They’re airborne! 🙂

And the name of the company that owns Woodford is….?

Avro Heritage. How ironic. I’m detecting BS methinks.

I’ll be surprised if the new owners even know what heritage means.

Well it seems they do know what heritage means given the invited guests who were onsite for the flypast.

Again quoted from todays newsletter:

A number of VIPs were invited by the new owners of Woodford to be on site for the flypast

Left to right: Martin Withers DFC, Geoffrey Falk, younger son of Roly Falk, the test pilot on the Vulcan’s maiden flight, Harry Holmes Chairman of the Avro Heritage Centre, ex Vulcan pilot Geoffrey New, now restoring an Avro 504, John Falk, elder son of Roly Falk, Eric Verdon-Roe, grandson of Alliott Verdon-Roe the founder of A.V. Roe & Co.

And in the background Roy Chadwick!

The picture below shows the stunning fly-past over XM603 that we were able to achieve on September 9th.

Good news too for the folk in Lincolnshire that they’ve added a few more flypast locations to the route. 🙂

Indeed. Probably worth quoting here too.

Many people have wondered why we have not included Woodford in tomorrow’s sortie.

We have already flown over Woodford this year, on Sunday 9th September – the nearest date that we could make to the exact 60th Anniversary of the Vulcan’s first flight on 30th August 1952.

Sadly, we were unable to make any prior announcement of this overflight, because the new owners of Woodford Aerodrome specifically requested us not to, citing concerns about crowds on local roads, and their current sensitivities over planning applications for the site.

For these reasons, and because of the extra fuel (and therefore cost) required, we decided not to add Woodford to tomorrow’s sortie.

Obviously it’s always a shame when people miss something like this, but VttS must respect the wishes of the site owners.

Anyway, back to the thread…

Spoke to said gentleman this evening and his answer to my question of “how did you manage to wangle that one then” was:

“Martin Withers phoned me up last week and said “We haven’t seen you for a while so how would you like to come along for a trip this weekend?””

So your mate is insinuating that Martin Withers, the Chief pilot for VttS and distinguished ex RAF pilot is deliberately breaking the rules by letting him have a jolly in the Vulcan then? Your mate should hang his head in shame tbh. :rolleyes:

Not to mention that Martin Withers wasn’t even flying this past weekend, it was Bill Ramsey and Kev Rumens doing the flying.

I then asked: ” where did you fly from then?” to which he replied: “Robin Hood airport – we took off and went to Shoreham, then to Southport and then Cholmondley Castle (the car event) and then back, over Lincoln and back to base. Flight took two and a half hours”.

The flight to Shoreham wasn’t even on the same weekend as Southport, it was the weekend BEFORE! 😀

“So, where did you sit then?” I asked. He replied “sat in the coal hole for take-off and landing then stood between the pilots for the entire flight”

So why would he sit in the coal hole, which people here have stated is a rather uncomfortable position under the pilots, when there would have been two empty chairs in the back cabin?

I also doubt the two pilots would want some random stranger standing on the ladder just behind them and in very close proximity to two live bang seats. Also would you want a pax stood on a ladder and not strapped in while you performed a display routine? I think not.

What do you reckon then, Chaps? Dogs Bo**ocks of a trip – or Bull**it?

Sniff, sniff. I think I smell something:D

Anon.

I’d say unless your mate is employed as an official CAA or VttS pilot he’s talking complete and utter bull****. 😀

No, it’s OK . There are plenty of other Vulcan supporters with serious attitude problems. I think some genuinely believe that there are no other aircraft in existence apart from the Vulcan. Weird.

Yeah, weird. Still, each to their own and I expect most of them are donating which in turn means everyone, including yourself, benefits from another year of Vulcan flying. 😉

Whenever the tour is, let’s hope they let people know before rather than after the event.

I’m sure they will. 🙂