Which was the awkward one at BZ?

[Simon Wilshire]

I grew up at Brize in the early 70’s, the old man was a loady on 10 sqn and my uncle a flight eng. Anyway there was always one particular VC10 they never liked to fly on - not that I would accuse any flight crew of being superstitious of course (yeah right), but still – they hated it. All I can remember was that it was always having something done to it and forever having things replaced.
Any ideas?

[LSS]

All I can remember was that it was always having something done to it and forever having things replaced.

That seems to sum up nearly all the VC10's nowadays. As they get older they get more stubborn.

Sorry can't help on the other part of you post.

[Tonkenna]

In its later years 810 was a bit of a bugger with its undercarriage... but as LSS says, they are all like it today

Tonks

[Laurieg]

Looking at my log book, it looks like 808 was my trouble maker. I thinkI must have changed just about everything in the A/P system during the first desert party. Considering I am a Sumpie base trade I learnt a lot from that kite, whether I liked it or not.

Unfortunately for me, most of the snags were in AKT ! (Hmmmmm, kebabs)

[wac]

My heart always sank when as a GE in the late 70's I crewed in to find XR808 next to my trip. It always had to be nursed around the route.
We were always proud that only a major problem would stop us in those day's. Usually we were the only spanner crew on board covering all trades with a toolkit in row1, a pack up in the forward hold, a couple of wheels,a jack and towbar in the rear hold on long route's., no svc's and had to utilize local help if needed. On VIP trips we worked in pairs one at the front and one at the back so we did'nt have to go through the VIP compartment if anything needeed attention. Often we cured snags in flight my most momentous was with the Queen on board on a night trip to Africa and the forward galley went completely dead. Much panic from the VIP Air Loady as breakfast was due soon. Traced the culprit to the supply contactor which happened to be the same as the one installed for the never used freight winch system so i carefully swapped it over in Flight. On the same route the VIP's Prawn cocktail sauce failed to get loaded so I made one from some Mayo, Paprica and a few other ingredients hanging around. It was served and had no complaints. We were a versatile lot and turned our hands to all sorts of things.
We were a part of LSS, not 10 Sqd, so if we called a stop we had to explain why on return to Bzn. but the backing from oc line and the Snco ic GE's was always there, in my day's.

[Steve W]

I first arrived at BZN in 1976 and worked in AES (Base Hangar) at the time there were stories of a VC10 which had been so bad that they put it in Bay 1 and it became a 'christmas tree'. It was eventually recoverd and I don't remember any aiframe being particularly bad down route. I was on Mobile Servicing Section 80-84 and Grd Eng 86-90. I only ever had one bad stopper and that was a Yaw damping/Auto-pilot snag in San Jose - took 5 days to fix and 5 linies and 3 GEF (one of the linies broke the nose gear mechanical indicator when putting the ground locks). Happy Days!

[nickwilcock]

Had it been a VC10K, then it would undoubtedly have been 'The Dog' - otherwise known as VC10K2 tail no. ZA143 'D'.

Not the best of the Mk2s!