Cold feet for crew in VC10 tankers?

[beermountaineer]

Hi

I am a newby here - glad to join the forum

My dad worked for British Aerospace Weybridge in the 80s as the weight engineer on K series conversions.

He did lots of work to balance the weight and CoG with the new tanks, and it was said he designed in a steel plate under the flight deck floor to balance this, but apparently it acts as a heat sink at altitude too.

I was told by one of his mates at his funeral a few years ago that RAF crews complain of cold feet because of this and have to wear extra socks.

Is this true or is it a wind up? I would love to know

We are VC10 fans here, often visiting Brooklands and Wisley (for the ghosts of planes past) and also are rather partial to the Catalina PBY5.

We will be there when the last flight occurs - 2013 will be a sad day for us as there is family DNA in the VC10 Ks.

ps my username refers to a small sport we do at the le mans 24 hour race, building mountains out of empty beer bottles. You have to be there ....

[Tonkenna]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

I can certainly say that I often had/have cold feet on a VC10, and if I know I have a long transit at altitude will put an extra pair of socks... The Ks are certainly colder!

All the best,

Tonks

[beermountaineer]

Many thanks - wasn't a wind up then!

I am sure Dad would have raised a smile if he knew... it probably seemed like a good idea on paper . But he used to fly in Catalinas over the north atlantic so probably had cold feet all the time.

All the best and good luck

[petet16]

I'm not sure about this, I don't recall ever seeing any steel plate under the flt deck floor, the ballast was mounted on a plate in the l/h fwd fuselage.

Tonks, your cold feet are probably due to the foot warmer vents not working properly, although I think as a rule the cabin in the K was colder than the C1 in spite of the environmental bulkhead on the K.

[Tonkenna]

The foot warmers never worked, that's for sure... The VC10s are just too hot when they are somewhere hot and to cold everywhere else... The K2 an3s were always difficult to warm up; but there was no insulation in most of the cabin which can't have helped!

My cold feet were probably due to a lck of morale fibre lol

Tonks

[petet16]

I couldn't possibly comment about your moral fibre , just be grateful that aviation has evolved beyond open cockpits

[zaffie 03]

All the Kmk2/3/4 had a cockpit floor that was balast for the HUD, trust me I was involved, and know just how cold they can be on installation . . . . .

[Laurieg]

On the subject of keeping the flight deck cool. When the FMS was installed there was a problem inkeeping it cool in hotter climes. When visiting AKR we started to fit the air con not only on the AC slot on the RH fuse but also in the chin hatch. Downside to that was that all the nav charts that the crew left on the flt deck ended back in the fwrd galley TeeHee