Herc low level over Abingdon on three engines...
 

...engine failure practice? Would that be done at low level? (Estimated by my son at 600ft so probably actually 1000 or so...)

Flight over built up area
 

Flights over built up areas should be above 2000ft within 1/4 mile of the edge of the town. Could be making an approach to the disused rwy at Dalton Bks (ex RAF Abingdon)

Would it be normal to practice engine failure by shutting one down on multis? I thought normally it was simulated by going to idle on the 'failed' engine, certainly seems the case on fast jets.

Engine definitely feathered but might have been more than 1/4 mile from the edge of town. Perhaps taking advantage of the lack of Vigilants at Abingdon to use the runway as stated (it's NOT disused, don't make that mistake once the Vigilants are flying again...)

This was an OCU fly2 trip where the student captain gets to land the aircraft on 3 engines - the only time he/she will do it for practice. The QFI sits in the RHS. The only other time an engine is shut down for practice is during QFI workup or for QFI currency (once every 12 months).

The aircraft was on the TAC to ILS runway 25 at Brize, which comes within a few miles of Abingdon, and was at 2300' QNH so about 1900' agl.

Thanks for your interest! :ok:

Thanks for that - interesting. The aircraft was definitely directly overhead; in which case it was outside the CTR. Is the procedure supposed to be contained inside CAS? Wonder if he overshot the 9.1d outbound before the procedure turn... (Assuming a Hercules is Cat C/D/E though I can't remember the definitions...)

tmmorris, were you up on your little aluminium step ladder, with airband radio and long lens in case the C-130 wasn't in your spotter's notebook, or what?

Early OCU trip, nothing to see here, please move on....:rolleyes:

Aluminium step ladder I admit to, but it was a pair of Felco secateurs thinning the apples in the orchard...

Unduly harsh. Piles playing up?

CG

Bit of a large thread drift but a big big thankyou to the Reds who (unintentionally) managed to fly over my Grand Daughters house in Somerset on her 8th birthday on their transit to Weston Super Mud. Made her day!

Whilst BEags was perhaps a little strident in his questioning of tmmorris I'm afraid I agree with the sentiment. Querying what is perhaps something of a rare sight these days (Herc on 3, at a weekend) is completely reasonable. That one of the crew then took the time to talk through exactly what they were up to on the sortie was very good of him and should've been met with a "thank you and thanks for taking the time to explain".

Instead it's the standard PPL/spotter expert armed with an AIDU plate who decides to pick apart/challenge the professional. Seriously, if you think an aviation crime has been committed then ring Brize and pass them your dossier. If not, stick to enjoying your apples and make the most of the now extremely rare occasions military aircraft actually get seen in the skies over the UK.

I was pleasantly surprised to read the simple but detailed explanation from Al-Berr. It makes a nice change to have something so authoritative from a source close to an event.

tnmorris:

Like that? Agreed about Al-berr's very detailed explanation.

Yeah, that would've been enough. :hmm:

tm - I suspect you have trodden on some touchy toes there.

Don't worry about Beagle - if you watch the forums you will see he does have occasional problems with the medication...... :-)

It seems so...

There was of course an Airprox on the SE corner of the CTR last year with a Voyager which left the CTR during an instrument approach (radar vectored).

tmmorris, if your profile reflects your true identity you should STFU!:=
Furthermore, Beagling is not allowed on this site.:E

OAP

No touchy toes, I just dislike armchair experts.

And yes, was that the Airprox where the majority of the Board "agreed that there was no risk of collision and that normal safety standards had applied"?
Great, thanks.
No idea what point you are trying to make bringing that up :rolleyes:

Before it was squaddified, it would be quite common for the Tower Controller at RAF Abingdon to be given a "VC10 wide" alert from the Approach Controller - usually during OCU trips when a new student pilot was finding things a bit difficult.

No requirement to stay inside the CTR though.

3 of us were taking turns on an OCU trip I flew on as a student back in 1984. The first in the seat was the student captain, with an OCU QFI in the other seat. My chum and I were sitting in the back at the time; the first indication that the 2-e failure was going to be 'interesting' was the swing the student captain induced at the V1 cut for the first engine. "This'll be worth watching!" we said to each other, then went up and watched the subsequent stumbling about when the second failure was introduced. Student captain was hideously 'behind the aircraft' and we went so wide during the 2-e TAC/ILS that we eventually flew over RAF Abingdon from the south! Then the student captain was so slow to follow the flight director that he lost the localiser, but followed what he thought was the correct indication and we headed off towards Little Rissington. At about this point the QFI decided that we'd had a 'political bird strike', so we landed..... I'll be the debrief was fun...:hmm:

Fair enough, neck wound back in.

(If I'd made up the profile would that count as reverse walting?)