RAF Museum Hendon Open Cockpits Evening 11th March

re;

If those aircraft are the only ones not ‘hot’ I’m surprised they even let people in the building.

In 2008 a lovely old gentleman who could see how passionate I am about flying, said, come with me, and showed me round the new (former Coltishall) exhibits at Norwich, which were not unveiled to the public. Then I got a look in the Vulcan for free! The costs for the Hendon event are ridiculous. One ticket to cover everything would be fine… still lets hope the money goes into the kitty and not on bollards, sculptures and bonuses…

If those aircraft are the only ones not ‘hot’ I’m surprised they even let people in the building.

To be fair to the RAFM – I guess the list reflects cockpit access to those without ‘hot’ instruments.
Halycon, you maybe able to access that area if you write a nice letter to them with your connection. Worth a stamp.

Shame PO-S isn’t on the list, would of being nice to go sit in my grandad’s old office at the back…….

Yes me too-my uncle flew in the mid upper position on this aircraft when it was with 83 sqdn.
(He was lost at the end of 1942) .
I would pay double that and more to be able to sit in that spot for just a moment. There would likely be a bit of moisture left behind after though.

Some folk have decided to visit the Vulcan all tickets soldout!!

Crikey… the only thing I can think of is that its either hard core Vulcan enthusiasts that want to add one more serial as ‘done’ on their list of cockpit visits, or people that get nosebleeds if they travel further North than Duxford!!

On a more serious note, I’m glad it has sold out, more funding gathered for RAFM. But can you imagine if the crew door of R5868 was open for one night for a limited number of tickets?

Regards,

Rich

If you go to our Museum, any day its open you will get to see and sit in lots and lots of cockpits!!

Some folk have decided to visit the Vulcan all tickets soldout!!

Seems to have been missed? Understatement, thing what gets me annoyed is people will pay that, and then the RAFM will think its ok to charge more than a RIAT or Duxford airshow ticket for something that is very mediocre. As for seeing the Vulcan cockpit well thats just plane jumping on the band wagon.

All types I’ve been aboard, and in 2 cases flown in! And most of them I can re-visit without trekking all the way south to Hendon. I have to agree with Rich, an opportunity to lure visitors with the opportunity to view the cockpits of some of their rarer aircraft seems to have been missed.

Many thanks for that reminder, I’d completely forgotten about that thread (information overload on my part 😮 )

For completeness and so that people can be reminded of the Log Book entries here’s the link http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?124666 🙂

No problem, I just did a quick search and i posted copies of my grandfathers log book on a thread you started about RAF air gunners. Just had another look through the copies and his first trip on sugar was classed as a special exercise that lasted 3 hours 15, his first offical operation was again in sugar and to the Cherbourg area.

Thanks for the feedback – I’ve just been looking through the scans of Stan’s Log Book entries for a project I’m working on that includes RAF Bottesford and I was just curious. 🙂 He and his crew flew five Ops on ‘sugar’ in autumn 1943.

Stan recounted some interesting contacts when ‘sugar’ was unveiled at Hendon and I wondered whether they might be connected.

No, it looks like Stan was on the squadron sometime earlier than my grandad, he flew his first op on the 23.05.44 which just happened to be on “sugar”.

Did he by chance ever fly with Stan Bray as remembered in this link? http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?113779

Shame PO-S isn’t on the list, would of being nice to go sit in my grandad’s old office at the back…….

Bit steep, and don’t forget the car parking charge!

Hendon’s Vulcan did arrive there more-or-less straight from service, but shortly thereafter a lot of kit was robbed from it to provide spares for the Black Buck Vulcans. I don’t know what state the cockpit is in, but there’s an awful lot of hastily cut wires (with significant gaps in between) in the bomb bay.

Hendon’s example may be different, but IIRC most Vulcan’s that came out of service in the 1980s had their cockpits stripped as part of the disposal deal with the RAF / MoD. XM594 at NAM certainly was striped over a 4 day period, post delivery. In XM594’s case the missing parts were later purchased from the local dealer at Scarle!

It came to Hendon straight from service, so there is no reason why it should have been gutted.

I was always under the impression that the cockpit is fairly gutted in the Vulcan. Is it complete?