Victor U/C

[The Oberon]

Originally Posted by Tankertrashnav

Had a go on Facebook about the above and had loads of replies from sundry crew chiefs, riggers, sooties etc, plus a few aircrew. Quite surprised how many had never heard the term, particularly those from the latter days of the K2s, by which time the nickname seems to have fallen into disuse. A lot on the other hand said they always knew it as Annie's hatch.

Only one problem - nobody had a clue who Annie was!

I worked on B2 / Blue Steel combinations and K2s and have never heard the "Annie's" hatch before this thread, it was always the back hatch amongst ground crew. Whatever it was known as it was infamous, as it contained the Green Satin doppler nav tri-set, and there were more of those changed than anything else, plus the fact that, having got the panel off and the tri-set changed and tested, it was an absolute pig to get the panel back on. It usually required a G.S. screwdriver and a hide faced hammer to get the Dzus fasteners done up. Thank god we got Omega and Carrousel for Corporate.

[Pontius Navigator]

The Oberon, HP and Avro obviously contacted out the design of the Green Satin bay. The Vulcan was as bad and worse if the hatch was open when the aircraft was refuelled. It had to be opened every trip to pressurise the Tx. Eventually someone has the bright idea of extending the charging points into the undercarriage bay.

[ian16th]

It seems that I was lucky working on Valiants!

Most of the GS was 'walk up to it' up the back hatch.

The scanner was behind a panel with many screws, in the bomb bay deflector, but we didn't have to take it off very often. Only if the was a scanner snag, very rare, and for a compass swing, to do the alignment.

[RFCC]

The jack was kept in the compartment at the back of the fuselage usually known as Annie's hatch

The official stowage for the jack was in a panel on the stbd side, adjacent to the spare wheels.

[Dan Winterland]

The official stowage for the jack was in a panel on the stbd side, adjacent to the spare wheels.

I bow to your superior knowledge. I had a vague memory of getting it out of there once on a land-away, but that was 30 years ago! I do recall accurately that I had to do the jacking in 30 degree heat- as it was my landing!

[Herod]

Ref Annie's Hatch. I've asked a few questions at source. It seems the hatch is to the spare equipment bay, which stored among other things spare drag-chutes and access ladders. One suggestion is a "ditty", far too lewd to be repeated here (and which I only half-heard anyway), the other is that it was known as the "Ancillary Hatch". "Ancillary hatch"...."Annie Hatch"....."Annie's Hatch"? Just a thought.