Met Someone Who Claimed To Have Flown Victors Today

Point taken.

Listen we could argue as to how he got to Victors, wether he was interested or not, and everything else.

But as far as I can see the guy COULD have been a Victor pilot.

I can’t really see why his word is being doubted, it is a strange thing to make up and if someone was going to lie would probably come up with a Vulcan with its in favour status at the moment.
I think Exmpa (Vulcan aircrew) is spot on in what he says.

[QUOTE=bloodnok;1260893]

He probably got through multi jet training hoping for Phantom or Tornado, only to be told he would be passing on fuel in a truck.
/QUOTE]

Somebody was telling him porkies if he was expecting to get on phantoms or tornados after doing multi jet training!
He wouldn’t even have been doing ‘heavy’ training unless he’d asked for it, or got chopped from fast jet training.

While there was a certain element of ‘failures’ being posted to the tankers, not all were there unwillingly. Some had known nothing else but V-bombers. I knew one pilot who had been dropped from Lightnings because he couldn’t hack the multi tasking, but he thoroughly enjoyed flying the Victor.

[QUOTE=pagen01;1260715] He probably got through multi jet training hoping for Phantom or Tornado, only to be told he would be passing on fuel in a truck.
/QUOTE]

Somebody was telling him porkies if he was expecting to get on phantoms or tornados after doing multi jet training!
He wouldn’t even have been doing ‘heavy’ training unless he’d asked for it, or got chopped from fast jet training.

Excuse me but he was there to do his Basic Training Requirements (BTRs) not read the plaque. No reason why he should notice it, read it or be interested.

he probably didn’t want to be at Marham in the first place!

exmpa

Well I was ground crew, I went to the egress trainer only once to repair it I was certainly not an avid anorak but it caught my eye seeing as it was placed at the cockpit entrance.

As for the second, in the 4 1/2 years I served at Marham I met exactly 2 people that actually wanted to be there. One was a chief Tech the other a Junior Tech. Even the SWO wasn’t too keen, bless him.

So to answer Oxcart’s original question, no I don’t find it at all surprising that he didn’t know. After all he probably didn’t want to be at Marham in the first place!

Nail firmly hit on head, and depending on the era he ended up flying Victors is important. He probably got through multi jet training hoping for Phantom or Tornado, only to be told he would be passing on fuel in a truck.
I know an ex 55 sqn pilot who reckons it was a horrible, dark, smelly place to be. He can’t understand why I love em – different takes on the same subject.

I say claimed, because he didn’t know about that famous supersonic flight!-is it likely that a Victor pilot wouldn’t know about that?

The majority of aircrew will have read nothing more about their aircraft than the Aircrew Manuals and Groundschool Notes (we are talking about the carbon technology era here). It is entirely possible that he had never heard of the “famous” event that you mention but he would have known the airframe limitations in the ACM. A list of the Essential Electrical Loads would have been significant to him when operating the Victor, the fact someone had once flown it above Mach 1 would not.

To put it into context, I learned things about the Vulcan when I recently read Tony Blackman’s book about test flying the aircraft. Should I have known these things nearly 40 years ago, when I was flying it? No, it wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference, so we weren’t taught them. We were taught that certain things might happen if we exceeded certain limits, but the nitty gritty of how this was established was not relevant.

By rights if he had flown them then he would have practised in the crew egress trainer. Said trainer was the cockpit section of the offending Victor complete with plaque placed clearly in view describing the date, conditions of the flight and tail number of the a/c. I do believe that the cockpit is still extant.

Excuse me but he was there to do his Basic Training Requirements (BTRs) not read the plaque. No reason why he should notice it, read it or be interested.

Very possible, not everyone is interested in the history of type of aircraft they end up flying, or care.
Sounds strange to us enthusiasts, but I have met military aircrew that just arn’t that interested.

I would say that that statement probably applies to the majority of aircrew. I was once cornered by a Flight Simmer who wanted to discuss the minutae if the Airbus FMC. He seemed to have difficulty in understanding that I only knew what it did because I had to use it, not because I found it interesting.

I have had flights were pilots have said things to me that were clearly wrong, and I have corrected them. That is something they don’t like neither, so kept my trap shut in the end!

He also had difficulty with the fact that the Airbus FCOM might have said something different from the Microsoft “FCOM”

So to answer Oxcart’s original question, no I don’t find it at all surprising that he didn’t know. After all he probably didn’t want to be at Marham in the first place!

exmpa

If i thought my comments could possibly do anyone harm i would not have posted them on here!-i have not mentioned his name at all and i just wanted comments from people with relevant experience to see if i was correct in my assumptions

I remember well in the early 80’s, for my sins I had a w/e job in “Bejam” – had an EX RAF Navigator who came in as a trainee manager after his 20 odd years in the RAF. Toured (if I recall) Vulcans, Victors, Hercs and Andovers and I remember talking to him about the supersonic flight and at the time he was unaware – thought it was odd at the time, now my company where I’ve worked for 16 years do things that I know nothing about !

Of course you would know the performance potential of your aircraft -it concerns safety in this case-nothing to do with its history

Not really, the performance of the aircraft in service is very different than what was achieved on test flights etc (all service aircraft not just Victors), and really wouldnt have much to do with the crew training.
Some aircrews are very interested in what they do and the history, some don’t and really don’t care.

I have had flights were pilots have said things to me that were clearly wrong, and I have corrected them. That is something they don’t like neither, so kept my trap shut in the end!

Im kind of with GR on this, seems unfair to judge this guys word on a public forum, we don’t know how the conversation went, what his memory or healt is like and wether he was really that interested or not.

Very possible, not everyone is interested in the history of type of aircraft they end up flying, or care.
Sounds strange to us enthusiasts, but I have met military aircrew that just arn’t that interested.

OT slightly, I remember seeing a Jaguar pilot on telly once talking about his machine guns. Very disappointing. 🙁

Of course you would know the performance potential of your aircraft -it concerns safety in this case-nothing to do with its history

:rolleyes:

I think you`ll find the 5/8 snap-on spanner was in fact a blue point one.

Very possible, not everyone is interested in the history of type of aircraft they end up flying, or care.
Sounds strange to us enthusiasts, but I have met military aircrew that just arn’t that interested.

Quite so.
Once they get type certified, some don’t care two hoots about the antics of other pilots. It’s a tool of the job. It would be like a car mechanic knowing all about the 5/8 whitworth spanner that tightened the last bolt on Enola Gay. “What do you mean you don’t know, you are using a 5/8W right there!!” And it’s a Snap-on too!

Not bad Keith!

Hey guys

How would you like it if after having a conversation with someone they went home and started an open to the world debate on whether or not you were telling the truth.

How unfair, and no one except the first poster has spoken to him so is in no position to make a judgement even if it was right….which it’s not.

A bit of empathy perhaps???

Garry

He said he flew (real!) ones during the first gulf war

For which side? Iran or Iraq?

regards,

kev35

Sorry Oxcart, just a little thought !!! Keith.

nope i mean months

quote from the LMA website

“Despite the size, conventional construction is Gordon’s preferred technique using balsa wood, liteply, ply, spruce and pine. The total time to build the model was an astonishing five months. This is dedicated work, and yes he does have a full-time job as well.”

http://www.largemodelassociation.com/gordon_nichols_victor.htm

link if you want to have a browse 🙂

😮 i stand corrected, thanks

well thats amazing to say the least
________
MEDICAL MARIJUANADISPENSARIES