Last 'flight' of the Victor

Keith

Moderator
Great find Stephen! That was certainly a sh1t or bust moment. What an excruciatingly beautiful aircraft....
 
Thanks Stephen,
As I was at Bruntingthorpe for ASDA day and to view the site for our 50/40 photo shoot, I read about this on Wiki but did not realise the height the Victor climbed to. Quite a video!! The CAA investigated this incident but decided to take no action! The airfield was meant to be non operational
Great share
 
I´m not buying his story in which he puts all the blame on the copilot while at the same time presenting himself as the great hero sorting out the situation.

My guess is that he wanted to be the last pilot in history ever to take a Victor airborne.
 

Keith

Moderator
Possibly true Marcus but if it was an intended "flight" then surely he would have allowed for the cross wind? He was very lucky to get it down in one piece. Also, it was by no means certain that he'd have enough runway to pull off this "stunt. I am by no means an expert but in military aircraft do not the pilot and co-pilot cover the throttles simultaneously or is that just in civilian machines?

I'm of the opinion that the pilot completely lost the plot and got mentally stuck in a time warp until someone (probably the maligned co-pilot) shouted at him!

This would not happen in the Luftwaffe!

PS My favourite photo...

 
I was at Cranwell in the early 60s with Prothero. He was 2½ years ahead of me.
I've also flown the Canberra whose tail is visible in the clip.
 
This would not happen in the Luftwaffe!



If course not...because some of their shithouses wouldn´t even have made it up into the air ;)
 

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Randy V

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So he removed his hand from the stick to close the throttles and the aircraft then lept off the ground because of lack of control inputs?

So what was his other hand busy with?

Odd that the maligned co-pilot has not presented his side of the story..

I suspect that this guy really wanted to do a well known manuever used in early flight certification called a "Crow Hop" and he mis-calculated the affect of the cross wind..
 
sorry to disappoint......... but the incident WAS as described by Bob.

The 'co-pilot' was not pilot but was an engineer/helper. (who was considered capable of following basic instructions...)
A Victor has a large yoke rather than a 'stick'.
The throttles are in two sets, each set is outboard of the front seats.

Steve
 

Randy V

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Still yet to be explained (in my mind) ----
What was his other hand busy with that he could not run the throttles and fly the aircraft?

Stick or yoke - does not matter - but thanks for the clarity....
 
Hi Randy,

The point of stick versus yoke is entirely relevant, in my opinion.

A stick is by design for single (or both) hand operation, a yoke especially a large one is designed primarily for two handed operation. Operating a Victor yoke with one hand puts that hand approx. 10 inches to one side of the centre line of the column.
Control inputs therefore require a certain about of dexterity, not so much in normal flight but very much so at speeds approaching v1, in a cross wind, on a large 4 engine bomber, when you are expecting to be controlling direction & brakes only whilst giving verbal commands for power.

Regards Steve
 
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