Lane Thomas Hewitt Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 This bird started my obsession with aviation. The Harrier confirmed it. The Vulcan that triggered me off was XL319. I was a kid and had seen Vulcan's before but at a distance or on TV. This example turned the area where me and my friends were black like a triangular cloud and halted us on our bikes as it whistled over us almost silently. Otherworldly. It loitered around my town at what seemed like rooftop height then kept disappearing and floating back. I ran in to tell my dad who loved things that flew. He said the local radio station announced it was burning off fuel to make it's final rest at Usworth Airfield (now Nissan Car Factory) to become an exhibit at the North East Aircraft Museum. They said it would be flying around the area for a while so the old man decided we should take our chances and hot foot it to watch it land. No mean feat as it was some distance away and would require a few bus changes. We got there just in time to watch this and realised this thing did more than whistle... Pilot did a great job considering how small the airfield was. I later became a volunteer at the museum and one of my jobs was to hop on top and clean the darn thing. Life eh? Anyway. XH558 rules. Saw it many times and was never not in awe. There is no more unique sound than the ghostly "Vulcan Howl" and it was always at it's grandest at Finningley Airshows. It's final display there in 92 was a tour de force in horrendous conditions. No matter what the weather if it hadn't set car alarms off in the vicinity each time it hadn't done it's job. In 08 I was one of the thousands who donated to get her and keep her in the air until it's final flight... A year ago yesterday. So a wee tribute from Finningley (Robin Hood Airport indeed) and Yorkshire (ORBX England) including ghostly Whitby, home of Dracula. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Banks Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Great set of pics - and I know exactly what you mean! My very first ever CCF camp was at RAF Coningsby during the Cold War. The Vulcans there were nuclear armed and on constant (4-minute scramble) alert. This wasn't too long after the Cuban missile crisis, so the world was still a very dangerous place. The Vulcans were often scrambled in exercises where the crew(s) were never told whether it was for real or not. 4am - the sirens would go off and they would all scramble. We never knew whether it was for real either. No mobile phones in those days. What to do (look for a brown paper bag)? The only reassuring thing was that Coningsby would have been a Class 1 target, so we'd be the first to cop it ... Needless to say, the Vulcan aircrew tended to be a little stressed out - so the RAF came up with the wonderful idea of allowing them "jollies" in Chipmunks with young lads (us) in them to let off steam. All sorts of cruel competitions took place - that usually involved stopwatches and sick bags . Other fun things to do with cadets was fly inverted, 6ft above a canal (apparently the local fishermen also enjoyed that) ... or do mock dogfights (complete with really authentic "dakka-dakka-dakka" over the r/t). All this was great fun of course ... but the lingering thought remains to this day. I'm the only person I know that has actually seen an armed nuclear weapon (fairly) close up. Ugh. Adam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voyager Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Terrific screenshots these!Nice personal report!Voyager iPhone - Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Great video, great aircraft and great shots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Fantastic set of shots. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominique Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Great and interesting stories both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sawyer Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Fantastic screens! I watched a YT about the mission to the Falklands with these. It was amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VH-KDK Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Top class immersive post. Great story and video followed by some amazing screen shots from your flight. So many of these legendary planes are no longer flying but we can still see them in the ORBX world, one of the thing I like so much about our glorious pastime. Also it is marvellous to hear other peoples experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasi31 Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Great set! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDX Flyer Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Very immersive and creative set of shots. Especially the under belly shot looking up at the bomb bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Thomas Hewitt Posted October 7, 2016 Author Share Posted October 7, 2016 12 hours ago, PDX Flyer said: Very immersive and creative set of shots. Especially the under belly shot looking up at the bomb bay. I was going to leave this even more immersive shot out because it was a bit too shiny and the real bomb bay is actually white. But seeing as you're here... York Minster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane Thomas Hewitt Posted October 7, 2016 Author Share Posted October 7, 2016 Cheers everyone for the comments. Great plane, great scenery. I just wish I had a system with good enough graphics to do them REAL justice. Gonna go old school Vulcan at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDX Flyer Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 2 hours ago, Lane Thomas Hewitt said: I was going to leave this even more immersive shot out because it was a bit too shiny and the real bomb bay is actually white. But seeing as you're here... York Minster. Good call. Bombing churches these days just isn't a politically correct thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FILOU Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 Very good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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