Vickers VC10 jetliners fly last mission from RAF Brize Norton My old man used to make bits of 'em. A Little VC10derness
Make bits for 'em, me too back in the 60s. Last one I flew on from Calgary to Gutersloh backwards all the way - Marked up as Lord VC.
Couple of trips for me as well. Brize Norton to Akrotiri and back in 81 and Toronto to Brize Norton in 82. (Flew out to Toronto in a Herc 18 hours flying time with an overnight in Gander)
Herki Bird to Gander and Toronto, ouch - Walked into the company office to look at Pt 1 orders, the stick numbers published -aargh! My Name on a Herki flight - tabbed in to see the company sergeant major someone I knew, and convinced him that there were plenty more deserving a long non smoking flight on the bird, he agreed and I got my flight on the VC10. Sometime later 'Rex' got to hear of my generous act and called me for everything and did so for years after and still does! We landed in Gander with the rain horizontal few hours milling around the RAF crew room (1976) they were watching - never forget it Coronation street. Refuelled and crewed and off to Calgary.
I did Hanover to Brize on one in 2003. Always found it odd sitting backwards on it. I'll never forget walking off her and kissing the tarmac at Brize.
If they were in service for 47 years, I must have been one of the earlier passengers in spring 1968! I don't remember much about it, though, as I was only 9 months old at the time.
Sad to see it retire Recall a rather bumpy flight back form Washington DC in the nineties, happy days|
So many Brize-Dulles trips. So many 'lost weekends' in the Holiday Inn at Dulles after the VC10 'broke' on Friday night and we couldn't fly back until Tuesday, when they flew a new part in (worst: stranded for eight days...) Completely 'dry' flights, except for the Chief of the Naval Staff and his wife two rows in front of me, getting his pink gin and her dry sherry.. we get offered squash or water in paper cups... One flight staring at the business end of a jet engine stashed at the rear of the passenger compartment... Getting a free shower from the exposed fuselage former as the ice melts as we descend on to finals at Brize...
Lucky me, never had a late Vickie, now the Herk! Advance party Gutersloh to Aldergrove NI, all aboard your carriage awaits, handed the white box of scoff and sat in the Herk with the advance party boxes stashed under netting and us sat in netting. Off we go, all stop, the long slow trundle back as the Loadmaster showed his ability of imitating a monkey swinging around on the netting. Aircraft gone U/S all off. Go and get yourselves a meal, holy moly, twenty jocks wide eyed,, set tables with KFS, drinking glasses and table mats with Squadron badges. Trollies with canned soft drinks - this was obviously the civilization the army was fighting for, anyway, after all of this back to the waiting area another carriage awaits, on we got and yes off we got the pilots apparently would not take off with a red light (yea OK) back to the waiting area. A very senior looking penguin type gathered us around and assured us another bird was on the way, a muffled but audible voice questioned if they actually had another one (1976). The Sergeant Major glared but said nothing. Imagine the hilarity when Jimmy frae Wishaw saw the Herk arrive dressed overall in desert camo - for a flight from BAOR to NI! Guterlsoh going home on leave waiting for the silly beggars in their Lightnings to stop playing so we could get off on the Britannia Airways flight back to the UK sitting in a plastic bucket seat, my eldest decided that here was the place for a leaking nappy. A light pair of slacks and a wet patch, like a magnet to grinning air types, a sergeant put his arm around me and said 'flying is not that bad'. Loyalty from my wife? Nothing should be that funny. Back from leave and off to Canada - mechanized infantry BAOR and we had not been in our AFVs for 8 months - ready for Ivan.
VC10 to become part of Brooklands collection The last Vickers VC10 built in the UK has been flown to a Surrey airfield after being retired from RAF service. The aircraft, which carries the RAF serial number ZA150, touched down at Dunsfold Park at 13:20 BST after flying from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24226550 http://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2013-09-24/vc10-to-become-part-of-brooklands-collection/
Staffsyeoman Memories of seeing the loadmaster and A N Other wandering down the plane with a large hammer and screwdriver to fix a problem| venting fuel over the Bristol channel then having to stop at Gander to refuel. Those awful meals they served and yes the VIP passengers who got anything they wanted. last flight I did we had US Air Force pilots going to Aviano in Italy with us, played cards all night and drank the smuggled booze. Happy days!
Luckily I was never on a VC10 that got stranded at Gander - although a friend was socked in there by snow for four days. The only time I ever got a 'priviliege' on a VC10 was when I was escorting.... shall we say.... a diplomatic bag and I was to be off the plane first so it could be put into secure transport and whisked away from Brize. The customs officer came aboard and took a customs declaration ('Have you got anything to declare? Thought not'). There was a military bigwig on the plane and the loadmaster whispered that he would be whisked off the plane first - and was pointedly reminded that no-one, but no-one, left the plane before me...
Staffyeoman: The rather fetching brief case and bracelet set, a door opener. A friend on leaving the army became a 'Queen's Messenger' and spent years bouncing around the globe chained to his case.
Ahh if only I'd been a QM... would have been rather difficult to chain what I was escorting to my wrist....
