A Little VC10derness

Does anyone know when the VC10 will stop serving the RAF? I heard that they were going to be 'phased out' from 2008, but am unsure if this is still the case?

Anyone know any more than that?

Quite a few have now left service and thee is a draw down plan for the current VC10 fleet. I am sorry but am not able to give you details. There are still a few years left though.

How many are still in service? I guess any that have left service have been stripped for bits and scrapped?

There are 4 K3s, one K4 and I think it is 10 C1Ks (I will count them at work today). There are usually a few being worked on and a few down route so you will never see that many at Brize. The out-of-service date is 2013...

Tonks

In 2007 an article appeared in Flight that spoke of an extension of the out of service date to 2014 or 2015. I haven't heard anything since so it appears that the 2013 date is still 'the end of the line' for the VC10s. The big question here is of course: when will the MRTT turn up?

Thanks for the replies guys! I think it should be against the law to remove them from service! I guess when the A330 does turn up, there will be more and more VC10's hitting the scrapper.

I hope there are some plans in place to keep at least one or two airworthy for airshows etc (hopefully XV108!)

I had no idea there were as many as 15 still in service! You never see that many at Brize (not us civvies anyway!)

Guess I will have to get as many trips to the end of the runway between now and 2013 (ish) as possible!

Is it just pot luck as to whether or not I will see any movements, or is there anywhere where you can see a schedule of somesort?(that isn't in the terminal)

AJW, Once she is out of service there will be none kept flying for airshows. They will be very much at the end of their lives by then. The 1st A330 will be at Brize late 2011, so a while yet. 2013 is the out-of-service date for the 10, so start taking those pics soon as they will start going before then, though it is hoped that one or two will be preseved (though not airworthy).

The is not a schedule as such though there are movements most days, but, it will be hit or miss if you catch one just arriving or departing or one in the circuit. It has been know (for that read normal ha ha) for us to arrive and departe in the early hours of the morning!

Tonks

Yes, I believe I heard the quiet murmur of the mighty Vickers WhisperJet leaving Brize at around 0400 the other morning......

It was much more fun back in the '80s when the radio pager would go off in the middle of the night and we'd rush in for a 'Q' scramble to go Boris chasing.

One year, we'd all just had a "Though shalt not turn so soon after take-off!" chat from one of the grown ups after one particular scramble from RW08 in a good wind on 4 Feb 1986 in VC10K2 ZA141 had been followed by an early turn roaring over the station ops room at 'about' 500 ft. You may wonder how I know this....

Not long after, on 17 June 1986, I was on an early morning scramble with OC101 in VC10K3 ZA148. Being the boss, he'd naturally decided to do the flying.....

It was hot and humid, there was a tailwind on RW08 but it was within limits. Just. But not for an FTOT take-off. Also, in those days we didn't bother with noise abatement departures for scrambles; we'd turn direct on course as soon as we passed 500 ft, then at 1500 ft we'd accelerate to MFR and clean up, accelerate to 290KIAS then continue the climb with 96% to FL310, then accelerate to 320KIAS as that gave the best possible TAS. None of the mandatory SIDs, '250 below 10' and 310KIAS Vno faggotry of later years!

So, a max AUW take-off with full power in a K3 - with a tailwind. Not much wind on the surface, but diurnal effect and all that, there was rather more as we staggered skywards. The boss wasn't too keen on holding V2+20, but rather too eager to accelerate to MFR. Neither did he wish to set a bad example by turning until he reached 500 ft.... Hence he didn't achieve the required climb gradient for the RW08 SID or anything like it. By quite a lot.

As a result, we didn't start to turn until passing over the western edge of Witney at 500 ft with 'the sound of freedom' still bellowing away. Being a hot, humid night, all the locals had their windows open, of course.

The effect was, I am told, quite interesting to say the least. A mate's wife who lived in Thorney Leys said she'd never heard such a deafening racket before and the whole house shook. The boss's route woke up the whole of Thorney Leys, the Windrush Valley estate and probably most of the people in the local graveyards as well. I remember thinking "Well that should get someone's attention" as I saw the roofs not very far beneath our flightpath.

Radio Oxford's switchboard was jammed, as was the station's!

We flew for 7 hours, but didn't catch any Russians - the boss was the kiss of death on 'Q' as he never managed to get any trade, depsite grabbing any opportunity he could.

But he did give me the landing!

Funny old thing, we never heard any more about it. I'm sure the Stn Cdr 'had a word' with him though. But no-one mentioned turning too early ever again - until some fun detector put a stop to scramble take-off profiles...