Answer to a question sought…

True, but their “assisted exit” seats would making falling out and bouncing onto the runway that much easier 😀

Not if you retract the undercarriage first…;)

Flood.

A few weeks back a group of us were talking about the likes of the Southend Vulcan and the Bruntingthorpe collections that perform these high speed runs and the question came up…
“What would they do if on starting to brake the chute (if fitted) or the brakes failed…”

Part of the pre-flight checklist on all aircraft is the brakes check.

On a PA28, you carry out a visual check of the brakes (to spot anything obvious, such as hydraulic fluid from a split line, etc), and then after starting and obtaining your tax clearance, the very first thing you do, is move off your stand, idle the power, and brake to a stop. That way, if the brakes don’t work, you only have a low speed and will roll gently to a halt. Far better than finding out when you have to abort a departure.

Now of course, I understand there are some rather major differences between a PA28 which is intended for flight, and a Vulcan which is intended for taxi runs, but I can’t imagine for one moment that they deviate from the original RAF pre-flight checklists.

IF, god forbid, the brake checks went swimmingly well, they commenced the run and THEN the brakes failed, I would imagine the drill to be throttles closed, airbrakes open, fuel off, electrics off, and brace for impact.

As for the idea of ‘going around’, that’s preposterous. Keep it on the deck. To put it into perspective, a 50mph crash into trees while you’re on the deck is just a variation on a road traffic accident theme, whereas plopping down from a thousand feet after a catastrophic failure… well that just doesn’t bear thinking about.

And besides, if you can’t stop on Bruntingthorpe’s 3000 metres of asphalt, where the hell else would you go??? There ain’t many places in the UK that have more runway available… :confused:

I am with you on this one Moggy. The idea that the brakes fail and in order to avoid a collision with the hedge the stick is pulled back and the power applied for a short flight to a longer runway sounds astonishingly ridiculous to me.

I have long held there is something supernatural about the Vulcan that causes normally rational people to loose all sense of reality in their hopeless quest to see one of its ilk fly again.

I suspect witchcraft.

Moggy

I am with you on this one Moggy. The idea that the brakes fail and in order to avoid a collision with the hedge the stick is pulled back and the power applied for a short flight to a longer runway sounds astonishingly ridiculous to me.

Well I read on the XM655 site a few years ago that they always carried enough fuel to divert to Coventry if anything major went wrong. It’s not on there now though! Don’t know how true this is though… anyone shed any light on this?

Paul.

Sounds like complete bollox to me.

If XM655 is the decaying Vulcan at Wellesbourne it would be far safer for all involved to run off the end of Wellesbourne in the countryside than to attempt flight, an approach and a brakeless landing at Coventry which is surrounded by built-up areas.

By that I mean any pilot in his right mind would fear for his own safety, and that of innocent groundlings.

Moggy

Wouldn’t help any backseaters in the Vulcan, of course…;)

True, but their “assisted exit” seats would making falling out and bouncing onto the runway that much easier 😀

Well I read on the XM655 site a few years ago that they always carried enough fuel to divert to Coventry if anything major went wrong. It’s not on there now though! Don’t know how true this is though… anyone shed any light on this?

Paul.

Wouldn’t help any backseaters in the Vulcan, of course…;)

Flood.

And I would not have thought the Lightning ect would be zero zero so of little use to the pilot.
DOUGHNUT

Most seats of that era can be used at ground level, but only with at least 90 knots of forward speed.

What about the ejector seats, are they live ? for whats it worth I would hope that the are safely dissarmed, its got to be one less thing for the restoration teams to worry about. And I would not have thought the Lightning ect would be zero zero so of little use to the pilot.

DOUGHNUT

Nermal
But that could be seen to be a safer option… Now you see why I asked the question…
OAW

Definitely not.

Fly an aircraft with no C of A, not maintained in flying condition, with a limited quantity of life expired fuel?

No way!

The pilots wouldn’t even consider a take off.

Stand on the toebrakes, listen to the tyres bursting, tighten your straps and hope for the best.

Moggy

Nermal
Well that’s what we thought but then you never know if that they carry enough for such enventualities or if just enough for the run with a bit of waiting time fuel too. If they did fly off then can you imagine the stink from the CAA et al? But that could be seen to be a safer option… Now you see why I asked the question…
OAW

How much fuel do they carry – I can’t imagine that it would be a lot – and would this preclude taking off and finding a long runway? – Nermal

That’s what we thought… We just wondered what the official line was or the one the operators work to. I guess they always allow plenty of stopping space just in case.
OAW

I suppose if you lose your brake chute you’ll just have to use the wheel brakes until they either stop you or destroy themselves trying! If you’ve got no brakes at all, and a limited run-off area, then I’m not sure you’ve got much option other than to generate some friction by retracting the langing gear. It then depends on the design of the aeroplane as to how much damage is done to it. Drop tanks, on a Hunter or Vamp for example, would always come in handy in such a scenario – they’d have to be big ‘uns on a Vulcan though 😀

“What would they do if on starting to brake the chute (if fitted) or the brakes failed…”

Er… Crash?

Moggy