It is now not in the hands of TVOC.

What matters is if any airshow organiser calculates that the added gate money attracted by the Vulcan will outweigh the cost of booking her to appear.

Farnborough, RIAT and……..

Moggy

I think, Farnborough are not interested in XH558. It’s not there cup of tea. My money is on RIAT, Waddington, Jersey & Duxford… if the supporters continue to stump up £50K a month that is.

Nice web site, well done 426 chaps. Hope you rasie your cash for return to power and look forward to see 426 streching her legs soon.

As the the aircraft is now bein treated as a fair weather aircraft, my guess #2 flight will be at the end of Feb/early March.

I doubt it will be a public or revenue making event though.

This is what I got from Art,

An absolutely amazing weekend! Saturday was spectacular, Sunday was colorful, to say the least.

After a thoroughly successful first flight Saturday, we had a setback today. Thankfully, we briefed very professionally and covered every conceivable contingency. It’s a good thing we did. Our chase (Ricardo Traven in his Baron) and our Landing Signal Officer (LSO) Joe Anderson (another former Harrier test pilot) went over potential emergencies and we, as a team, agreed that certain emergencies would be best handled by a divert to Patuxent River Naval Air Station with its long runways, a VSTOL landing grid and active Crash Crew…good plan.

On our first flight, we stayed gear down, got airborne and comfortable again. After all, it’s been 16 years since I’ve actually flown a Harrier and it’s just me in the cockpit. I did some slow flight and then back for a slow (100kt) landing. Takeoffs equaled landings and by all accounts, a huge success. I lost my radio early in the flight, but fortunately, we had briefed this contingency. The chase picked up all the radio calls, as I flew the briefed profile. The radio problem was corrected on the ground- a simple comm cord.

For our 2nd flight, we scheduled cycling the landing gear, increasing G turns, mild acrobatics (aileron roll, wingovers, approach to stalls, etc) and some cruise performance, followed by 3 Short TakeOff’s (STO’s) and 3 Slow Landings (SL). We put vertical work on hold until we had a “feel good” about the slow work. After takeoff and the initial landing gear cycle, with the chase aircraft close aboard, all systems appeared normal. I continued with our test card for steep turns up to about 3 G’s.

Approximately 15 minutes into the flight, I got a “hydraulic 1” warning light. Since fuel was not a major concern, at this point, I lowered my landing gear early and secured the fuel flow proportioner, the first procedures in the emergency checklist. My chase plane broke out the emergency checklist and as a team in constant communication with the LSO, we stepped through the procedures and discussed our options. All landing gear indications remained unsafe, confirmed by the safety chase. A vertical landing was our best bet and Pax River was the safest place to do it.

While orbiting overhead he airfield and in contact with the Pax River tower, we tried positive and negative G maneuvers to let gravity help us lower the gear- none of which gave us a positive response. There was simply no pressure in the system and gravity was unable to overcome the aerodynamic loads.

I arrived in a hover over the VSTOL grating at Pax with the Sea Harrier looking like all landing gear down (confirmed by the LSO to include an illuminated nose gear approach light), but still unsafe indications in the cockpit. After a gentle touchdown, I was rewarded by an abrupt collapse of the nosegear and starboard outrigger. Our Sea Harrier rests undignified on her nose, but unbowed. It probably looks worse than it really is.
There is no evident engine damage, only cosmetic nose abrasions, and some minor skin wrinkling. At this point, that appears to be the extent of the damage. My estimate is that this has set us back by 90 days (2 weeks in Art-speak). I may be wrong, but once we know for sure the extent of the damage, I will realistically report what must be accomplished and go from there.

We will not be deterred from our ultimate objective of showcasing our Sea Harrier. In fact, these past two days have demonstrated quite a lot. First of all, we FLEW! We actually flew an airplane not many believed could fly, and we can operate from a small airfield. We have a beautiful flying airplane! I can’t tell you how great this airplane flies. Many pilots prefer the Sea Harrier to the AV-8B and I now know why. We also have an extremely powerful engine, just right for breaking those time-to-climb records.

If we go no further than we have, we’ve managed to fly a Sea Harrier for 1.5 hours over two flights. That, itself, is significant, but we’re not done yet….

Last night and early this morning, we have had several team meetings. No ego’s here and no holds barred. Brutally honest and fostering the belief that we may not be perfect, but we are professional – and a team. We have a list of “lessons learned” and WHEN we fly this airplane again, we will all be the better.

Now it’s time to get back to work. We’ve got an airplane to fix.

Sincerely,
Art Nalls

I see that one well known UK Aviation Journal reporting on the Vulcan f/f has the undercarriage up after climbing away and that XH558 completed a second test flight the following day. :confused:

Mark

I expect the reporter missed getting in by 10.30, then checked You Tube and reported on a flight sim movie of a Vulcan.:rolleyes:

Tight Squeeze?

We are based at Bruntingthorpe, and as far as we are aware the situation is as cypherus summed it up in his last posting.
I will also add that we understand a total of 8 hours flying will be required before issue of a permit to fly. And that although she may spend time away durring the airshow season’s, 558 will overwinter at Bruntingthorpe.
And lastly, there is the sniff in the air of a planned open day (airshow?) in the spring next year at Bruntingthorpe. And who can guess who will be the star turn?! I think the VOC, owe Dave Walton that much at least. Indeed I think all Vulcan enthusiasts owe Dave and the rest of the Walton familly a masive thank you, for standing by this project from the very beginning, and making it all possible.

I thought Bruntingthorpe could only hold around 25,000 people, so it might be a tight squeeze.
I hope we are not going to see inflated ticket prices in 2008 generally at air shows.
Also remembering the previous owners of 558 have been compensated and that they get montly income from hangerage of the aircraft.
In that sense VOC to do not owe!

Canopus is not a true Comet, she is a Comrod. A Comet with with Nimrod undercarriage. So lack of spares and the fact she is a hybrid – no chance.

We need to plan ahead rather than look behind us though I would love to see a Lightning fly here in the UK. Best someone buys a Tornado/Jaguar/Harrier now, buys spares and paperwork and sit tight for a year or two. 🙂