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Vulcan Minimum Aircrew?
Good Afternoon All
Apart from XH558 3 man crew, what was the known minimum aircrew inflight on a Vulcan in the 70's & 80's. |
4. One of the navigators could get out for night pilot circuits. And it was never me! |
Originally Posted by GLIDER 90
(Post 10212010)
Good Afternoon All
Apart from XH558 3 man crew, what was the known minimum aircrew inflight on a Vulcan in the 70's & 80's. |
Indeed the Vulcan lost at Chicago Glenview only had four aboard, the Nav Plotter ( and Sqn Commander) having gone to the display venue. |
In Tony Blackman's book, he mentions flying single-pilot, but needed a nav ruler to reach some switches!
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Did Roly Falk fly it solo?
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I think that the Vulcan's original design only had a single pilot. That's why the cockpit was so small.
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I had done single nav a few times, longest was Cyprus to UKUK and I was a nav rad.
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Originally Posted by Timelord
(Post 10212117)
Indeed the Vulcan lost at Chicago Glenview only had four aboard, the Nav Plotter ( and Sqn Commander) having gone to the display venue. |
Did Roly Falk fly it solo? I think I remember also reading that either Tony Blackman or Roly Falk flew a Vulcan back to Avro's base after Farnborough with their wife in the other seat! |
If you are interested Glider90 it was a similar setup on Victor tankers. Checking my logbook I see numerous entries where I flew single nav (like P-N I was a nav radar too). These were usually trips like pilot IRTs, air tests etc where there would be no refuelling so one navigator was sufficient. These trips were usually given to nav radars so that they could keep their hand in doing some actual navigating/plotting, as opposed to operating the radar and the refuelling kit. Later on of course the Victor K2s were converted to single nav and operated with a four man crew, which made sense.
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John Farley mentions in his book A View to a Hover, carrying out local circuits at Bedford in a Vulcan. As a Test Pilot there, he had occasion to fly some civil pilots in the RHS demonstrating a new FLight Instrument system. No mention of other crew so “single (qualified) pilot”? |
Originally Posted by cessnapete
(Post 10212577)
John Farley mentions in his book A View to a Hover, carrying out local circuits at Bedford in a Vulcan. As a Test Pilot there, he had occasion to fly some civil pilots in the RHS demonstrating a new FLight Instrument system. No mention of other crew so “single (qualified) pilot”? |
I think both Tony Blackman and Roly Falk flew it solo. Tony Blackman says in his book that he flew his wife Farnborough to Woodford in the RHS because she was annoyed that Roly Falk's wife had had the pleasure and she hadn't.
Whether Roly rolled it single pilot is a matter for conjecture. |
Originally Posted by Timelord
(Post 10212646)
I very much doubt that you could operate a Vulcan without an AEO at least. Pilots sometimes forget to mention the rest of the crew! |
Originally Posted by Timelord
(Post 10212646)
I very much doubt that you could operate a Vulcan without an AEO at least. Pilots sometimes forget to mention the rest of the crew! |
Originally Posted by hoss183
(Post 10212782)
Indeed, i just had to go and check the crew compliment on op Black Buck (and it was 6) because in my memory of watching the documentary the pilots never hinted that there were any more than 2 crew in the interviews as far as i remember ;)
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Originally Posted by cessnapete
(Post 10212758)
Not having Vulcan experience, but why would you need an AEO if on a circuit detail?? |
Anyway someone had to read the check lists!:oh:
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Sorry. The pilots could deploy tha RAT! |
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