Far East VC10 run
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Far East VC10 run
Does anyone know which routes were flown outbound / inbound, ie which countries were overflown? I imagine the route may have been less than direct in middle eastern part. I have vague memories of the return flight in 71 and would be interested to know where these places were!
I was only a little lad but the VC when did come to Brunei - memory is not good enough to know if it was a regular service
on one occasion came back on one for the start of boarding school when the BA VC went tech ( which was more often than not )
In my time - I think I only ever flew once on it with a smooth not hassle stops - two flap less landings and one hoax
on one occasion came back on one for the start of boarding school when the BA VC went tech ( which was more often than not )
In my time - I think I only ever flew once on it with a smooth not hassle stops - two flap less landings and one hoax
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VC10
Brize-Akrotiri-Muharraq-Gan-Changi.
Changi-Gan-Muharraq-Akrotiri-Brize.
If the winds were right, sometimes Muharraq would be overflown eastbound, and Akrotiri westbound.
Before Brize was fully opened, the aeroplanes positioned/recovered empty to/from Lyneham.
As far as I am aware, to Akrotiri it was normal airlines routing, something like UK, France, Switzerland (?) Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus.
Can't remember exactly off the top of me 'ead for the rest of it but something like Cyprus Turkey Iran Bahrain Oman Pakistan India Maldives Myanmar Thailand Malasia Singapore. When Confrontation finished Myanmar and Thailand ould have been changed for Indonesia. These are the FIRs that the aeroplane would have, I'm pretty certain, transitted. Probably there will be somone out there who can verify it.
Beautiful aeroplane, in my opinion second, marginally, to the Britannia.
Changi-Gan-Muharraq-Akrotiri-Brize.
If the winds were right, sometimes Muharraq would be overflown eastbound, and Akrotiri westbound.
Before Brize was fully opened, the aeroplanes positioned/recovered empty to/from Lyneham.
As far as I am aware, to Akrotiri it was normal airlines routing, something like UK, France, Switzerland (?) Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus.
Can't remember exactly off the top of me 'ead for the rest of it but something like Cyprus Turkey Iran Bahrain Oman Pakistan India Maldives Myanmar Thailand Malasia Singapore. When Confrontation finished Myanmar and Thailand ould have been changed for Indonesia. These are the FIRs that the aeroplane would have, I'm pretty certain, transitted. Probably there will be somone out there who can verify it.
Beautiful aeroplane, in my opinion second, marginally, to the Britannia.
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Brize - Akrotiri - Gan - Changi - Hong Kong.
I was posted to Australia on exchange, and went to see the lovely lady in MoD movements. I explained to her that I was very recently married, and that my wife's uncle was serving with the Royal Artillery in Hong Kong and had missed our wedding. She gave us tickets to Hong Kong and then on a Qantas 707 to Brisbane. I did not know that the RAF VC 10 would go to Changi first. When I got back to Honington and told the Corporal mover what I had done, he told me that I was way out of order, but it was fait accompli. The reason he was so accommodating might have been related to his jolly to Gib when I was the captain! (Shack, not Buccaneer!)
There followed two idyllic years and 1,000 hours on Neptunes, in tropical North Queensland, with my mother-in-law thousands of miles away! Thank you Desk Officer.
I was posted to Australia on exchange, and went to see the lovely lady in MoD movements. I explained to her that I was very recently married, and that my wife's uncle was serving with the Royal Artillery in Hong Kong and had missed our wedding. She gave us tickets to Hong Kong and then on a Qantas 707 to Brisbane. I did not know that the RAF VC 10 would go to Changi first. When I got back to Honington and told the Corporal mover what I had done, he told me that I was way out of order, but it was fait accompli. The reason he was so accommodating might have been related to his jolly to Gib when I was the captain! (Shack, not Buccaneer!)
There followed two idyllic years and 1,000 hours on Neptunes, in tropical North Queensland, with my mother-in-law thousands of miles away! Thank you Desk Officer.
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Once Gan (73 ish?) closed, the route became Brize Bahrain Colombo Hong Kong. The Brits tended to do the Changi slip (until that closed about the same time) and the VC10 the Hong Kong. By the time I joined 10 Sqn in early 77 the slip was wholly as I describe.
1106
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I also had the privilege of flying to the Far East on a VC10 when I was a child:
May 1968 – Brize-Bahrain-Gan- Changi – Aged 8
July 1971 - Changi-Gan-Cyprus-Brize –Aged 11
Things I like to think I remember:
Trip out:
Being at Brize looking out of a huge window at 100’s of aeroplanes with propellers, and my dad saying we are going in that one – no propellers and it was the biggest plane there.
Getting on board, crying my eyes out, and the air stewardess giving me loads of boiled sweets.
Walking into a massive room in Bahrain, it was absolutely boiling hot and there were “jinglies” (no offence, but cant use the term that my dad and everybody else used in those days) everywhere. I was given an ice-cream that was melting faster than I could eat it. I distinctly remember my dad telling me and my younger brother that he could take on all of the “Jinglies” on and win no problem.
No recollection of Gan
My recollection of Changi was leaving the VC10 and getting into another aircraft with propellers. There were wires hanging from the roof!!! This aircraft was an Andover and we were moving up to Butterworth/Penang.
However, I know this is not quite right because we stayed in Changi for three days. My Dad got drunk and took me and my brother down Boogie street. I do remember being in a taxi and a million kids attacking us. Well that’s what it seemed like to me but apparently they were excited to see two white kids. My mum was not impressed.
Trip back to UK in 71:
Driving in an old RAF van (that looked like a Sherpa - J2 or something?) to Penang airport and flying in a MSA Boeing 737 to Singapore.
My Dad stayed in Penang to close it down, so we were returning back to UK with my mum. I remember we were rather naughty and went and stole a load of rambutans from the kitchen of the Changi hotel and got caught.
Strange, but again no recollection of Gan, except for getting a drink of water from a huge blue water bottle with a handle and it tasted of salt.
Being in Akrotiri and walking up loads of steps???
Arriving back at Brize and mum dressing us up in duffle coats. She thought we would be cold. It was July but to be honest I cannot remember if it was hot or cold.
Finally I remember the train journey from Swindon to Bridgend (My dad was posted to St Athan) because I could not believe how green all the fields were and how flat it was.
Not sure how accurate these memories are but I am glad I had the opportunity to experience the far east in those days as a kid. Some of the things we got up to!!!!!!!
But the best thing was flying on a VC10. Only 8 years later I was working on them as a young JT and have subsequently flown probably 100's of hours to many places around the world. Happy days.
May 1968 – Brize-Bahrain-Gan- Changi – Aged 8
July 1971 - Changi-Gan-Cyprus-Brize –Aged 11
Things I like to think I remember:
Trip out:
Being at Brize looking out of a huge window at 100’s of aeroplanes with propellers, and my dad saying we are going in that one – no propellers and it was the biggest plane there.
Getting on board, crying my eyes out, and the air stewardess giving me loads of boiled sweets.
Walking into a massive room in Bahrain, it was absolutely boiling hot and there were “jinglies” (no offence, but cant use the term that my dad and everybody else used in those days) everywhere. I was given an ice-cream that was melting faster than I could eat it. I distinctly remember my dad telling me and my younger brother that he could take on all of the “Jinglies” on and win no problem.
No recollection of Gan
My recollection of Changi was leaving the VC10 and getting into another aircraft with propellers. There were wires hanging from the roof!!! This aircraft was an Andover and we were moving up to Butterworth/Penang.
However, I know this is not quite right because we stayed in Changi for three days. My Dad got drunk and took me and my brother down Boogie street. I do remember being in a taxi and a million kids attacking us. Well that’s what it seemed like to me but apparently they were excited to see two white kids. My mum was not impressed.
Trip back to UK in 71:
Driving in an old RAF van (that looked like a Sherpa - J2 or something?) to Penang airport and flying in a MSA Boeing 737 to Singapore.
My Dad stayed in Penang to close it down, so we were returning back to UK with my mum. I remember we were rather naughty and went and stole a load of rambutans from the kitchen of the Changi hotel and got caught.
Strange, but again no recollection of Gan, except for getting a drink of water from a huge blue water bottle with a handle and it tasted of salt.
Being in Akrotiri and walking up loads of steps???
Arriving back at Brize and mum dressing us up in duffle coats. She thought we would be cold. It was July but to be honest I cannot remember if it was hot or cold.
Finally I remember the train journey from Swindon to Bridgend (My dad was posted to St Athan) because I could not believe how green all the fields were and how flat it was.
Not sure how accurate these memories are but I am glad I had the opportunity to experience the far east in those days as a kid. Some of the things we got up to!!!!!!!
But the best thing was flying on a VC10. Only 8 years later I was working on them as a young JT and have subsequently flown probably 100's of hours to many places around the world. Happy days.
Last edited by SRENNAPS; 3rd Sep 2010 at 06:41.
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Thanks for the info. I had always wondered whether the flights were considered "military" or not and the associated overflight permissions needed.
Memories are dim- take of from Changi, some parched looking mountains, and a night stop at Akrotiri where my Dad got off for a beer.
No recollection of arrival, just next being at Warton transit camp near Lytham St Annes, hence first UK memories being Blackpool tower and Lytham windmill. A curious choice of transit accomodation as we were posted to Lyneham!
Memories are dim- take of from Changi, some parched looking mountains, and a night stop at Akrotiri where my Dad got off for a beer.
No recollection of arrival, just next being at Warton transit camp near Lytham St Annes, hence first UK memories being Blackpool tower and Lytham windmill. A curious choice of transit accomodation as we were posted to Lyneham!
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The route from UK to Cyprus to Bahrain was, in those days, as you describe.
However from there on The route took us over the UAE, Oman (Masirah Island) then straight across the Indian Ocean to Gan (or Colombo in later years) From either of those stops the route to Singapore was across the southern part of the Bay of Bengal to the tip of Indonesia (Medan on Sumatra) and across the Straits of Mallaca to S'pore.
This avoided India (best to do at any cost because it was, and I believe still is, impossible to get diplomatic clearance without stopping in the damn place).
The route to Hong Kong from Gan or Colombo took us up across the Bay of Bengal - avoiding the Indian Islands dotted around there - to Phuket and across a little bit of Thailand. Interestingly, while the Vietnam war was going on and the US effectively ran the airspace, RAF flights flew right across the 'Nam - not in my time on VC10s but I did it on the old Belfast. After the Yanks got kicked out of there, we had to then made a quite large detour around Vietnam and up the South China Sea to Hong Kong. Again we had to avoid certain islands belonging to the Phillipines and China.
Make no mistake, this was a scheduled airline type of operation and carried out to a very high professional standard. But, because it was military there were a number of wrinkles to overcome in the way of overflight clearances and this was a constantly changing scenario.
These days everyone seems to make fun of the VC10 and its reliability and its recent restriction on carrying non military passengers (the result of sheer bloody cowardice on the part of senior officers in the fallout from Haddon Cave). The result of years of neglect and the constant lowering of standards and experience among both aircrew and ground crew have taken an awful toll.
Nevertheless, in the days of the old Far East slips (which is what this thread is all about) and for many years after she truly was the Queen of the Skies and I am proud to have had the privilege of flying her for as long as I did.
Hankies away
Cheers
1106
PS somebody asked 'Where's Beagle'? Well, when all this was happening - at school I should think......
PPS mind you, I'm surprised he hasn't given us the benefit of his opinon anyway....
The route from UK to Cyprus to Bahrain was, in those days, as you describe.
However from there on The route took us over the UAE, Oman (Masirah Island) then straight across the Indian Ocean to Gan (or Colombo in later years) From either of those stops the route to Singapore was across the southern part of the Bay of Bengal to the tip of Indonesia (Medan on Sumatra) and across the Straits of Mallaca to S'pore.
This avoided India (best to do at any cost because it was, and I believe still is, impossible to get diplomatic clearance without stopping in the damn place).
The route to Hong Kong from Gan or Colombo took us up across the Bay of Bengal - avoiding the Indian Islands dotted around there - to Phuket and across a little bit of Thailand. Interestingly, while the Vietnam war was going on and the US effectively ran the airspace, RAF flights flew right across the 'Nam - not in my time on VC10s but I did it on the old Belfast. After the Yanks got kicked out of there, we had to then made a quite large detour around Vietnam and up the South China Sea to Hong Kong. Again we had to avoid certain islands belonging to the Phillipines and China.
Make no mistake, this was a scheduled airline type of operation and carried out to a very high professional standard. But, because it was military there were a number of wrinkles to overcome in the way of overflight clearances and this was a constantly changing scenario.
These days everyone seems to make fun of the VC10 and its reliability and its recent restriction on carrying non military passengers (the result of sheer bloody cowardice on the part of senior officers in the fallout from Haddon Cave). The result of years of neglect and the constant lowering of standards and experience among both aircrew and ground crew have taken an awful toll.
Nevertheless, in the days of the old Far East slips (which is what this thread is all about) and for many years after she truly was the Queen of the Skies and I am proud to have had the privilege of flying her for as long as I did.
Hankies away
Cheers
1106
PS somebody asked 'Where's Beagle'? Well, when all this was happening - at school I should think......
PPS mind you, I'm surprised he hasn't given us the benefit of his opinon anyway....
A few additional details, given that the original post was about routings. The issue of obtaining diplomatic clearance for military overflights was, and presumably still is, a significant factor in planning and running air transport ops. So, for example, we did not overfly Switzerland en-route to/from Cyprus or Bahrain. Then, after the division of Cyprus in 1974, routing to/from Akrotiri into the CENTO route over Turkey and Iran, meant using a routing around the east of Cyprus when formerly one headed up over Nicosia.
The Bahrain, Colombo route to/from HK was introduced in January 1976, with final flights through Tengah and Gan completed by March. As the Brits were phased out, 10 Sqn picked up some variations on the HK route - a 'Brunei Extension' was flown twice a month or so, and every other month there was a flight to Osan AB in South Korea, supporting the small UK presence in the UN force there. And there were seasonal 'Gurkha Trooping' flights between HK and Katmandu.
Happy days!
The Bahrain, Colombo route to/from HK was introduced in January 1976, with final flights through Tengah and Gan completed by March. As the Brits were phased out, 10 Sqn picked up some variations on the HK route - a 'Brunei Extension' was flown twice a month or so, and every other month there was a flight to Osan AB in South Korea, supporting the small UK presence in the UN force there. And there were seasonal 'Gurkha Trooping' flights between HK and Katmandu.
Happy days!
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VC10
1106, thanks for the additional info. Still, it was a preety good memory feat from a UKBAGS who last flew in a '10 on that route sometime in the late '70s. As you said, to a high professional standard, and priveledged to have flown with such people. All AT included.
ICM so right about getting Dip Clearance through India, but I believe now if you are transiting their FIR and are more than 3NM from the coast it is easier to obtain. Kathmandu, I was fortunate enough to do a 3 month stint there with the Brits......
However, we won't go there, but I'd like to!
Regards to all.
SNF
ICM so right about getting Dip Clearance through India, but I believe now if you are transiting their FIR and are more than 3NM from the coast it is easier to obtain. Kathmandu, I was fortunate enough to do a 3 month stint there with the Brits......
However, we won't go there, but I'd like to!
Regards to all.
SNF
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July 1975
8 - XV101 Brize - Akrotiri
9/10 - XV106 Akrotiri - Gan
11 - XV103 Gan - Kai Tak (skirting around Vietnam)
17 - XV103 Kai Tak - Gan
18 - XV105 Gan - Akrotiri
19 - XR810 Akrotiri - Brize
8 - XV101 Brize - Akrotiri
9/10 - XV106 Akrotiri - Gan
11 - XV103 Gan - Kai Tak (skirting around Vietnam)
17 - XV103 Kai Tak - Gan
18 - XV105 Gan - Akrotiri
19 - XR810 Akrotiri - Brize
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I flew on the last commercial BA VC10 service from LHR to Brunei - I don't remember the date, I think 1976 or 77.
I seem to recall it going to Rome, then Muscat, Colombo, Singapore, then Brunei.
What I do remember is that, being the last VC10 operation there, it did a low level flypass along the runway. The following week BA started operating to Brunei as a stop en route to Australia, so the B747 operated in and attracted quite a crowd of people to see it.
I seem to recall it going to Rome, then Muscat, Colombo, Singapore, then Brunei.
What I do remember is that, being the last VC10 operation there, it did a low level flypass along the runway. The following week BA started operating to Brunei as a stop en route to Australia, so the B747 operated in and attracted quite a crowd of people to see it.
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So where did the one that used to take off from Scampton, mid afternoon on a Monday go to?