VC-10 Retirement Thread (merged)

[ozplane]

Excellent shots of a very sad era. How many hours has the highest time airframe got on it I wonder?

[RJB Photo's]

Can someone list all the RAF VC-10's in order of withdrawn date & location they were scrapped.and date.

[Rob68]

the difference between St Athan and Bruntingthorpe is ..................you fill in the blanks

[Hot_Charlie]

Can someone list all the RAF VC-10's in order of withdrawn date & location they were scrapped.and date.

Try www.vc10.net. It's kept well up to date.

[Hot_Charlie]

the difference between St Athan and Bruntingthorpe is ..................you fill in the blanks

Er, one does servicing, the other spares recovery and scrapping?

[spitfireman]

the difference between St Athan and Bruntingthorpe is ..................you fill in the blanks

Spelling!

[Rob_in_NM]

A quick question I hope someone can help me with. Has 106 ever served as one of the "Embassy Flight" aircraft? If so, I believe this may have been the VC-10 I flew on from Dulles to Brize back in December 1994. I can't remember with VC-10 we flew back on ten days later, only that instead of a straight shot back to Dulles, we ended up in Goose Bay for about an hour, which made for an exciting trip back home!

Thanks if anyone can provide an answer to my question, and thanks for the pictures... brings back some memories of 10 wonderful days I spent at RAF Lyneham and seeing some of the fantastic scenery and history England has to offer!

Rob

[pagen01]

Rob, certainly XV106 was the right version of the VC-10 to be flying that route, ie one of the original C.1 transports, but I can't be more precise than that.
I remember '106 being in full Transport Command colours into the early 2000s, maybe it was one of the last in that scheme?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the port side forward entrance doors on the K.3s appear to be 'welded shut', has that always been the case?

[Hot_Charlie]

Rob, certainly XV106 was the right version of the VC-10 to be flying that route, ie one of the original C.1 transports, but I can't be more precise than that.
I remember '106 being in full Transport Command colours into the early 2000s, maybe it was one of the last in that scheme?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the port side forward entrance doors on the K.3s appear to be 'welded shut', has that always been the case?

Aye, sealed after the abortive idea of using that door for an aircraft escape system, complete with cockpit mounted bland and yellow "abandon aircraft" switch. :-)

[TonyT]

Pagen, yep, the Fwd door was the Infamous galley bin, using the escape slide to hold a bin bag. Was added during the tanker conversion so it could offload all it's fuel and the crew then bail out, except the trials were not a great success with the dummy hitting the wing. What you gonna do when the last one goes?



Rob... yes it could have been, there were no fixed Tens on any of the routes, it was done on availability pure and simple. Tasking as it was meant that a Ten could go on a 28 day polish / clean and internal retrim / fit to a bullsh*t standard you have to see to believe for a Royal Trip with Bettie on board, this would or could be followed by it doing freight down to Hong Kong.. I did a lot of Royals.
The advantage was it would keep all the transport fleet up to a good standard. Dulles was done on Tuesdays and Thursdays and one always loved eating the Dulles Burgers out of the fridges.
I just wish when they stick one on show they put it back into the white over grey scheme as it was a Beauty to look at and was the highlight of my Career. BTW Rob, you still cannot travel airliner wise across the pond these days any quicker than on a Ten, says something for the old girl.

[Rob_in_NM]

Thanks for the information!

It was the first (and only) time I've ever caught a military flight, and I thought it was cool to walk past our palletized luggage on the way back to our seats.

On my return trip, the diversion to Goose Bay was so that an engine could be delivered to an aircraft that was down. I remember there being some concern that we wouldn't make it in due to the snow that was falling as we were inbound, but somehow, they got us in and out in about an hour. Thanks to the diversion, we missed our connecting flight back to St. Louis, but it was well worth it as I got to see another part of the world I wouldn't have otherwise been to.

On a somewhat related note, when I took that flight, the paint job on the aircraft was still the white over gray, with the blue lightning bolt. I have to say that's a far better look than the overall gray they were converted to.


Thanks again for the info!

Rob

[TonyT]

The grey came in when the C1 was converted to tanker operations as well as pax, they tend to look after pax well, with lots of Orange Squash drink that was delicious and coffee. Flying backwards was a bit odd at first, especially on take off, but was safer and you got used to it. If you sat near the centre pax door you could get a draught, but the rest was great, more legroom than the Civi equivalent and a quiet airliner to fly in with the engines up back.

Odd facts about Goose, it has no fence as the nearest civilisation is about 300 miles in any direction of barren wilderness, during the war so much fuel and oil was spilt on the delivery route go Europe that Goose actually has it's own nodding donkey's extracting it!!!

[MET 914]

Looking at all these excellent photographs made me think what a beautiful and elegant aircraft it is.Sad to see that 10 squadron has gone. Brought back memories of finishing a night shift at Brize then up to the the main terminal to book up a local flight and waking up with the thump of the main wheels hitting the tarmac! One time a ten rolling loose away from the engine detuner due to a lack of brake pressure!So long ago.> Insert a sad smiley.

[pagen01]

There you go!

It's great to hear all the stories and facts about VC-10s, I would love to see some more older images of them here though.
My favourite scheme was the full camoflaged uniquely applied to K.2 ZA141 (possibly fuelled by the old Airfix kit!), I agree that the full Transport Command colours were more attractive than the current grey.

K.3 ZA150 departed St Athan for Brize today, I understand that this marked the completion of all VC-10 'minor star' servicing.

Let's see those pictures

[Hot_Charlie]

Sad to see that 10 squadron has gone.

10Sqn gone? 10Sqn's back, albeit with the A330!

[Thunderbird167]

.
My favourite scheme was the full camoflaged uniquely applied to K.2 ZA141 (possibly fuelled by the old Airfix kit!)

Not quite, the Airfix kit was inspired by ZA141

There is an interesting photo here http://www.iconicaircraft.co.uk/foru...php?f=10&t=101

[pagen01]

I was talking to the delivery crew of '147 on Monday and they didn't have kind words about the Airbus, all sorts of tanking issues with the airframe apparently, including basket oscillation. They mentioned that one of the 330 Voyagers is at Brize but stuffed in tha back of a hangar.
They seem genuinely sorry to see the VC-10 go.

Sorry Dave, bad wording, I meant that my interest in '141 was fuelled by the airfix kit, not the original! I was a young cadet when it came out in that boxing. Some more good images of the aircraft here, http://www.vc10.net/History/tanker_conversions.html

[Slipstream]

Rob, certainly XV106 was the right version of the VC-10 to be flying that route, ie one of the original C.1 transports, but I can't be more precise than that.
I remember '106 being in full Transport Command colours into the early 2000s, maybe it was one of the last in that scheme?


I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the port side forward entrance doors on the K.3s appear to be 'welded shut', has that always been the case?

In the 80's I believe it was 10 Sqn policy to use aircraft that had the most recent major service and hence the freshest paint job for VIP use, so in theory any of the C.1 aircraft would have at some time been used for VIP or special duties.



The escape chute was fitted to both K2's and K3's - IIRC the door was retained with an explosive strap ( visible on the outside ) operated by a handle adjacent to the chute. I also believe that when they decided not to use these, it was considered too costly and impractical to remove them due to CoG issues ( big HDU bolted on at the back which necessitated the removal of two of the engine mounted cabin compressors and a pile of lead ballast bolted to the floor of the sealed off crew toilet).

[pagen01]

Here's some pics of ZA150 J which departed yesterday after completion of the last 'minor star' (a bit more than the normal service schedule) servicing.


VC-10 K.3 ZA150 J 19 Jan 12 by jamtey71, on Flickr

Being towed past 'Twin Peaks' (can't think why it's called that!), the hangar and VC-10 servicing has been at St Athan since November 1992, shame that it won't quite make 20 years. Notice the kit outside awaiting reallocation and disposal.


VC-10 K.3 ZA150 J 19 Jan 12 by jamtey71, on Flickr


VC-10 K.3 ZA150 J 19 Jan 12 by jamtey71, on Flickr


VC-10 K.3 ZA150 J 19 Jan 12 by jamtey71, on Flickr

I hadn't forgotten these questions, and today after a few phone calls I can answer them!

I wonder what the total hours on XR808 of ZA147 must be by now?

K.3 ZA147, which is currently in on the last minor service has 49,350 hrs on the clock.

How many hours has the highest time airframe got on it I wonder?

Predictably (given it's history), the airframe with the highest hours is K.4 ZD241 N, which has amassed a grand total of 52,340 hrs and 40 mins, obviously that figure will continue to rise!


VC-10 K.4 ZD241 N, 18 Dec 07 by jamtey71, on Flickr

[TonyT]

The Airfix tanker was a rework of the earlier VC 10 kit, hence the earlier one isn't available as much and rarer, think it was the Camo one they opened the roof up to fit the tanks and never properly stress jacked it, so it bent, they then had probs getting it straight to reskin it.

[pagen01]

You might be surprised, I find that the Airfix VC-10 camoflaged K.2 boxing is quite hard to find these days compared to say the preceding British Airways boxing, I wonder if was because it was only issued for a very short time.
The all over grey K.2 boxing is readily availble, but the original BOAC example seems quite scarce.

BTW does anyone here know how good the recent 1:72nd Anigrand kit of the K.2 is?

[Tin Triangle]

I believe the Anigrand kit is better on detail than its Magna competitor, but If I recall has some fairly serious shape issues. I seem to remember that the nose shape is way out. That said, it was a long time ago that I read the review...

[ozplane]

Pagen01, thanks for taking the time to find out the high time VC10. That's nearly 6 years of airborne time which is testimony to the "rightness" of the airframe. It's a long time since I was SLF (i.e.passenger) on SGM in it's BA days flying London-Nairobi. Ah Happy Days.

[Hot_Charlie]

You might be surprised, I find that the Airfix VC-10 camoflaged K.2 boxing is quite hard to find these days compared to say the preceding British Airways boxing, I wonder if was because it was only issued for a very short time.
The all over grey K.2 boxing is readily availble, but the original BOAC example seems quite scarce.

BTW does anyone here know how good the recent 1:72nd Anigrand kit of the K.2 is?

A grey "new boxing" Airfix K2 went for £30 on ebay last week!

[TonyT]

The RAF will sell you a real one for that.

[ajw]

That's nearly 6 years of airborne time which is testimony to the "rightness" of the airframe.

It's actually 6.2 years in the air....or 6 years and 10 weeks

[forester]

I think I remember BOAC/BA getting 12-13 flying hours a day out of them on average.
So really they just had a long semi-retirement, the ones that returned to service for the RAF.

[DragonRapide]

Seems like it! I was surprised that the RAF airframe hours are not higher than that - Duxford's G-ASGC flew over 54,000 hrs in 16 years!

[TonyT]

The RAF ones are not the two listed there hours wise, they are ex airline, the RAF ones at the time i was on them had low hours, but the RAF insisted on doing circuit training in them, they would spend hours doing circuits and bumps, often with large amounts of fuel onboard, even in the fin, something it was never designed for, they used to be wrinkled all down the backend, So the landings cycles on them were very high.

[forester]

...but the RAF insisted on doing circuit training in them, they would spend hours doing circuits and bumps..

"Insisted" sounds like they had a choice!

That's what you did in those days. BOAC/BA, EAA, BUA, RAF - all did a lot of circuits for crew training. I counted 54 landings during local training flights in my log book day and night including various clearances and ratings we had to do.
Curiously, all done in SGE/ZD233. No wonder the Air Force considered it fit only for spares!