H and S professionals aren't given a reason to investigate.