The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

GeeRam wrote:I think that was when Charles had it in his garden. He still owns it, but it's moved and is now on display at Thorpe Camp visitor centre.

Charles does still have this one in his garden though.....about 250 yards down the road from The Shooting Shed

Yes that is indeed just up the road, there is also the one Ray keeps an eye on a Brookenby which is apparently still fuelled up. Odd to have a couple so close. When we lived in Bedfordshire we would hear the Cranfield Lightening spooling up 2-3 times a year and that was exactly 4.3 miles away according to Google maps.

dromia wrote:Just love the Lightning, a true, high maintenance, thirsty, thoroughbred.

The sight and sound of it rotating on take off, nose nearly vertical, full throttle and reheat is never to be forgotten.

A Vulcan take off was another thing of awe and beauty.

I remember a Vulcan setting car alarms off for miles when it was stood virtually on end at a Cranfield air display. Conversation was impossible, even inside a car. I consider myself very lucky to have crawled around a Vulcan including into the cockpit and over a Lightening as well and somewhere these is a picture of me standing on the wing of one.

Vulcan cockpit was like a coal hole, only the Captain and co-pilot had ejectors seats, the other three sods had to contort themselves through the entry hatch one by one in an emergency to bale out. Wonder what the boundary effect of the airflow along that flat flying field would have done to them, maybe rolled them along the bottom in the the jet pipe exhaust?

I believe that volunteers for the posts of Electronics officer and the two navigators were not queuing up.

dromia wrote:Vulcan cockpit was like a coal hole, only the Captain and co-pilot had ejectors seats, the other three sods had to contort themselves through the entry hatch one by one in an emergency to bale out.

And a few of the 3 in the back never did get out when too low.....

Such as the Vulcan that crashed at Heathrow Airport in bad weather, when it struck the ground short of the runway at the end of its around the world flight, the pilot and co-pilot were able to eject, leaving the 3 in the back to their fate.

I would have loved to have worked on Lightnings, only ever seen them as gate guards though!

Ovenpaa wrote:

GeeRam wrote:I think that was when Charles had it in his garden. He still owns it, but it's moved and is now on display at Thorpe Camp visitor centre.

Charles does still have this one in his garden though.....about 250 yards down the road from The Shooting Shed

Yes that is indeed just up the road, there is also the one Ray keeps an eye on a Brookenby which is apparently still fuelled up. Odd to have a couple so close.

Not really given RAF Binbrook's 23 year association with the Lightning, as the airfield that operated the type for the longest period. Binners closed after the Lightning was withdrawn from RAF service.
I was there standing by the south crash gate, on June 30th 1988 when Paul Cooper and John Aldington flew the final two jets out of Binbrook and delivered them to Cranfield.
The one that's still there, was bought by the Lightning Association from BAe after they retired it when the Tornado radar trial contract ended, and it was flown back to Binbrook in July 1992.
Charles was one of the main leaders of the Lightning Association at the time, which is how I knew him.
The association folded though in the 90's when they lost access to the aircraft and the runways and taxiways gout dug up, and only exists as the shareholder group for the ownership of the aircraft.
Charles was a massive petrolhead as well, and used to own a Ford RS200, he was in fact the very first person to buy one of the road going versions from Ford, and used it for doing his vets rounds . Sadly it was destroyed after it caught fire in the early 90's.

I've got a photo somewhere of me standing on the wings of the Lightnings at Cranfield at the airshow there in 1989

Speaking of Vulcans, if I am not mistaken, there was one on a stand outside a business in Bournemouth back in the 1990s. It's a shame I didn't take any pictures of it, but I walked past it on my way to work. That was in 1990/91.
My Google-Fu fails me in a search for that plane or its history.

There are lots of things I should have photographed back in the day, but did not.

Could this be the place?

https://www.bournemouth.com/aviation-museum/

Pete

Was fortunate to see the Vulcan come into land for the last time at Southend Airport .

i was driving as it came along the road (felt like it was 2 feet above the car ) as the whole car just vibrated . Fantastic sight as he pulled it to a very steep climb before circling and landing for the last time ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Haq7aWJYdNs

When I was little (what feels like a long time ago now), we lived near Lincoln and our next door neighbour was a Vulcan instructor. We used to get the occasional flyover and were told to go outside at a certain time to see them. One day my parents took me in my pushchair to the end of the runway to watch one take off. Apparently I cried. Lots. When I was a bit older, I went in one to have a look around and was amazed by how cramped they were. Certainly not a good place to try and get out of in an emergency.