Vulcan flies again

quote:

Originally posted by Jo Sharp:

I was impressed by one running in low over the Larkhill impact area on Salisbury Plain and gracefully leaving 21 1000lb bombs behind; countryside re-arrangement service!!

You can see the craters on this Googlearth pic

I quite regularly get loud noises outside my back yard (it backs on to Larkhill Ranges)

AS90's, SAM's , wireguided, general artillery. Never heard one of those out there though...

Another happy memory. Last time i saw a Vulcan fly was at the Woodbridge Airshow in Suffolk 1992, it was doing a final lap of honour before retiring, it was my wife who insisted on us going.
I'm the Aircraft Tech in the family but she's the aviation enthusiast.

The temperatures inside the Hot section of a gas turbine engine are hotter than the melting point of the metal that make up the components of the hot section ( as a general rule). The only thing that stops them actually melting is adequate cooling airflow at critical points through out the system.

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When I was on my RAF recruit training passing-out parade at RAF Swinderby back in '81 we had a real treat....I could just make out that it was a Vulcan

1983 , i got 4 Phantoms I can remember seeing the Vulcans doing circuits and bumps in the distance at Waddo though, you could see them from Swinderby whilst square bashing.

quote:

I reckon the loudest for me was one particular Tornado ADV while I worked on the line at Dhahran. It had been delayed at endo-of-runway checks and was in a hurry to catch the others, so he selected 'combat' throttle setting for the take-off. This is reheat and a bit more, and requires a double engine change on return. Our van was about 150 metres diagonally behind the aircraft and we all instinctively knew what the pilot had done.... the van windows and seats were buzzing

I spent 8 years as a techie working on Tornado , what a nightmare aircraft to work on, unreliable, over-complicated, piece of sh*t.

I was at DHA too Tony, 29, 75 & 7 sqns for just over 3 years . End of Runway duties - happy days , amazing how many Tonka's broke down between leaving the HAS and getting to E.o.R 2 miles later. The Hawks and F-15's always seemd to make it....

Tornado over-complicated.... Yep. But on a visit to Warton a couple of years ago we were shown the training school for the Typhoon techs. Oh my word. I think it'll take three months just to learn the cockpit indications, warning sounds etc.
End of runway was great until the Saudi trainees started coming along. That was the end of farting for fun! Whay do some people find that so offensive?

Whan were you on 29?

Tony

PS. Does your liver have any permanent damage from the sid and coke?

quote:

Whan were you on 29?

29 circa Sep 1996 - Feb 1997
75 Feb 97 to Nov 1999.

I then bailed out with a voluntary 3.2 ( £ ).

Once the Shula centre burnt down it was hardly worth being there anymore. I certainly don't miss the heat, humidity, dust and 'exotic' insects....

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PS. Does your liver have any permanent damage from the sid and coke?

I have a few ml of S1D left in a bottle. I have a sniff of it for old times sake every now and again, It brings back some good memories. I need to hide it from my wife though as she uses it to clean her jewellery if she finds it, she reckons it's brilliant for this.

I can recall dreaming about going into a pub and ordering a nice cold Guiness. Now that i have two village pubs a few hundred yards down the road ( i live in Leuchars) I hardly ever go out, funny how things work out.

Sorry for meandering OT.

My sister in-law went to Cuba a couple of years ago and bought us a bottle of the cheapest local clear spirit she could find. It tasted just the same!
I remember coming back and feeling really uncomfortable seeing all the bare flesh on the shelves in the newsagent. I think I'm over that now!

Tony

PS. Do you remember me? I was on the pneudraulics desk from '95 til end of '99. Lanky git, to be found in MATE Hi-Fi almost every Thursday morning. Good friends with Gezz Goss and Dave Wilson.

come on lads, 'share' for the uninitiated? I take it S1D is a aeronautical strength degreaser that you guys used to work with? what's it made of then? is it anything like the tri-dichloroethane that's used on maintenance of the f111 fuel tanks (or indeed I used to use in telco cable maintenance all those years ago under the moniker of "Genklene")?

cheers

quote:

Originally posted by Rico:
come on lads, 'share' for the uninitiated? I take it S1D is a aeronautical strength degreaser that you guys used to work with? what's it made of then? is it anything like the tri-dichloroethane that's used on maintenance of the f111 fuel tanks (or indeed I used to use in telco cable maintenance all those years ago under the moniker of "Genklene")?

cheers

Sid is short for "siddiqi" which is Arabic for "my friend" and is a locally distiled spirit, it's a Saudi Arabia cottage industry product. It’s usually drunk with a mixer such as coca-cola or tonic.

Beano

quote:

Originally posted by AV@naim:


I quite regularly get loud noises outside my back yard (it backs on to Larkhill Ranges)

AS90's, SAM's , wireguided, general artillery. Never heard one of those out there though...

Sorry about the noise my colleagues make! You will not have heard a Vulcan on the ranges unless you have lived there for a long time!

Usually Harriers and Tornados these days.

Which side of the Plain are you ?

Jo

thanks for that, Beano.

I think you will find that Genklene is 1,1,1-trichloroethane and not "tri-dichloroethane"

I prefer Ensolve. It leaves my organs in far better shape than the MEK of old! Mmmm, methyl ethyl ketone. Sounds like a track by the Dead Kennedys.

Tony

There was a documentary about returning the Vulcan to flight on the History Channel to-night(Friday).

thanks for that, Spike. Clearly the fumes got to me and distored my memories from more'n 20 years back. sadly I think they distorted the odd memory since. is there such a thing as tri-dichloroethane?

The fumes are very good and highly toxic - now banned by the Montreal Protocol, it was an outstanding solvent and replaced the even more hazardous carbon tetrachloride (carbon tet). 1,1,1-trichloroethane has three chlorines on one carbon in the chain, there is 1,1,2-trichloroethane with two chlorines on the first carbon and the third chlorine on the second carbon. Both of these are made from 1,1-dichloroethane. There is a pentachloroethane which has 3 chlorines on the first carbon and two chlorines on the second carbon which in effect is tri dichloroethane which was used as a refrigerant (R120).

The new enviro-friendly LOTOXANE is like water. Wouldnt clean tea stains up. I much preferred draining the wing overspill fuel tanks to clean the sticky streaks off.