I saw the Vulcan flown into Catterick. They closed the A1, lightened the old thing as much as possible, and it had enough fuel to do 2 approaches and get back to Leeming. The chute was streamed over the raod and we lost her in a cloud of tyres/brakes/runway smoke. Despite the place being tight for gliders she was hauled to a stop before she got an early bath in the River Wharfe. .:eek:

Then they threw her on the crash dump:ugh:

No runway smoke. Not on a grass strip. Dust and grass maybe. I think the strip was about 4 500 feet and it was technically feasible to takeoff on as the takeoff run was about 4200 feet. Landing minimum was under 6 000 feet although 6 was the operating rule with a mandatory brakechute stream.

Mandatory that is unless there was a crosswind that prevented a stream. It was extraordinary but we never had in-limits crosswind landings on a 6 000 foot runway on a landaway. Can't think why.

Mind you the skipper streamed on the 11 000 foot strip at Goose and we couldn't understand that either. Especially as the whole ish dumped, in its valise, as soon as the drogue pulled the bag out of the stowage.

Pont N

Methinks I was not making myself clear. Catterick had, still HAS, a tarmac/concrete runway. It's still there but the Army are building all over it. The gliders winch off the parallel grass strip.

GF, I bow to your better knowledge. Although I had the priviledge of doing a one week course at Catterick, squeezed in to 4 weeks, including time on the airfield, I obviously missed that stretch of tarmac.

The 'smoke' you saw was probably dust. I was scheduled to deliver the ac, but subsequently it was decided that a trapper would do the job because of the short runway. Never mind that we had practiced back at Scampton and could stop well within the distance [can't remember the figures].

It was agreed that we would shut down on the runway and the ac towed to the dump - the taxyways were very narrow and in poor condition. Anyway, said trapper was smarter that everybody else and decided to taxy it round. It took the annoyed staff at Catterick a long time to dig the bogie out of the grass, where he put it as he turned off the runway. Pratt.

Was that the GSU person with the French-sounding name?

(Edited to add: I don't mean dear old Joe L'Estrange!)

Vulcan XH 558 Threads (merged)
 

I have a quick question...

Will 558 ever get finished and back in the air? All it seems to do is miss every deadline by miles and the next one set months away, by an even greater margin.

Is there any hope?

I support the charity but am geting a little fed up with keep hearing excuses and not the mighty birds engines spooling up for flight.


Any realistic update anyone??

As much as I would love to respond to this thread in great detail... :rolleyes:

May I suggest you visit http://www.tvoc.co.uk and do a spot of digging for yourself?

You should find the answers to most of your questions there, from people who do actually have an idea as to what is going on with XH558.


Flipflopman

Lets just say that I'm quite confident about not having to buy any roses until Valentine's Day...;)

Go Here and you can watch it being worked on.

http://www.camvista.com/england/othe...tothesky01.php

Could be cold, wet and windy rather than just wet and windy.

Hope it is earlier or pray for fine weather.

The problem is that there are too many so-called 'experts' who front up this project, who frankly know diddly squat! I was told personally by 'Rusty' that the aircraft would definately be at Waddo, although she did say it wouldn't display, just static. She also categorically told me that it would fly and display at RIAT, guaranteed. Well guess what?

Of course neither happened, and you end up with further frustration at a team that appears to be ruderless and makes promises they cannot keep. The result is a public that is once again rapidly running out of patience.

At RIAT I asked the 'official' Vulcan stall if they had any memorabilia to purchase and was told that they only had some damaged compressor blades at some ridiculous amount of money. But i could make a donation please! Yeh, right.

I'm afraid that all you get is this never-ending plea for more money, promises that never materialise and a total lack of credibility from an organisation that should and could do so much better.

Robert Plemming never responds to posts on here, in fact he has never responded to one of the letters I have written to him and I know many others
have also written to him with no responce. But unless something happens fairly soon, the project will again come under threat and perhaps fold. Its time for them to stop poncing around and showing off in their 'freebie' 4x4's and get something done, that the puiblic can see.

With only one 'major' type airshow left in the UK this year, it looks highly unlikely that the public will see the old girl fly this year, or maybe not any year, who knows?

Kind regards
TSM

...and there I was the other day wondering if Tombstone was practising his Salsa and getting various (previously unseen in public) bits waxed and touched up? :cool:

There are so many variables, that if, for example, the delay with the PFCU motors, that it is nigh on impossible to pin down an EXACT flight date. There are so many things to go wrong and they are at the mercy of so many suppliers/OEM's that no one can say for sure when she'll fly. :ugh:

As Flip Flop Man said, go to the website forums, ask the question, and an engineer will give you the answer. Quite simple really... :}

Don't worry, Tombstone - Primetime Joanna will supply both camera crew and rose......

Part 2 of her Vulcan to the Sky trilogy (yes, I know) is now out - a very good DVD indeed - you can see a preview on the www.tvoc.co.uk website. Please buy one and support the project - part 3 should be out in August, with luck. And a 4 part boxed set later in the year.

And VIP tickets have now been won (not by me :sad:) to view the first flight.

Expect to hear the purr of 4 x Olympussies very soon now!

I'm hoping that I will have to make an arse of myself as I really want to see the lady fly however, I don't think I will anytime soon...:{

The season will be well and truly over long before they are ready to launch, according to my well placed contact. Shame.

Tombstone, as for iank's post, fair turned my stomach.

Apart from FlipFlopMan we never get any sense from this outfit. Let me guess just how long they've known that re-certified PFCUs were a 'rather important' ingredient. :mad:

Anyway, is it the PFCU's or the PFCU motors? If it's the motors just how long does it take to re-cert an electric motor?

...and there I was the other day wondering if Tombstone was practising his Salsa and getting various (previously unseen in public) bits waxed and touched up?

WAX! Who mentioned wax?!? Rose thorns yes, wax no. That would simply be :mad: wrong, wrecking any (hmmm) street cred I'd have left after producing said rose and going hands free...

Touched up... Well, if there are any pretty ladies out there who are willing...:ok:

One of the things I learned very, very quickly as a techie was to avoid giving an estimate of how long as job was going to take at all costs, because someone, somewhere would treat your word as a cast iron guarantee of job completion :* Aircraft maintenance is not always an exact science, and with the number of systems that this aircraft has, and their age and complexity, the team must have been faced with a daunting task in restoring her to flying condition.
In her day this old lady would have been maintained by a mass of experienced techies with spares on demand, full sets of APs, manufacturer support, and of course she wouldn't have been laid up for years doing nothing, gathering dust, moisture and corrosion in her vital parts. The team are having to re-learn old systems and also train up people who have never seen a Vulcan fly in their lives. I am actually amazed that they've got this close, and always thought that the estimate for flying her this year was optimistic, especially when I saw the state she was in last year. Missed deadlines are part and parcel of the job of getting her up again, keep the faith as I'm sure they'll do it.