The Vulcan XH558 & General Aviation Thread

[mtskull]

I'm entirely in agreement that it is a terrible waste but, rather than throw everything away in a futile melodramatic gesture, perhaps the aircraft might have a brighter future if the relevant resources were directed towards: a) Finding a suitable home where the aircraft will be looked after properly and b) Negotiating the necessary ferry permit to take it there.

[rob565uk]

All that's needed now is someone with the right aerospace knowledge and contacts, willing and able to invest their time in driving the job and seeing it through

[jonwrightk7]

Agree with you all the way on that Rob!

[jonwrightk7]

Agree with you all the way on that Rob!

[jonwrightk7]

I think its important to remember that this magnificent aircraft was flown around the country a little while back, that same country came out to applaud it as the amazing engineering achievement it is. Yet now it seems to have been abandoned... A true tragedy, in every sense of the word..

[Renegadenemo]

Don't forget the inevitable arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators and their aiders and abetters; also the fact that it would be hard to carry out speaking engagements from a prison cell.

'Just goes to show, that when the British put their minds to it they can jolly well overcome all obstacles and achieve anything...'

Now who said that?

Seems to me that all anyone can utter in the face of adversity these days is 'Baaaah'.

There'd undoubtedly be an uproar but whoever did it would get a slap on the wrist, a suspended sentence and become a national hero courtesy of the Sun newspaper. Oh how I wish I could fly a Vulcan - I'd do it tomorrow.

[Ste]

I don't want to rock the boat too much, and risk of wrath of the VTTS bashing brigade, but they do seem to be progressing plans for a viewing hanger

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/930/ ... angar.html

https://mxm.mxmfb.com/rsps/m/SA-j3d4Suo ... T-1eZ4Rsus

Also these aircraft were kept outside fo extended periods on fast response - so I'm not worried just yet.

[midlife]

Ohh that’s excellent news Ste, thanks for sharing[.]
Cheers
Wayne


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[Renegadenemo]

Also these aircraft were kept outside fo extended periods on fast response - so I'm not worried just yet.

I knew someone who worked on Concorde - they lived outside too - but after the grounding following the Paris accident they had a hell of a job to get them working properly again because the extended period of inactivity had let them get cold in places they'd never been cold and condensation played havoc.

[mtskull]

Apropos of nothing, I have shared this elewhere and received a very positive response, so I thought I would share it here too.

This current spell of weather made me cast my mind back couple of years to when I was still flying for a living; since I retired, people often ask me: "Do you ever miss flying?"

Presumably these are people who still believe in the idea that the world of every airline pilot is one of comfort, glamour and riches. On a day such as today I look out of my window from the comfort of my warm house and ask them to consider this excerpt from an actual day in the life of an airline Captain (any of my former colleagues will attest that this is no exaggeration).

Get up at 2.30am. Once washed & dressed, grab a quick cuppa then step outside in 6 inches of snow and minus 5 degrees celsius. De-ice your car and drive 100 miles over the pennines, trying not to end up in a ditch and listening intently to the traffic reports on the radio in case any roads on your route are closed, in the certain knowledge that, regardless of anything else that happens, if you arrive 5 minutes late then management will hold you accountable for all further delays.

Arrive at a so-called "airport" and, having first satisfied a bored security guard with nothing better to do than make you late that you are not a crazed terrorist, slither into a car park that hasn't been gritted and walk 300 metres in 6 inches of slush to the portakabin that serves as a crew room. Switch on the heater, put on the kettle and wait half an hour for the rest of your crew to turn up and have a good moan at you because their journeys to work were even worse than yours.

Drink a quick cup of tea and wonder why all of the necessary paperwork for your flight hasn't been faxed through. Try to ring your operations department only to find that the phone doesn't work; try again using your own mobile and listen to a terse message informing you that the number you have dialled is busy. Eventually get through, to be told that they faxed everything through half an hour ago. Inspect fax machine and discover that the toner has run out. Search crew room for spare toner cartridge and try to figure out how to change it, in the certain knowledge that, regardless of anything else that happens, management will hold you accountable for all further delays.

OK, your flight is planned and you're good to go. Satisfy another bored security guard with nothing better to do than make you late that you are not a crazed terrorist and proceed to a rackety old transit minibus with a heater that doesn't work that will take you to your aircraft, pausing only for the driver to satisfy yet another bored security guard with nothing better to do than make you late that you are not a van load of crazed terrorists, in order that he will condescend to open a glacially slow security gate that is supposed to stop terrorists but doesn't even prevent the local raggle-taggles sneaking on to the airfield to poach the rabbits that live there.
Did I mention that, regardless of anything else that happens, management will hold you accountable for all further delays? -well, they will.

Arrive at your allotted aircraft. Request fuel, de-icing and a Ground Power Unit, which arrives and promptly conks out. Carry out external inspection in a blizzard and get back on aircraft, to be faced with rest of crew moaning at you because they are cold. Engineers eventually get GPU up and running, so at least you have electrical power and can start doing system checks. At this point everybody is still freezing cold because you can't heat the aircraft without running your Auxiliary Power Unit and Air Traffic Control won't let you start the APU until fire cover is in place and anyway, they aren't answering the radio because they are late because of the snow, even though they only live 5 miles away. Eventually they answer the radio but still won't let you start the APU because the firemen aren't answering their radio because they are late because of the snow, even though they only live 5 miles away. Needless to say, management will..... Well, you get my gist.

Eventually permission is granted to start the APU. Just at that moment, a bus turns up carrying the 3 passengers who haven't decided to stay in and work from home today because of the snow, even though they only live 5 miles away. The passengers have to remain on the bus for the time being, because the cabin crew are still hypothermic and consequently haven't finished their security checks. Unfortunately, one of the passengers is a senior executive of the organisation who chartered this service and he is on the phone to the charter brokers who are the intermediary in the contract, demanding to know why you aren't airborne yet, even though he can see everything that is going on for himself.

Eventually you get the passengers boarded and they immediately begin to moan about how cold the aircraft is and why haven't they been allotted their favourite seats? Meanwhile, the First Officer has completed his checks and filled in the load sheet using figures passed to him on the radio; you take it to check and sign. Hang on, this shows four passengers; you only have three. A quick call on the radio confirms that one of your passengers has decided at the last minute that it would be better to stay behind and work from home.... OK, no problem; you can make a last minute change to the load sheet, it will only take a couple of minutes..... RING! RING! your mobile phone; someone from your company operations who is sitting in a warm office 400 miles away has called you to let you know that he is being pestered by the charter brokers who are being pestered by the senior executive who is sitting ten feet away from you, to ask why the hell you aren't airborne yet. You pass the load sheet back to the F/O and explain politely to operations that things might happen more quickly if you weren't being distracted by unnecessary phone calls. Needless to say, etc.......

Paperwork completed, doors closed and the de-icer truck turns up, simultaneously with the refuelling bowser, which is late because the driver turned up late for work because of the snow, even though he only lives 5 miles away. You can't be de-iced and refuelled at the same time, so you opt for refuelling first and, mercifully, this is accomplished in 5 minutes without a hitch, as is de-icing 15 minutes later. After a further external inspection in a blizzard (with the added joy of paddling in a puddle of de-icing fluid while the vile stuff drips off the wings and down your neck), the doors are closed again and you are ready to go.

Call for start clearance: refused. What??. Apparently (surprise surprise), the runway has got snow on it, so the airfield is closed while the snow-sweeper crews clear it. Trouble is, they are all late for work because of the snow, even though they only live 5 miles away. By the way, did you know that you also now have an Air Traffic Control slot restriction, earliest airborne time in 45 minutes? Wow, thanks for the information, even your management can't blame you for that one.

OK, runway clear, slot time approaching. Just a quick look at the wings and tail........ Oh, no: you are inside the prescribed holdover time but such is the extent of the snow that it has overcome the de-icing fluid; you will need to be de-iced again before you can take off.

Contact ground handling and request further de-icing: sorry, the de-ice rig has broken down. What to do? Hold on, the client company have their own de-ice rig on this very airfield; surely they will help you? Your message is relayed to the relevant quarters and the eagerly awaited response is: No, we won't come over to the other side of our own airfield to assist an aircraft which we have chartered to carry our own employees on important company business..... RING! RING! your mobile phone; company operations again, to let you know that they are still being pestered by the charter brokers who are still being pestered by the senior executive who is still sitting three rows behind you and whose employees won't lift a finger to help him or you and yet he is still demanding to know why you aren't airborne yet.

Meanwhile, your slot expires, your new one is in another hour's time, your APU is now eating into your precious fuel reserves, you still have little prospect of being de-iced, the snow is beginning to cover the runway again AND you can rest in the certain knowledge that, when you get to the end of your long and trying day, you will be expected to spend a further hour or so explaining every reason for the delay in writing and in great detail, to a manager who will leap eagerly upon any chance to place the blame on you, in order to placate the charter brokers who want to placate the client company whose employees wouldn't lift a finger to help their senior executive who could have seen for himself everything that was going on anyway, had he chosen to interrupt his habitual recto-cranial intraversion and open his eyes for just one moment.

Well, would YOU miss flying?

That's all for now; I'm just going to get out of bed now, then have a nice cup of tea and some brekkie and maybe later go out and build a snowman in my garden.