XH558 meets XM655 at Wellesbourne today

[BEagle]

Good to hear that the Vulcan costs nothing and what's a Victor ?

Is that the best you can come up with, c130jbloke?

How about:

"I apologise without reservation to the Vulcan to the Sky Trust and its loyal contributors for their work in restoring XH558 to flying condition and to the 655 Military Aircraft Preservation Society for its work in maintaining XM655 in taxying condition".

And as for

and what's a Victor

is that a puerile attempt at humour, or yet another display of your total ignorance. Have you never heard of the Falklands War?

The Lancaster did not take part in the Battle of Britain, neither did the Dakota. However, both were an integral part of the victory achieved against the Nazis in World War 2. I presume you might have heard of that?

I suggest you back your JCB out of the hole you've dug for yourself and wise up to the fact that cutting RAFAT and/or the BBMF wouldn't add one penny to any other area of the RAF.

[Double Zero]

C130Jbloke,

I have every respect for your namesake aircraft, and can't help thinking we ( U.K. ) would be a lot better off with more of those and C-17's, than trying to be political with the A400M; if it's not too late, that among other huge projects is where to save money...

However I take issue with your comments re. the BBMF and Reds; the latter being great ' salesmen ' for U.K.Ltd; if the U.S. can afford the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels, we can damn well afford a bunch of Hawks - and as for the BBMF, I think the phrase is something like " He who would see what will be, must first see what has gone before ".

DZ

[Tankertrashnav]

and what's a Victor ?

C130jbloke

Whats a Victor? WHAT'S A VICTOR? !!!!!!!!!!

I refer of course to the most sublimely elegant aircraft ever to emerge from Fred's Shed. The fastest, most beautiful, biggest bomb load carrier of the V Bombers, beside which the Valiant looked like a pregnant guppy and the tin triangle looked like - well, a tin triangle. A 1955 Victor B1 in anti-flash white before they started sticking all the bits and bobs on still looks like something from the future. Still I suppose if you spend your life around airborne American trucks it's bound to affect your taste.

What's a Victor indeed!

Seriously, I love it when someone sticks their head above the parapet - certainly livens things up

[The late XV105]

Three final Wellesbourne photos to post:


Photographer credit for the next two photos is to my mother who together with my father was as pleased to be there as I was; ex of Coningsby when I was still in nappies and with plenty of Vulcan related stories to recall, some entertaining and some very poignant.

[Dengue_Dude]

Get a life guys . . .

C130JBloke is as entitled to his views as anyone else, even if you don't agree.

If we all agree all the time, we'll be swimming in a world of bland in no time flat.

[davejb]

...and everybody is entitled to come on here and have a pop back at him, or doesn't democracy work in both directions?

[BlackadderIA]

We all feel the benefit when we get rid of something major - remember all that extra cash that was suddenly floating around when we chopped the Jag fleet. Heady days indeed

[Ramshornvortex]

Now I know that there is, and never will be any intention of flying this aircraft, but the suggestion was that it was in remarkably good condition - so how airworthy is it?

Well for a start, the CAA would require that we had a supply of zero-houred and bagged Bristol Olympus 301s, as our four have been installed since before 1984. Unless anyone out there knows any different, there are none in the world, and the money that RR would want to set about manufacturing new ones for us would probably keep the BBMF and RAFAT flying for years!

As Metman mentioned, '655 has been out in the open for 25 years, longer than her 20 years service life - the inspection and rectification costs would make the £7.5m spent on '558 pale into insignificance!

some of the locals who witnessed the landing believe that there would be no way the aircraft would have been able to fly out as the runway was too short or the departure would be unsuitable

Joe L'Estrange landed '655 in about half the length of the 3000' runway. With minimum fuel and 103% on those 301s, she would get off if she had to!

Now back to the bickering.......

[c130jbloke]

or yet another display of your total ignorance

Coming from you Beags I could almost take that as a compliment. Tell you what, I will apologise if you do too for all the pompous drivel you have laid down on this forum (15 000 + think about it ).

OO - Take issue all you want fella. My point is that with both the Reds and BBMF they need to deliver bang for their bucks.

C130JB

PS: While we are at it, chop the Falcons too.

[BEagle]

You can be as rude to me as the moderators will allow, c130jbloke, but at least have the grace to apologise to VTST and 655MaPS for your ignorant comments.

[c130jbloke]

Try reading the post again Beags

If you think that the above counts as rudeness then you REALLY need to get out more - but as I said, 15 000+.....

My offer stands, I will if you will.

[hurn]

For what its worth, I'm quite happy for some of my taxes to go on paying for the BBMF and Reds.

MPs' expenses however........

[ZH875]

Originally Posted by Ramshornvortex

Joe L'Estrange landed '655 in about half the length of the 3000' runway.

But he had the advantage of minimum fuel from Waddington, and use of the Drag-Bag on landing.

XM655 taxiing after landing at Wellesborne Mountford in 1984

[Ramshornvortex]

Great photo ZH875! Have you got any more of that day in February 1984? We have very little at Wellesbourne and only poor quality much copied video.

[ZH875]

11 Feb 1984

The quality of pictures aren't brilliant, but just like the Vulcan, if not taken care of they lose something.

1. Arrival fly-by

2. Taxy

3. Crew Exit

4. Landing

5. Drag-Bag jettison

6. Taxy

7. Landing run

8. Down for the final time

9. Arrival overflight

10. Approaching stop area

[Ramshornvortex]

Fantastic ZH875 - a lovely bit of nostalgia

On the surface at least, she looks better now than she did 25 years ago - and the engines don't smoke any more now than they used to either!

[BEagle]

Ramshornvortex, how did the engine checks go?

[Ramshornvortex]

how did the engine checks go?

As usual, they're faultless......Sooty655 sees to that, although DT did use rather a lot of fuel though

All we have to hope now is that the Fun Police will acknowledge that we know what we're doing - we always put safety first anyway.....

[SENTENEL]

value for money

c130jbloke...

dont the reds do that? Help BAE systems sales etc, which raises taxes, which pays for them? i bet they get lots of help from BAE etc

BBMF - value for money.. lets just shut every english heritage place? they are just as much a waste of cash! (not my opinion)

what if someone said well lets scrap the c130s and use comercial carriers better value for money?

[Tankertrashnav]

Victor short field landing

Talking of taking V's into short fields there is a good account of Tony Cunnane taking a Victor K1 into Catterick (3,300 feet) here Final flight - XA939 It was being delivered to the RAF fire school there. No photos, which is pity, unless there are some unpublished ones out there. I had flown into Catterick in an Anson and a Varsity, but would have loved to gone along for the ride in 939 which was a 214 aircraft I had flown in many times. I did ask, but Tony was keeping the weight down (and I wasnt the slimmest nav radar on the base!) so he turned me down .