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For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

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For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby selectortone » 18 Jun 2017, 14:44

RogerS: whenever I see your avatar I'm reminded of a memorable encounter I had many years ago with a Vulcan.

My Dad was in the RAF and as a kid I lived on a succession of RAF camps. I lived on a Vulcan base - RAF Waddington - in the early 60s, I can still remember the thrill I had as little kid when the pots and pans in the kitchen used to rattle and the whole house used to shake when a flight of Vulcans took off on a practice scramble. But my most memorable encounter with a Vulcan was in 1969 when I was eighteen.

Dad was posted to Singapore in 1968 and we lived on Changi RAF base for two years. Our bungalow was right on the edge of the airfield at the end of the runway. We could see aeroplanes taxi out and set up ready for takeoff from our sitting-room window. Security was non-existent in those days and we could walk out of our house through some scrub and right onto the perimeter taxiway, a distance of only about a quarter of a mile.

Changi was a very busy airfield in those days with comings and goings all day and many a night. We had all sorts based there; Argosy, Andover, Beverley, Hastings, and C-130 Hercules transports and Avro Shackleton maritime reconnaisance aircraft. In addition many aeroplanes transiting through including Naval Sea Vixen sqaudrons, Canberras, VC-10s, Comets, Victor tankers and occasional fighter squadrons on exercises, including a memorable deployment of the awesome English Electric Lightning interceptor. The VC-10 took off nightly at 7:00pm and conversation was interrupted for a few minutes while it taxied out to the end of the runway and then those four RR Conway turbofans spooled up to full power. It was heaven on earth for a teenager who had been nuts about aeroplanes since before he could walk.

One such deployment was a lone Vulcan which came out for a couple of weeks. One evening I heard it (you couldn't miss it...) doing 'circuits and bumps' - touch-and-go landings. It was dusk and I snuck out of the house and walked down to the end of the runway just as it was completing a circuit. There wasn't a soul about and as it roared off again I crept right onto the airfield and knelt down in a small ditch right on the end of the runway.

Round it came again and screamed over my head at about 20 feet. I lifted my head up over the top of the ditch and VERY rapidly ducked down again because for a split second I was looking straight up the white hot jet pipes and boy... the exhaust was hotter than hell!!

I can't tell you what a thrill that was! I stayed for another couple of circuits, watching it approach and scream over my head and then snuck back home. My heart didn't stop racing for a long time. My ears were ringing for days and I had the smell of kerosene in my nose for ages. I didn't tell my Dad about that for many years - he was the SATCO (Senior Air Traffic Control Officer, it was HIS aerodrome) and he would NOT have been impressed at the time. I did finally tell him, many years later after he was long retired. He laughed, didn't seem too surprised (!) and said I was lucky I didn't get roasted alive :lol:
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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby RogerS » 18 Jun 2017, 17:40

What a fabulous story and many thanks for sharing. I am so jealous.

My own Vulcan 'rear-end' pales into insignificance compared to that. It was at one of the Biggin Hill Air Shows towards the end and the Vulcan kitted out with one Concorde Olympus engine too off, just using that engine, as we were walking behind it some 100 yards away.I remember all the sacking (and us being blown over with the exhaust). Happy Days.

Two Youtube clips for you which you might have already seen.

Head-on wheelie style landing

[youtube]RnYcPJTtV1A[/youtube]

Barrel roll

[youtube]afj19PedlxE[/youtube]
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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby selectortone » 18 Jun 2017, 18:57

You're welcome Roger - the Vulcan has always had a special place for me. I love that barrel roll.

Another Vulcan story: I remember when my three kids were at primary school back at the end of the 80s, there used to be an annual airshow at Hurn Airport (now morphed into the beachfront-based Bournemouth Airshow). The Vulcan was displaying one year and I took the kids. We were about half-way down the runway, only about 50 feet or so from the tarmac. It taxied out, lined up at the end of the runway and went to full throttle. I knew what to expect but the kids still talk about it to this day... just as it got abreast of us it rotated and let out that amazing iconic howl. The kids (son 8, twin girls 5) went absolutely batsh*t crazy - dancing about with their hands over their ears... they had never encountered such a total assault on the senses - sight, sound, the physical vibration. They absolutely LOVED it. That brute power was truly something to behold.

XH558 displayed regularly at Bournemouth until its last display season and the sight and sound of it always used to take me back to those RAF military brat days.
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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby Andyp » 21 Jun 2017, 18:55

Rog do you remember Ian Dalziel on ukw? IIRC he gad a jet engine in his garage. he was also making hand planes a la Karl Holtey. Cant seem to find anything recent online.
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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby Rod » 21 Jun 2017, 19:17

I think he disappeared many years ago.
I wrote to him about those planes- I think he worked on oil rigs??

The London Underground system has a Lightning?? jet engine to generate back up/emergency electricity.

How does the Vulcan compare with Concorde for noise - I worked in Datchet for a while under its flight path!

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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby Rod » 04 Jul 2017, 09:30

In case you haven't got one Roger:

http://newsletter-nauticalia.com/public ... 00001806de

Scroll down a bit


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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby RogerS » 04 Jul 2017, 16:57

Rod wrote:In case you haven't got one Roger:

http://newsletter-nauticalia.com/public ... 00001806de

Scroll down a bit


Rod


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Re: For RogerS - Avro Vulcan content:

Postby Rod » 05 Jul 2017, 16:25

I watched the Guy Martin programme again the other day. The Vulcan used the same 4 engines as the Concorde so perhaps the same level of noise.

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