Oops, missed again !
 

I always believed that the 'Shiny Fleet' never bent a 10. I came across this from an old friend who now resides in Australia.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7fc2f764.jpg

Taken in Belize circa 1982, anyone have any knowledge of how it happened?

This one got a bit bent

http://www.vc10.net/History/Images/XR806_writeoff.jpg

Blimey ! Was that refuelling ?

Smudge

Nah, too many pies or Duty Free... :E

In the first picture, who's the budgie smuggling slug balancer?

According to my Aussie Pal, that was the movements officer "insisting" (looks more like mincing to me), that no one was allowed to take photographs. Mission accomplished then Mr Mover !!!:hmm:

There is reference on another thread, somewhere on here, to 'The Central American Ploughing Incident', involving a VC10. This may be photographic evidence of it?

As I recall, the thread also noted that there were a couple of incidents or near-incidents with the VC10 at Belize related to the fact that the runway there was a little narrower than the turning circle of the VC10...

So, this could be a taxying rather than landing prob ? There must be a few ex 10 drivers/crew who know.

Captain Darling....?
;)

I doubt it ' sweetie ' I reckon at best he's a Flying Officer with twisted knickers. Looks like his handler (behind) has been trained to pose in a similar style ;)

I hear he went on in later life and had a career in Television.


http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/at...reno-911-4.jpg

@ smujsmith
 

Awesome photo mate and it shows just how the RAF [used to] operate...

1. I'm in charge. Of a hat, stable belt and rolled up sox....yes.

2. I'm in charge two, who without hat, stable belt and having muddy knees, actually probably is, and has just realised that "it won't just polish out".
And is looking for the driver.

3. Group around nose wheel in various garb. Probably the ones who were actually GTFO and are desperately devising a scheme to be on their way without losing their "slot".
A forlorn hope.

4. People in junglies who give the appearance of actually GTFO ASAP. The smart ones.

5. Guy pretending to eyeball the shooter but is only waiting for 1. to turn his back before joining 4.

:E

Someone will know the story a bit better, but the VC10 sitting on it's 4rse was caused, I believe, by a de-fuel process where the ground engineers forgot that there was 5 tonnes of fuel in the fin tank, which should have been taken out first! I think the fin tank gauge was U/S at the time?

The whole incident was made a little more exciting because there were some folk in the cargo/baggage bay at the time (you can see the partially open sliding door of that compartment just behind and below the RAF roundel). The door to that compartment slides inwards and forwards when open, so as soon as the aircraft sat up to 'beg', the door slid rearwards and then closed itself!

The OP asked if Shiney 10 had ever bent a VC10. I suspect that 810 in the photo at Belize wasn't bent as Vickers used to build ships, tanks, submarines and aircraft all to the same standard. All it would have required is pulling out of the mud and a bit of a wash.

808 sitting on it's tail did happen as Stuart Sutcliffe described - the fuel guage was U/S and written up as such. The defuel team missed it. The aircraft was a write off as it damaged the rear pressure bulkhead and it was deemed beyond repair. But it was base hangar who did this and therefore techncally not by 10 Sqn.

A C1 did get it's belly skin wrinkled in a heavy landing during a pilot conversion in about 1998.

Dunno about being written off - XR808 is still in service. For a little while longer anyway.

The aircraft written off by the ground engineers during post-fuel mapping defuel was XR806....

XR808, aka 'Bob', is planned to be retired from service in the summer of 2013.

Perhaps Voyager might have actually an AAR clearance by then.....:rolleyes:

Thanks Beagle, I thought it was my eyesight that was at fault - turns out it was ok. 606 lives on in the form of a Corgi diecast model :


It's one of their "fighting machines" series!

Edited to apologise for advertising both small dog toys and big river mail order!

It was XR806 not BOB and it wasn't Ground Engineers it was engineers - base hangar engineers.

Thanks for the replies chaps, I always thought that the 10 was a great aircraft. And also understood it to be well built. I was quite surprised to see it off the runway but my Aussie source who is ex RAF couldn't tell me how it ended up where it did. Despite taking the photograph. In my opinion I doubt if anyone will ever build a better looking aircraft than the VC10 it must have been a joy to fly.

Smudge

Is the guy at the top awaiting the rest of the village people to show up?

Anyone remember the bog truck through the pressure hull at Newcasle, flown back below 10 thou, same guy, same place, same truck, different aircraft one week later, same result