Does anyone have any photos of the S****hawk, the Kinloss Nimrod which was resprayed the wrong colour due to a paint code mixup, and had to go around with a surreal chocolate brown scheme until her next major?[/QUOTE]

It went back into the hangar only weeks after it was painted and reappeared in the correct hemp finish. It had various bits “artwork” applied ranging from Elsan Air and a dayglo cut out toilet on the fin to Coconut Airways along the fuselage.

The problem with weapons release on the Victor was the airflow across the bomb bay preventing the weapon separating cleanly, the problem was solved by a retractable spoiler which dropped into the airflow when the bomb doors were opened causing localised turbulence and allowing the weapon to fall away.

Geoff Burns

You may be interested to know that WJ680 is stil flying at the Temora Aviation Museum in Australia.

Here is her history after St Mawgan.
WJ680 served without further incident until January 1988, when she was flown back to BAe Samlesbury for a Major Servicing. By now coded CT, and the last Canberra to be refurbished by British Aerospace, WJ680 departed on 9 May 1988 for service with 100 Sqn at RAF Wyton.
Purchased by Canberra Flight, she was returned to the air as G-BURM on 16 February 1993, spending three years on the UK air show scene, until again put into long-term storage at Kemble in late 1996.

In mid-1999, she was moved into the DevonAir hangar, where Ron Mitchell, the new owner, had assembled a crew to once again return the aircraft to an airworthy status. After months of servicing and successful engine runs, David Piper (ex-45 Sq. and WK163 pilot) flew WJ680 out of Kemble on 7 January 2000 bound for RAF Marham.

During 2000, WJ680 resided in a hangar at Marham with work being carried out to bring the aircraft back into flying trim while the search for sponsors went on. When this failed, the decision was taken to sell the aircraft, the buyers being the Temora Aviation Museum, in Australia, who intend to repaint it to represent an aircraft flown by the Royal Australian Air Force during the Vietnam conflict. Located near Canberra, the museum plans to fly it in company with a Gloster Meteor F.8, both of which were once operated by the Royal Australian Air Force.

WJ680 left RAF Marham on 10 August 2001 bound for Bournemouth. After several more test flights, the aircraft departed Bournemouth on 10 May 2002 on its long delivery flight to Australia. The crew were Pilot-Philip Shaw (Ex Royal Navy), Navigator-Peter Dickins (Ex Royal Australian Air Force) and Engineer-Stewart Ross (Ex Royal Air Force).

10/05/02 Departure from Bournemouth for Genoa.
11/05 Arrived at Luqa for re-fuelling, departing after an hour for Irakleion (Crete), then Horehnda (Egypt), for a night stop.
12/05 Horehnda (Egypt) to Muscat (Oman).
13/05 Departed for Bombay, then Calcutta (India)
14/05 Phuket, Thailand, then Jakarta
15/05 Arrived Bali (Indonesia)
16/05 Arrived Darwin
17/05 G-BURM arrives at Temora Aviation Museum, after a re-fuelling stop at Alice Springs.

30/07/02 Re-registered VH-ZSQ, and repainted in the markings of No. 2 Squadron, RAAF, which flew the aircraft during the Viet Nam war. The aircraft is still kept in flying condition and regularly displays.

Not quite right, Bornemouth-Genoa-Luqa-Hurgarda-Seeb-Bombay-Calcutta-Phuket-Kuala Lumpur-Bali-Darwin-Alice Springs-Temora was the route taken.

Attached picture of 11Sq Lightning’s, 12Sq Buccaneer’s and 13 Sq Canberra PR9 Malta exercise Lime Jug 1970

That will be these two then

XR399 Goose Bay 1972

[QUOTE=nazca_steve;1437632]Does anybody know the degree of trim offered the variable incidence tailplane? In all the pics I have show what appears to be very little angle, this striking me as the ‘neutral’ position as parked after landing.

Cheers,

Incidence measured from starboard inboard rigging gauge position
Range between electrical stops;
2 deg12min +/- 5.4min to 3deg 59min +/- 4.5min

Take off position 3deg 15min +/- 2min
On shut down trim is set “fully nose down and one blip up”
Hope that helps

[QUOTE=RobAnt;1433928]The airfield when to a yellow state alert by the time the Vulcan was ready to fly. It isn’t what the Vulcan’s minimum height limits are, it’s what the airfields flight limits are at the time for that particular class of aircraft.

All permit to fly aircraft are limited to VFR conditions only, it has nothing to do with a particular airfield limitations. The VFR limitations also apply to transit flights too and from the venue and if those limitations can not be adhered to then you can not fly, simple and straight forward.