How Fast Can You Get Airborne?
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Vage Rot
SAR deployed to Prestwick because of winds at ISK. Crew check in to *** hotel, kit in rooms - WHY? and then to dinner. Steaks all round Liz paying.
SCRAMBLE.
Harry Nockolds legs it into the kitchen, hoovers up a dozen steaks and away the heros go. Hours later they land back at ISK leaving the Navy pay for the steaks and recover the luggage.
I don't recall if there was a bill for the steaks as they were only away from base a couple of hours or so - 9 hours on flight rations excepted.
SAR deployed to Prestwick because of winds at ISK. Crew check in to *** hotel, kit in rooms - WHY? and then to dinner. Steaks all round Liz paying.
SCRAMBLE.
Harry Nockolds legs it into the kitchen, hoovers up a dozen steaks and away the heros go. Hours later they land back at ISK leaving the Navy pay for the steaks and recover the luggage.
I don't recall if there was a bill for the steaks as they were only away from base a couple of hours or so - 9 hours on flight rations excepted.
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Quick starts
Tac Weapons Unit, Chivenor, 1984: from 63 Sqn Ops room (not expecting to fly, but then told either spare ac or stude U/S, can't remember which) to first 30mm round down Pembrey range - 17 minutes.
Several years later (and slightly off-topic), lunch-critical at Moncton, Canada (on the Herc OCU) witnessed very impressive demo by senior instructor in how to fly ILS at 180kt with gear up and not a lot of flap in sh*tty weather to make touchdown time as required to claim said allowance. Subsequently used the technique myself at various civvy airports. Thanks, mate!
Devised devilishly cunning plan (although I'm damned if I can remember it now) during Op Granby for very rapid start of no 2 engine (for utility hydraulics - brakes, nosewheel steering and stuff) followed by tac start of 1, 3 and 4 as we taxied (Eng either steering or pressing start buttons - anyone who knows Albert will know that you'd have to be an octopus to do both!) then leaving The Magic Kingdom by the shortest route allowed by that other Magic at Not A Lot agl.
Practised it many times, but always managed not to be in the same space/time continuum as the Scuds, so always got to the far holding point with all checks caught up and complete, actually.
Nonetheless, reckon we could have got safely airborne off the long taxiway - downwind if necessary - in 2-3 minutes.
As long as you didn't want to use the tyres again.
Gadget
Several years later (and slightly off-topic), lunch-critical at Moncton, Canada (on the Herc OCU) witnessed very impressive demo by senior instructor in how to fly ILS at 180kt with gear up and not a lot of flap in sh*tty weather to make touchdown time as required to claim said allowance. Subsequently used the technique myself at various civvy airports. Thanks, mate!
Devised devilishly cunning plan (although I'm damned if I can remember it now) during Op Granby for very rapid start of no 2 engine (for utility hydraulics - brakes, nosewheel steering and stuff) followed by tac start of 1, 3 and 4 as we taxied (Eng either steering or pressing start buttons - anyone who knows Albert will know that you'd have to be an octopus to do both!) then leaving The Magic Kingdom by the shortest route allowed by that other Magic at Not A Lot agl.
Practised it many times, but always managed not to be in the same space/time continuum as the Scuds, so always got to the far holding point with all checks caught up and complete, actually.
Nonetheless, reckon we could have got safely airborne off the long taxiway - downwind if necessary - in 2-3 minutes.
As long as you didn't want to use the tyres again.
Gadget
Avoid imitations
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Ops room to airborne 43 seconds. Twin engine, 3 pob.
Not my timing.
Bertie, we all know that you took the brakes off at 4,999 feet
Not my timing.
Bertie, we all know that you took the brakes off at 4,999 feet
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&47-400 to V1
To get a 747-400 in the air takes 2 cups of tea and a tray of sarnies.
Blocks off at Kai Tak to blocks on in CKS Taipei in 1Hr 03 mins[about 500nms]. I believe that a tri- motor did it in 1 hour, but not substantiated.
Blocks off at Kai Tak to blocks on in CKS Taipei in 1Hr 03 mins[about 500nms]. I believe that a tri- motor did it in 1 hour, but not substantiated.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Micky Finn at Waddington in about 1968. Nav Radar in the bomb-bay checking the training nuke before the crew took over the weapons system.
Engines start to spool up. You should hear the racket in the bombbay was the trubines start to spin up and then it just gets noisy.
About 30 minutes after the scramble order we are still wondering why this crew has not checked in. I took a waggon to find out - GONE.
They had scrambled before declaration and ATC had not seen them go. They were keen to get to Manston and the country club. Only crew that ALWAYS reported for a no-notice callout with their DJs.
They would have been the most sartorial POWs if it had happened.
Engines start to spool up. You should hear the racket in the bombbay was the trubines start to spin up and then it just gets noisy.
About 30 minutes after the scramble order we are still wondering why this crew has not checked in. I took a waggon to find out - GONE.
They had scrambled before declaration and ATC had not seen them go. They were keen to get to Manston and the country club. Only crew that ALWAYS reported for a no-notice callout with their DJs.
They would have been the most sartorial POWs if it had happened.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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Sqn Ldr Tom Lecky-Thompson April 1969
From the top of the GPO Tower to being plugged into a Victor approaching the Boscombe overhead took exactly 10 mins and that was via St Pancras and not an airfield.
He lifted off in his GR1 6min and 50 secs after departing the top of the tower.
(That 6 min 50 was spent coming down the tower, running to a Wessex, flying to St Pancras, running from Wessex for 9 secs to get to the Harrier, 46 secs to strap in and another 40 secs for the engine to run up and complete the two compulsory accel checks before lift off)
Tom won the westbound race from the top of the GPO Tower to the top of the Empire State Building after a VL in New York (by the UN building) in a total time of 6hr 11min 57 sec.
Edited due to poor memory...
From the top of the GPO Tower to being plugged into a Victor approaching the Boscombe overhead took exactly 10 mins and that was via St Pancras and not an airfield.
He lifted off in his GR1 6min and 50 secs after departing the top of the tower.
(That 6 min 50 was spent coming down the tower, running to a Wessex, flying to St Pancras, running from Wessex for 9 secs to get to the Harrier, 46 secs to strap in and another 40 secs for the engine to run up and complete the two compulsory accel checks before lift off)
Tom won the westbound race from the top of the GPO Tower to the top of the Empire State Building after a VL in New York (by the UN building) in a total time of 6hr 11min 57 sec.
Edited due to poor memory...
Last edited by John Farley; 3rd May 2004 at 22:13.
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Remember watching that on telly, John. It was a bloody fantastic achievement, even if it was totally pointless! Shame there aren't many opportunities for otherwise-futile, pride-engendering exercises these days.
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Talking of futile gestures does anybody know who holds the London to Edinburgh speed record for aircraft? Seem to remember a 74(F) Sqn F4 team taking it in the mid to late 80s but can't believe their record still stands.
Do a Hover - it avoids G
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Scroggs
Not entirely sure about it being pointless. The aeroplane had just got a CA release. The RAF HCT had not started to fly it (Tom was at Boscombe at the time) and the world did not really know that the Harrier had happened. We were keen to demonstrate the breakthrough in operating site flexibility (which no other jet aeroplane has actually matched since that date) and other things like it was cleared to tank and that at last the RAF had an INAS equipped aircraft.
Tom was telling the Victor where it was all across the pond – and they actually did not like the fact that this little aeroplane (with its one little pilot – sorry Tom) could know so much!
The race also left us with a pair of aeroplanes in the US afterwards (Tom’s and a spare that Andy Jones flew out for the Eastbound race that Graham Williams flew having positioned his own aeroplane earlier). Tom and I went on a demo tour in the US with these two and I actually operated from USS La Salle at Navy Norfolk - my first ever ship operation (although we did not mention that until the job was done….) I was personally ordered not to do the La Salle sortie by a Hawker director plus Bill Bedford who were both out there observing. When I asked them why they said "In case it does not start" (I intended to shut down and add stores on La Salle to show the Harrier needed no yellow gear to fly from ships) I suggested to them that if they were not confident enough of their product to allow such normal ops then they did not ought to be flogging it. Needless to say I got in the aeroplane and did it because I believed in the little green jet and some RAF VC10 ground crew from Washington (bless em) entered into the spirit of things and stuck on some empty tanks and rocket pods on La Salle. This was not the only sod ‘em thing that produced the equivalent of a civilian court martial after the event but they never did sack me. But then the US did order it two years later.
Ooooops sorry about the off topic rant
Not entirely sure about it being pointless. The aeroplane had just got a CA release. The RAF HCT had not started to fly it (Tom was at Boscombe at the time) and the world did not really know that the Harrier had happened. We were keen to demonstrate the breakthrough in operating site flexibility (which no other jet aeroplane has actually matched since that date) and other things like it was cleared to tank and that at last the RAF had an INAS equipped aircraft.
Tom was telling the Victor where it was all across the pond – and they actually did not like the fact that this little aeroplane (with its one little pilot – sorry Tom) could know so much!
The race also left us with a pair of aeroplanes in the US afterwards (Tom’s and a spare that Andy Jones flew out for the Eastbound race that Graham Williams flew having positioned his own aeroplane earlier). Tom and I went on a demo tour in the US with these two and I actually operated from USS La Salle at Navy Norfolk - my first ever ship operation (although we did not mention that until the job was done….) I was personally ordered not to do the La Salle sortie by a Hawker director plus Bill Bedford who were both out there observing. When I asked them why they said "In case it does not start" (I intended to shut down and add stores on La Salle to show the Harrier needed no yellow gear to fly from ships) I suggested to them that if they were not confident enough of their product to allow such normal ops then they did not ought to be flogging it. Needless to say I got in the aeroplane and did it because I believed in the little green jet and some RAF VC10 ground crew from Washington (bless em) entered into the spirit of things and stuck on some empty tanks and rocket pods on La Salle. This was not the only sod ‘em thing that produced the equivalent of a civilian court martial after the event but they never did sack me. But then the US did order it two years later.
Ooooops sorry about the off topic rant
