Anyone seen the RAF Voyager at Waddington.
 

Evening All

With living near by RAF Waddington I have yet to have seen the Voyager Tanker at the airfield. This does surprise me as the base reopened its runway in late 2016, and with them operating over the north sea daily you would expect to see one now and again in the circuit. They have everything else flying in from A400M to a Cessna 152, don't they like Waddington!!

Cheers
Glider 90

Maybe there's no suitable ground handling equipment? - for example, high-rise steps so the crew/pax can actually get on and off (amongst many other possible reasons)

E-3s based at Waddington, presume they use boarding steps...?

have you ever considered that the door hight on a B707 and an A330 might be different. if you use e3 steps you will also need a ladder to get to the A330 door

Did VC-10s or TriStars ever visit? I thought (or perhaps assumed) that boarding steps can be raised/lowered to suit different aircraft sill heights.

I flew a VC10 into Waddington.

Operated TriStar from Waddo on several occasions. :)

OAP

How did you chaps dismount from and mount your steeds? :)

Oddly enough, sitting in my office in Croydon with an RAF E-3D just trailing over the top at 30000 and heading south!

Best view in Croydon?

Certainly a good view of that one, the odd contrail on that route is usually a K or RC-135 out of Mildenhall.

We used to be at the top of Centre Tower with an excellent panoramic view in nearly all directions, now on the 5th floor of a smaller office block with Saffron Square blotting out much of the sky. I have a great view NE across SE London, ideal for some surreptitious "plane spotting". :)

The steps are adjustable.

The Voyager has a 60 metre wingspan giving it insufficient wing tip clearance at Waddington.

Thanks For The Reply's. Glider 90
 

Evening All

Thanks for the reply's, With a wing tip of 60mtrs that does make sense.

Cheers
Glider 90

I have wondered where Voyagers do their training, at St Mawgan/ Newquayairport we see Herks, A400, and C17' doing circuit work, but never Voyager, (would love to see them here).

Training nearly all done in the Sim? Zero Flight Time Sim.

I think the answer is more closely aligned to the Fire Cover / Crash Category that Waddington can provide compared to Brize Norton and the bigger civilian airfields.

Although (and I stress here, I don't know) there may also be an element of the fact that Airtanker own the aircraft and the currency training for pilots may be suitably covered by Sim training only - hence the relative lack of approach training compared to other fleets.

Hmm, with the exception of getting through the gate of Alpha dispersal (Mushroom farm) there are no places on the airfield that precludes a 60m wing span aircraft from operating.

I'm honestly not the one who did the airfield assessment but that's the reason!

I'm not sure if an Antonov has ever been to EGXW but it has a 70m span.

Apparently an Antanov has landed at RAF Waddington: