astraboy

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White.
Its a book about the Black Buck Vulcan raids on Stanley.
Only just started reading it, but its very entertaining. for example
Closely followed by:
I'm gonna enjoy this
astraboy.

pslewis

He would be more interested in:-

"Vulcan Mechanics, oil changes and tyre pressures" by 'Ima Dreamer'

Pete

Leslie

Thanks for that Astraboy. I was looking at 607 on Saturday at the RAF Waddington air display. It is standing outside on the airfield-getting corroded It used to be one of my favourite air display aircraft.

I took part in two Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, just north of las Vegas, it involved flying through the Nevada Desert at low level at night through the gaps in the mountain ranges which you could not see because it was inky black and no lighting on the ground to help. We had to rely on the radar to get us through the mountain passes. One of the most dangerous exercises the Vulcan ever did. Quite frightening believe me. The mountains came out of the ground like dragon's teeth. They never managed to successfully simulate shooting us down with the fighters or the ground missiles though and we used to throw out an IR flare at times just so the fighters could see us to have a go at us. I did once get in a position to call "splash" on an F15 pilot's tail during a day flight. His fellow squadron members never let him forget that He bought my crew a beer though in the O' Club. We used to tell them that the flight refuelling probe on the nose was a big cannon.

We drove out to see the Grand Canyon one weekend and I was talking to the park wardens to see if I could do a publicity flight doing a steep climb out from the canyon for a photo shoot. They said it would be fine and were looking forward to seeing it. There are tourist flights authorised to fly just below the north rim of the canyon which is 2000 feet higher than the south rim.

When we got back to Nellis AFB, the RAF publicity bloke said it was too expensive to send a photographer out to the canyon so the best ever photo of a Vulcan was lost!

Tim Laming is writing the definitive book on the Vulcan and I have sent him a good bit of material for it.

Wind your neck in PSL, you are just jealous!

Les

Brendan Hughes

Les, whatever happened about finding a pilot for that Vulcan they're trying to keep airworthy?

stevencotton

What does "splash" mean in that context?

Brendan Hughes

Missile lock on?

TopBanana

Splash - in the water! (i.e. dead)

stevencotton

Ok thanks. Shouldn't it be "in the drink" ?

^Qwerty^

I was at Waddington on Saturday. First airshow I've attended since 1985. Not quite how I remember things, but still a good day out.

Highlights of the show for me were the NZAF 757 going "vertical" and the Typhoon doing the same thing.

One was clearly faster than the other, but it made me chuckle none the less.

Was having a chat with the Binbrook Lightning guys. Not sounding too good - they need to find a new home for it, and it's not been run up for over a year now as they don't have easy access to the aircraft anymore. If it ends up getting cut up by a scrap man, I'll cry.

Leslie

Pity we could not have met Qwerty. I was with the Farewell to the Canberra lot.

Brendan,

They have got a pilot for the Vulcan who is effectively guarding it from other qualified Vulcan air display pilots. Not even prepared to consider a spare in case of sickness. The real problem is that they are very short of money. They want to roll it out of the hangar in August in an effort to get sponsorship but it will cost many thousands to do that. They then need an absolute fortune to get it into flying trim after that since it will have to be stripped out again to continue the work to be done. I hope they succeed of course even if I can't get my hands on it. Unless he can't fly it for some reason eventually! I was told that it will be severely restricted by the CAA during a display however.

"Splash" is a time honoured word used to mean that you have got in a position to shoot the other bloke out of the sky. Fighter pilots get unbelievably pissed off if a bomber calls "Splash" on them

Les

Apparition

Awwww Les, if I'd known you were up this neck of the woods, you could have dropped in for a cuppa, we're just down the road from Waddy.
Yve

Leslie

What a shame I did not know that Yve, I stayed overnight on Friday with one of my old fishing mates in Cranwell Village. Really would have liked to meet you.

I did get well and truly lost in the back lanes around Harmston since I have forgotten the roads since I was stationed at Waddo all that time ago.

Les