VC10
 

Was it the famous Vickers Fun Bus I spyed doing a couple of circuits at EMA today? Beautiful looking aircraft, and the noise, fantastic, even in my own back yard. Sad day when they have all been retired.:ok:

Indeed it was, XR808 to be precise...

-RP

Known as "Bob" to her friends!

And he/she is the last of the 14 original C1 aircraft and, with three K models, should see things out till late summer or thereabouts

Buggered off before I got a chance to take a piccie... nice to see it again having spent years working on it, it might have been my last to see her flying.

Noisy but short take-off from Manchester
 

Guess it wasn't carrying much fuel..

Nice R/T commentary and background noise at the end!

Thumbs up to MCR
 

Did a comp A to MCR in '05 or '06. Saturday afternoon in holiday season, very busy as I recall. Whole MCR team were great, ATC slotted us into the stream with no delays and found us a nice quiet freight bay to stop on- 2 engines shut down and family offloaded to waiting car and straight out of a back gate with not a moments delay. Departure painless too. I think the clearance I asked for was something like "your vectors any reasonable height, left turn out - destination Brize.' We got it ! In retrospect we were an unscheduled additional movement they probably could have done without on holiday changeover day, but we couldn't have asked for a slicker performance. Nonetheless, it made a big difference to one family, ....and the spotters (and tax payers) who got to hear half a minute or so of Mr Conway's finest noise abatement in a very light Fun Bus

There is a VC10 operating out of Arrecife airport here in Lanzarote this week, with, I believe some Belgian F16s operating from Gran Canaria. It certainly reminds you how much quieter airliners are now than in the 1960s.

I doubt it is F16s-different AAR system.

Drogue / boom issues notwithstanding, how do we have the luxury of lending a tanker to anyone? There aren't enough to go around here as it is!

Good point, well made, Vasco, perhaps they were doing something together that didn't involve refuelling. I've seen a phot0 of the V10 at ACE (and heard it!), but rely on a local forum for the F16 info. It makes a change. Normally we only see Spanish F18s screaming at low level round Montaña Roja in Playa Blanca and across the Bocaina strait to Fuerteventura.

Doubt it again-VC10 only does AAR since is too dangerous for the AT role it seems.

Block 50/52+ and Block 60 F-16C/D aircraft can be fitted with Cobham/HAL's 'CARTS' system which includes a retractable probe fitted to the starboard conformal tank.

Although both Poland and Greece operate the Block 52+ F-16C/D, I'm not aware of any European F-16 operator using CARTS.....yet?

So, what is the VC10 doing here? Perhaps refuelling the Spanish F18s?

I like it
 

I like your VC10 I want to buy it, I give you 50 Euros.... Maybe £50

Have it delivered to Manchester immediately....

I might have been drinking.....

Lovely aeroplane remember chasing one around the Welsh MTA in a Hawk and being out turned at 35000 feet....

Nice video
 

We've had several visits from VC10's over the last month here in Birmingham.Missed all of them,but heard the last one'Bob'I believe,from my home.I knew straight away what type it was.
While they were still doing medevec flights they were a great sight and sound here(Sadly though for the wrong reasons).The noise just from a taxiing VC10 never mind the take off, to me was fantastic.
It'll be a sad day when they retire.I hope that there could be one available to go to Bruntingthorpe.

Apols if this is a repost.

There appeared to be several Mirages on the Arrecife military pan this morning. Perhaps they were the VC10 customers.