The day she comes home...........

Chris Sykes · Post by **Chris Sykes** » 29 Sep 2006, 15:26

Cant wait for the real day she comes back to Waddo!!! Enjoy!!!

Image copy right by Chris Sykes

Chris558 · Post by **Chris558** » 29 Sep 2006, 20:19

We better start working up (simming) on the Display routine - nothing too taxing; we don't want to use up the remaining hours too quickly!

Perhaps the real Pilots for '558 ought to work up on the 'RAF Vulcan' sim, there's nothing else, is there?

speedbird591 · Post by **speedbird591** » 29 Sep 2006, 20:38

Chris558 wrote:Perhaps the real Pilots for '558 ought to work up on the 'RAF Vulcan' sim, there's nothing else, is there?

How will they find and train pilots for the Vulcan? Surely they won't have to build a simulator, will they? And any Vulcan pilots around are hardly going to be in recency, are they?

Good question, Chris

Ian

delticbob · Post by **delticbob** » 29 Sep 2006, 20:44

As I understand it First Pilot will be Dave Thomas who was one of the Vulcan Display Team that worked '558 in her previous life. He also requlally taxis (nose up job :shock: ) XM655 at Wellesbourne Mountford, with Mike Pollit.

Not sure about Second Pilot.

I believe Barry Masefield, another ex VDT member will be doing the AEO job.

Bob

speedbird591 · Post by **speedbird591** » 29 Sep 2006, 21:23

Thanks Bob. Seems like they've got it all under control! I guess I'm so used to the Health and Safety Regulations of the 21st Century that the idea of being allowed to get into an aircraft and just fly seems rather liberal. I couldn't use a paper slice at work the other day as I hadn't had the relevant safety briefing

(count the fingers!)

Ian

Post by **TSR2** » 29 Sep 2006, 23:48

I was speaking to the 558 guys while they were at Leuchars fundraising, and they are using 665 for fast taxis for training. they were telling me (rightly or wrongly) that one of the guys is ETPS qualified so he will make the early proving flights..

Its almost as if we're making A/C again having a test pilot at the controls... Isn't it great! :yipeee: :bigrin:

thehappyotter · Post by **thehappyotter** » 30 Sep 2006, 00:11

Ben Watson wrote:I was speaking to the 558 guys while they were at Leuchars fundraising, and they are using 665 for fast taxis for training. they were telling me (rightly or wrongly) that one of the guys is ETPS qualified so he will make the early proving flights..

Its almost as if we're making A/C again having a test pilot at the controls... Isn't it great! :yipeee: :bigrin:

I was thinking about the Vulcan and test pilots earlier.

Does being a qualified test pilot mean you can fly pretty much anything?

Tom Everitt AFG · Post by **Tom Everitt AFG** » 30 Sep 2006, 00:24

Does being a qualified test pilot mean you can fly pretty much anything?

Basically yes, although there are exceptions to the rule. As an example, some of our "normal" pilots are approved to conduct air tests on aircraft such as the Rapide and Anson, as you wouldn't really want someone with little or no experience on this type of aircraft (i.e. single crew) doing it!

Tom.

Chris558 · Post by **Chris558** » 30 Sep 2006, 18:52

Taxiing a Vulcan is one thing, but flying it is quite another. Surely they will still need some sort of simulator as a refresher, and 'RAF Vulcan' is probably as near as they can get to it. Just a thought.

Chris Trott · Post by **Chris Trott** » 30 Sep 2006, 19:57

I don't know. As long as they don't get too close to the stall speed and fly by the book, most airplanes have the same basic behaviours. The big thing in the training is the systems. Once you learn to fly a plane, it's fairly easy to convert to new aircraft as far as the handling in the air part.