The View From The Cockpit - Part4

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wizzair
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The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by wizzair »

Shortly after reforming in 1983, 617 Sqn got a personal invitation to take part in the Toronto Airshow. When our Senior Engineering Officer arrived there for the recce he was shown a corner of the Wardair hangar and told "your Vulcan should fit in there nicely". SEngO explained that we had Tornados now and, even though they had no idea what a Tornado was, they still agreed to their invitation. Feeling guilty, it was decided that we would use Victors to get us across the Pond but that we would take a Vulcan tanker into Canada to do the last leg and also take part in the show.

We started our tanker conversion with the Victors with whom we were based. Note the white, dummy ECM pods, carried to prevent flutter and reduce fatigue as I recall.

ImageTANK1 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

Getting personal with the drogue. Several of my pics from this period were used in the part-work The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aircraft.

ImageTANK2 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

On the trail to Toronto itself.

ImageTANK3 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

As the Vulcan unplugged after its final fill the Hose Drum Unit on the Victor split in two and it started losing fuel rapidly.

ImageTANK4 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

The Squadron Boss was at the controls and, despite being close to Greenland, he decided to divert to as close to Marham as he could get. He made it to Prestwick.

The Vulcan took us to Canada, he landed at Goose Bay and we continued to Toronto.

ImageTANK5 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

ImageTANK6 by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr

More 617 Sqn next time.

Steve
Last edited by wizzair on Tue 14 Nov 2017, 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MicrolightDriver
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by MicrolightDriver »

Tremendous record of your trip - thanks for posting!

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Westy
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by Westy »

Nice to see both types of K2 in action

reheat module
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by reheat module »

Fantastic shots.
I joined 55 Sqn in 1983 until 86 and went with 617/27 out to Barksdale for the big bombing comp.
Fantastic days, as I recall the GR1s swept the board with pretty much every competition out there at that time.
Never mind the SEngO, as I recall it was the wee fella with the Tate & Lyle that ran the place...
Canon systems

RoverDriver
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Post by RoverDriver »

h
Last edited by RoverDriver on Sat 07 Jul 2012, 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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CH2
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by CH2 »

Many thanks for posting these four sections. Really nice to see. :clap: :clap:
Cheers,

Chris

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KevinJ
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by KevinJ »

Great shots and commentary, many thanks for taking the time to share them all.

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PaulB
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by PaulB »

There's some photos you don't see every day!
Fantastic set, thanks for posting. :clap:

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AMB
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Re: The View From The Cockpit - Part4

Post by AMB »

RoverDriver wrote:Superb shots all round - thanks for posting these.

Victor XL190 was scrapped in 1993, but the nose is on display at the RAF Manston History Museum in Kent. Nice to see it in action!


..and Vulcan XL445 ended up on the dump at Lyneham.
Adrian

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