Hi, I suppose my most cherished memory of the Vulcan is from 1993

On the 23rd March 1993 the Walton family cartered a DC3 and some of us were lucky enough to be invited to fly down to Waddington to watch XH558 start up, taxy out and take off on her delivery flight, we then flew back to Bruntingthorpe to watch her arrival, I only had a little throw away camera on me that day.:rolleyes:

DC3 arrives at Brunty

DC3 at Waddington

Star of the day

Final pass over Waddington

And at Bruntingthorpe

Later in the day when all the crowds had disapeared

I couldnt resist this one sorry 😀 😀

Some time later (1995ish) being towed out for an open day

My strangest memory of 558 imparticular was of being sat in the cockpit on brakes while a local ‘strong man’ hauled her along the peri track for record attempt (he pulled her a fair way) on his own using a harness and a set of steel ladders bolted to the ground, unfortunatley I didnt take my camera that day:rolleyes:

Cheers
Andy B

Quote:
2:Simply remove the Lightning jet pipes. The gents from Binbrook came to do this, as our pipes will be used on their Lightning. This began early this morning, and when I left at 5PM, the first jet pipe was ALMOST out…..

So here’s a question – how long did it take the RAF to remove a pair of jet pipes? and yes, all of the required equipment was provided including the hoofing great big frame which the jetpipe slides out onto…..

Sounds like there’s has been some fun going on up there 🙂

The Binbrook lads did well time wise considering, the RAF chaps would have pulled a pipe or pipes in around 3 hours, but they were always in and out so
the pipes virually knew there way out on their own and the lads in the hanger were well versed.

We have pulled the pipes out of our two on many occasions, best time for the No2 about 6 hours

Heres a few pics of the last pipe pull in Oct 2006

No access to all the pipe connections, this takes the best part of 3-4 hours.

‘Hoofing’ great frame

Out she comes

And the No2 is the easy one :rolleyes:

Cheers:)

I’ll cut to the point. Such an opinion has to be a joke. The videos I have of the lightnings at Bruntingthorpe make everyone in my local cinema club jump back in fright. And if (unlikely, but if) the CAA did a u turn and said “yeah fly what the hell you like”, it would make the job a lot easier. Also if the a/c is kept servicable but the owner goes bust it can still be ferried abroad.

Keeping the a/c live surely keeps the damp out?

They are far more use to the TV and film industry, when kept in ground running condition. Which is serious income.

Need I go on?

Hi thanks for the pat on the back, I asume you must have some interesting footage of our fast runs to make people jump back ?
We do try very hard to keep them both live, and two Lightnings that have been kept in this condition would make a resortation to flight ‘easier’, but it wont happen so lets not go there.
We the LPG wont be going ‘bust’ so no worries there, they certainly wont be going abroad.:)

The whole resaon we began running 728 back in the autum of 1988 was to keep the damp out and the keep her ‘wet’ as it were, the fast taxying just came along the way.

They have both been used for photo and film work, we even did a photo shoot with Citreon for one of their ‘hot’ hatches which was interesting.

Cheers

Cheers

A great shame. Thanks for clearing that up gents!! How were your takings from the Open Day Andy? Undercover for Xmas?? :p

Hi, its not so gloomy, dont worry, Im sure there will be open days in the future you know what todays world of insurance is like Im sure:rolleyes: .

As for the open day, I was going to post an update on the QRA thread, so I will make this one brief, yes we had a good day takings wise, not as good as we had hoped but its all in the right direction.
At present we have ‘just’ about enough to get the roof on.
But at present we are spending time and money on gettting the steel work finished, ie, the fitting many hundreds of bolts and tightning them, then there’s missing steel work that needs buying, cutting, drilling and painting. Once this has been done there is a semi large cost in spraying the frame in a top coat of silver.
If and if we have an Indian summer durning Sept/Oct we should have all the above done, and then if the funds allow the roof contractors will be on site asap to get the two old ladies under cover for the first time.

I am personally very optomistic about getting all this done by Xmas 07, just as long as we get a clear run with the weather and our pockets and bank account holds out.

My god was that brief 😀

Here’s one for you, 904 at Warton back in 1991, Pilot shall remain nameless, but he’s well known in ‘Lightning’ circles 😉

The QRA sheds are a work of art, and you should be knighted for re-building them! That act alone has saved your lightnings for many years to come… good effort![/QUOTE]

Thanks, I must admit, that at times durning the last 4 years of the rebiuld I have felt like we should be locked up in straight jackets for attempting it, if we had known 12 years what we know now 😮

But I firmly belive we are over the hump and the rest will be easier.

We will always keep trying to preserve them both.

Hi, here’s a few links to articles writen by some Lightning peronalities:

http://www.lightnings.org.uk/

Just go to ‘articles’ and read away

‘Back in the hot seat’ by the late Roly Beamont, ‘My Lightning’ by John Spencer, ‘Leuchars areos’ by Kevin Mace and ‘Once in to the wide blue younder’ by the late Brian Carrol all give a good idea of what the Lightning was like to fly.
Or for more Lightning stories why not buy a copy of our book ‘Ligthnings Live On’ its full of stuff and the procedes go to the QRA fund 🙂

All can say is the offen used term ‘I was with it all the way to brakes off’ is so apt for the Lightning, belive me. 🙂

I have peronally taxied both of our two, but only to about 40-50mph,which is enough for a mear mortal.

From my expericenes with running them staticly into reheat (one engine at a time with the brakes on and chocks in) I can only say the guys who flew them in defence of this country thoughtout the cold war in all weathers were the very best we had to offer, they were the cream.

I have sent out an Email, to one of our regular pilots, Denis Brooks (tons of hours on Lightning and Tornado and the nice chap to boot) asking for his personal thoughts on Lightning operational flying, I have heard him talk about it many times but I dont think we have his words in print, I will post his thoughts here when he replies.

As for the second part of your question, this has been covered many times over the years here and else where about the in’s and outs of why a lightning is not able to fly in the UK, like John says they are just to many to list here, the debate would and has gone on for years.

My personal view of it all is there are no suitable airframes left in the UK to consider them for flight.

The engineering and cost that goes into ‘just’ keeping our two taxiable is enormours, and I speak as a long term owner/engineer within the LPG, I truly understand why the authorities are nervous.

My honest answer is get saving and take a trip to Cape Town, its the best option.

Regards
Andy B (LPG)