Anyone have time on the Venom ?
 

Currently thumbing through the pilot's notes on the FB4 version of the Venom and the more I read the more impressed I am with the type - for reasons that aren't important here.

Can anyone share experiences of what the ultimate evolution of the Vampire was like in squadron service ?

Can anyone share experiences of what the ultimate evolution of the Vampire was like in squadron service?

Giving time for the serious answers to be generated, perhaps some 20 Squadrons of Sea Venoms in RN and RAN squadron service.....:)

Jack

Cranfield?
 

Thought there was one flying from Cranfield in the 1980s?

28 Squadron had Venoms in Hong Kong in the late 1950s and early 60's.

Chunky Lord and Bunny Austin were both members of 28 Sqn at Sek Kong on Venoms. They told, and we heard about a few more, stories about that time, but they never ever waxed lyrical about the Venom.

A wild and woolly scotsman called Sandy Topin kept a shed - well, a big canvas hangar - full of Venoms, Vampires and bits thereof plus many more scattered around the surrounding grass. There were few flyers they all disappeared in time. Cranfield management saw them as an eyesore. It wasn't a very edifying sight. There were literally containers and tons and tons of parts, components and DH junk lying around everywhere. One vampire certainly flew at airshows from time to time about then, flown by a wonderful character who was an instructor at a prestigious nearby flying training establishment and had told Topin he was ex RAF and had time on them (he was nowhere near old enough and had never been anywhere near the military). Apparently for someone who'd not flown anything more powerful than a light piston twin he did a pretty good job of it - all from reading the pilot's notes!
Bless him, he knew how to find the blue note on his Sax too.

Could it really get well north of FL500, did it really have the legs to go Lo-Lo-Lo to 2 different targets in Egypt (from Akrotiri) hauling 8x3 inch RP, was a landing really like going down the runway headfirst in a wheelbarrow, did it make all of its pilots pine for Hunters. That sort of thing.

There are a couple of good chapters about the Venom FB and Venom NF in Peter Caygill's book Jet Jockeys (ISBN 1-84037-313-X) which give a good account of flying the aircraft in RAF service.

What is the status on the two airworthy Classic Flight Venom's (G-DHVM & G-VENM) that were based at Coventry....?
They were certainly seen flying last year, but I know the whole fleet have been up for sale for a while now.

Flew the Night Fighter Navy version training Observers. For its time it was a competent aircraft.

Down in Lymington we used to enjoy Don Wood's collection of Vampires and Venoms, especially as the curtain raiser to any regatta his company was sponsoring. Particularly good fun sitting in a mark-laying boat watching them.

The Venom was never the 'ultimate evolution of the Vampire' but a very different aircraft. It came after the DH110, for instance. (The type number was DH112). The design was begun when it became plain that the 110, later to become the Sea Vixen, was going to be too delayed to follow on from the day and all-weather fighters then in service.

It doesn't appear so at first glance, but the aircraft possessed marked swept-wing characteristics. Get low and slow on the approach, for instance, and it would settle gracefully onto the ground short of the runway.

The wings were flexible and would bounce up and down as one taxied over the bumps, especially if the tip-tanks were full. The cockpit (of the FAW22, the only mark of which I have any experience) was decidedly cramped, albeit less so then the Vampire T11 or 22. The seats were staggered which gave one a little more room, but meant that you had to kind of curl your right hand round during the round-out, there being nowhere to put your elbow.

Back in the early 1990s an airshow wasn't complete without at least one of the Topin Venoms or Vampires in the programme. I think at their peak they were able to put up a diamond nine of twin boom jets.

I read somewhere, back in the mists of time, that they reckoned a well flown Venom could have given a MiG-15 a difficult time. Not sure what evidence was for that, but I know I'm still waiting for Airfix (or anybody) to bring out a single seater in 1/72nd scale.

Hi , I know my father flew Sea Venoms off HMS Bulwark and at Yeovilton

ISTR Source Classic Jet Flight could put up 9 aircraft, often flown by former RAFAT pilots, and the Display Authorisation signed by my former OC Ops Wg neighbour at Wyton, by then working for the CAA

The seats were staggered which gave one a little more room, but meant that you had to kind of curl your right hand round during the round-out, there being nowhere to put your elbow. - Schiller

A decorated former Sea Venom pilot once told me that there wasn't much room for one's knees and thighs either, a considerable cause for concern in the event of ejection.

Jack

My pal Terry has an EX-Swiss FB4 cockpit with Pilot Notes

The general impression .......
 

....reading all of the above is that no-one really seems to have enjoyed flying it. Or am I overinterpreting?
The phrase "For its time it was a competent aircraft" is rather damning it with faint praise.
Often in threads like this there's some person expressing some enthousiasm for the beast.
I will admit that the comments about the vulnerability of knees and thighs would have given me pause for serious thought.

The Ancient Mariner