VC10 quickie
BUA flew in and out of Ndola - I think that was quite short
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Ah, and there's me thinking you were referring to the RAF Fireman who managed to do the dirty deed with a WRAF Air Stewardess during a turnround at Gan. Early '70's ISTR.
Have a look at Andy Lambert's video for that story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmakSwlYLs0 They got lucky....
Re VC10.net, what a great site! Been in there for ages now - so many amazing stories! The best so far is the "Stilton-eating vacuum cleaner!". Only a bl**dy Engineer ....... erm, says another ex-Engineer!!!! I was crying my eyes out imagining the scene unfolding as it munched it's way through the contents of the cockpit!!!! Brilliant! Cheers for the site!!!
H 'n' H
Hello jackoniko,
I've been looking through all the posts re your query about a VC10 landing on 6594 runway.
The answer is most definitely yes as my chum Jheiminga has stated. (He runs the magnificent vc10.net website which is the definitive answer to everything VC10).
I was the one who flew the Sultan of Oman's Royal Flight VC10 A4O-AB into the Brooklands Museum in July 1987. The runway gets shorter every time I'm asked to tell the tale about how long the Brooklands runway actually was!
Give or take a bit for my memory lapse after some 33 years, it was betwen 3,300 ft and 3,500 ft.
As a minor digression I would add that prior to VC10s in the RAF I was a QFI flying Bulldogs. One annual task that came my way three years running was the training of a student to represent our squadron in the annual Spot Landing competition. We won it each year. At Brooklands we were ultra light with minimal fuel, having only flown from Heathrow via Lasham and Farnborough that day and had just a couple of pax on board, so we were virtually empty.
We had the lines painted the week before and the aim was to Spot-Land our touch down between the two. In the event the rear bogies straddled the first line and, using full reverse thrust with relatively light braking, we actually had to put power on again reach the turn off taxiway in a dignified way at the far end of the runway.
The Byfleet Council had kindly cut down a few trees immediately at the threshold of the runway for our landing from south to north over the M25, the horribly brown-painted electricity pylons which were very difficult to see which we passed at about 600ft just to the south of the airfield. Contrary to some texts about my exploits which I have seen, we did NOT land over the railway line from north to south nor was the M25 closed either. It was all very dignified and totally non-hairy.
The runway length required for landing any aircraft depends on many factors such as airfield elevation (this affects the ground speed over the threshold when flying at the normal approach indicated airspeed since at higher airfield elevations amsl, the G/S is higher than at sea level.). Other factors such as weight and temperature, runway slope and wind velocity all come into the equation. Peformance A landing requirements for planning a landing assume that only idle reverse thrust is used but full braking is applied. It also assumes that all the flaps speedbrakes and are working normally. However we did actually use full reverse thrust and relatively light footbraking to avoid the brakes getting hot and the tyres then going bang half an hour after shutting down which would have been embarrassing on a day when we were in the 'limelight'.
Don't ask me more tech stuff because now 15 years into retirement, my brain has now stopped. Now, how long did I say the runway was?
I've been looking through all the posts re your query about a VC10 landing on 6594 runway.
The answer is most definitely yes as my chum Jheiminga has stated. (He runs the magnificent vc10.net website which is the definitive answer to everything VC10).
I was the one who flew the Sultan of Oman's Royal Flight VC10 A4O-AB into the Brooklands Museum in July 1987. The runway gets shorter every time I'm asked to tell the tale about how long the Brooklands runway actually was!
Give or take a bit for my memory lapse after some 33 years, it was betwen 3,300 ft and 3,500 ft.
As a minor digression I would add that prior to VC10s in the RAF I was a QFI flying Bulldogs. One annual task that came my way three years running was the training of a student to represent our squadron in the annual Spot Landing competition. We won it each year. At Brooklands we were ultra light with minimal fuel, having only flown from Heathrow via Lasham and Farnborough that day and had just a couple of pax on board, so we were virtually empty.
We had the lines painted the week before and the aim was to Spot-Land our touch down between the two. In the event the rear bogies straddled the first line and, using full reverse thrust with relatively light braking, we actually had to put power on again reach the turn off taxiway in a dignified way at the far end of the runway.
The Byfleet Council had kindly cut down a few trees immediately at the threshold of the runway for our landing from south to north over the M25, the horribly brown-painted electricity pylons which were very difficult to see which we passed at about 600ft just to the south of the airfield. Contrary to some texts about my exploits which I have seen, we did NOT land over the railway line from north to south nor was the M25 closed either. It was all very dignified and totally non-hairy.
The runway length required for landing any aircraft depends on many factors such as airfield elevation (this affects the ground speed over the threshold when flying at the normal approach indicated airspeed since at higher airfield elevations amsl, the G/S is higher than at sea level.). Other factors such as weight and temperature, runway slope and wind velocity all come into the equation. Peformance A landing requirements for planning a landing assume that only idle reverse thrust is used but full braking is applied. It also assumes that all the flaps speedbrakes and are working normally. However we did actually use full reverse thrust and relatively light footbraking to avoid the brakes getting hot and the tyres then going bang half an hour after shutting down which would have been embarrassing on a day when we were in the 'limelight'.
Don't ask me more tech stuff because now 15 years into retirement, my brain has now stopped. Now, how long did I say the runway was?
The RAF deep maintenance for the VC10 was done at St Athan (5996ft) which presented no problems. BEagle and I landed a K2 there in 2000 and managed to turn off before the intersection which was less than 3000ft in the direction we landed. Obviously, depending on weight and temperature there would be some take off restrictions, but the Ten was designed for such runways.
AFAIK the runway at Brooklands was 4380 feet long, and that is including the angled bit at the end. Without that added bit it was 3780 feet (about 1200 yards as Saint-ex mentioned) but by the time A4O-AB landed there, they could not touch down on the extreme threshold, so that probably accounts for a couple of hundred feet less as well.
The RAF deep maintenance for the VC10 was done at St Athan (5996ft) which presented no problems. BEagle and I landed a K2 there in 2000 and managed to turn off before the intersection which was less than 3000ft in the direction we landed. Obviously, depending on weight and temperature there would be some take off restrictions, but the Ten was designed for such runways.
A 20 min flight, followed by a slow trip home in an uncomfortable white van along the M4 via Swindon.... I recall we discussed the opportunities which biz jet flying might offer?
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I was asked to pop and stow the intake blanks in the forward hold, so dropped down the hatch in galley, stowed them and popped back up to find myself between the legs of the attractive air loadmasters who was standing astride the hatch, much to the amusement of the other guys who she was making drinks for.. a subtle cough and a bright red young lady moved.
Know little about the aircraft. Would imagine it would be a handful (footfull?) with both out on one side. Anyone have any experience in training or line flying with that?
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Shame they never stuck a couple of RB211’s or similar on the backend as an update.
Yes, I have. Good example Exeter is 2037m (I think it was a bit shorter when I landed my VC10 on it), We took off empty and went up like a love-sick angel. How much runway was needed was calculated from the ODM (Operating Data Manual).
Jack