All very 'hurrah' and very British...what they don't say is that the pilots then released the ejection canopy ( I am led to believe and just in case of course) , but weel reported... the crew at rear ( who could not eject ) came forward and pushed the safety pins back into the ejection seats - telling the pilots by such means that - "quite frankly their company remained desireable- whatever the outcome". One cannot help but feel such action must encourage pilots to do their absolute best!
@Sqdrn1 I have read elsewhere that the crew was fairly expendable and no provision for escape was provided. I guess they had 'chutes, but trying to bail out of a jet bomber going downhill at 500+ knots was probably not a feasible option either. NZ still very much a 'colony' at this point too, hence the BBC-style voices.
@tweetingsparrow They had an entry hatch that came down and formed a slide under the cockpit. Halfway down the 'slide' they had to put their arm out and hook around the hatch strut and pivot around so as not to hit other parts of the airframe!!! Not something I would have liked to do.
@tweetingsparrow Yes. non flying crew could leave by 'traditional means' through a hatch directly before the nose leg u/c leg.. nmot practical when extended. I guess ti8nking was ... if low enough to extend gear one was too low to bail anyway. Makes sense but for pilots option to depart on rockets upward! Interesting comment on colonies. Harsh to say but a corsican chum claims current lack of popluous there stems from French use of their colonies before mainlanders as wartime 'canon fodder'
@MrBroxi1873 interesting to look at the concept similarities between Vulcan and Stealth, ditto some of the early flying wing planes from Lockheed et al circa late 40's into the 50's. All worked after a fashion but it has taken 50 plus years for the electronics/computers to catch up with designs and ideas. Weaponry is another issue though, especially with certain people who I won't name here being all to eager to fire something back without thought of consequence.
@MrBroxi1873 interesting comparison and hard to know why some planes are kept mobile and others aren't.
I suspect economics and avionics and airframe stress and fuel efficiency and public pissing about noise and war-mongering etc etc all play a part. Certainly there are a lot of aircraft whose designs started in the 50's and 60's still mobile in 3rd-world countries - ha, read New Zealand we're riddled with them here. No flying Vulcans though.
@CaptOReilly don't know if plastic spastic or whatever the shithead calls himself got your note. Pity these smart-arses aren't here in NZ - limited population is very easy to find people and pay them a visit!!!
I haven't 'bonged up' in quite a wee while, tweetingsparrow, the economy has buggered that up. [i'm scraping together enough to afford a bottle of milk, a block of cheese and some butter. . .the way things are going it's cheaper for me to throw some methylated spirits on my wheat-bix, spread some petrol on my toast and layer on some slices of heavy fuel oil from the Rena]
@SiliconBong ditto the bong, and very well know the state of the economy. 2 months ago myself and the other half would be counting what change we had to debate if we could afford a wee cake from the bakery, now I'm in Queensland on the equivalent of $35/hr - a full $19/hr more than I was offered at home. And my accommodation is paid for. Not all roses though, lot of hoops to jump through and I've done a lot of the hard work on previous visits, and still have a house to pay off.
Wow, i'm getting a little under half of that, tweetingsparrow. We've got an election about a month away and the politicians are almost as apathetic as the voters. Every party's saying we're up sh!t creek in a barbed wire canoe, . . no heartfelt expositions of wonderous results and fantastic turnarounds, just a promise that the sh!t won't smell as bad next year :)
Did you hear it's cheaper to buy new zealand milk in the middle east, than it is to buy middle eastern petrol in new zealand?!!
@SiliconBong yeah prob left too l8 2 sign on and vote. Fear of paying a decent wage and ostentatious greed are key factors for the current situation. Speaking of Key, the man who is worth $55 million has no notion of what day to day life is for a lot of people, not that I begrudge people having bucks but telling you things aren't bad when $50 a week for bills is a struggle...truck drivers $30/hr oz, mechanics $150k year, local service station wants attendant $21:70 hr cant find workers...
$21.70 for being a service station attendant, tweetingsparrow, !exclamationmark!
True Story: I'm in a pub. . .I think I see a NZ $100 dollar note, I whip it into my pocket, finish my drink and leave quietly. I'm so pleased and happy :) I unwrap this orangey reddish bit of paper that i've found-only to find it's an Australian twenty dollar note :( - - - I go to the bank and they give me NZ$24.90 for it :) :) !!!
That gets me thinking, am I living on the wrong side of the ditch ?
@SiliconBong and the servo attendants don't touch the pumps, they're just there to take your money and sell you pies. the ad is on the noticeboard in the shops and on the garage door. are downsides though, rent expensive, tax rate varies, heat and flies - but then you get paid... i don;t like being a kiwi knocker and i love the area i live in, but when you compare struggling to find $50 a week to pay a bill off, or working a month and paying $1000 off something.
@SiliconBong is also good when i transfer $ back to NZ to pay off said bills. exchange rate fluctuates though. if you have a trade or skill is certainly worth considering for a short while at least. yesterday we worked 11 hrs - not incl benefits (food & living allowance, travel, safety clothing) b4 tax is NZ$374. for one day.and usually we do 6 days a week. however today off and its a struggle to even do laundry, or go anywhere. life is machine operating and thats it. & 3000km travel in 10 days
What you get before tax in one day is what I can expect after tax in one week, tweetingsparrow. Admittedly it would be an easy week; less than forty hours work, but after taking off rent and buying some groceries anything that's left disappears into electricity and telephone and the occasional drop of whisky :)
@SiliconBong after 10+ years of developing a property and having no spare coin it makes a change to be able to afford cheese and tomato juice. As my other half said, this trip will pay off some bills, maybe the next one will save some dollars. Still driving a 23-year old Holden. Need to finish my computing diploma for a start, those pieces of paper make a world of difference and give you some credit.
I'm getting into a cheaper flat in the next couple of weeks, tweetingsparrow, so every cloud has a silver lining, Speaking of which it's slow and steady heavy drizzle at the moment, at least it's not windy though. Monday tomorrow, sigh, think it'll be a decent working week so I might be able to afford some scotch for christmas :)
Saw the last flying Vulcan last weekend at an airshow - an incredible piece of kit, we must do all that we can to keep her in the air for as long as possible.
@CaptOReilly Indeed - I've seen some interesting aircraft slowly rotting away in what people want to be museums (an F-86 Sabre behind a garage in Queensland, for example) but just don't have the time or resources. Keeping airworthy is the key. If you haven't heard of Omaka here in NZ do a bit of a search for it. Here's a vid of mine from there, Spitfire doing it's thing -
If yuo would like to send me your email I will attach them to you/ Not sure how you get them out into the wider viewing populace... maybe you could help with that. Cheers kevin
@3549Kevin yeah here's is my yahoo mail hairy_nz@yahoo.com off the top of my head the one way would be to assemble a video out of the stills, I can do that in a few minutes, or make up a slideshow with Powerpoint, which is something else I work with. Failing that, having a hosted webpage or posting them onto a blog is yet another way, then sending that link onwards...If you send them to me at a reasonably high resolution I'll make up a video. Ta.
I have just been given some black and white pics of the Vulcan as she lay off the runway at Ohakea after a crashlanding with broken undercarriage. She was evetually winched back onto the tarmac after repairs by a Scammell pioneer. About 10 photos. This is th same Vulcan that crashed on her return to London. I was 10 years old and saw her fly over our city on her way to Wellington. STill the most amazing and graceful aircraft I have seen
@3549Kevin They would be worthwhile seeing if you manage to scan them. Have commented elsewhere here that I have very clear recollection of seeing one fly over Pararparaumu escorted by Skyhawks when I was about 6 years old, circa 1970. A fella below here has a video of one flying in England a few months ago, I think it was, worth having a look. Is in one of his sailing videos.
@tweetingsparrow Hi. I doubt if you saw a Vulcan escorted by Skyhawks. More likely the Concorde as no Vulcans came to NZ after XH458's accident at Wellington [18th?] October 1959. I was there and saw it happen - horrors! If she had crashed there what of the people lining the runway?.She spent 81/2 months at Ohakea undergoing repair- great display prior to leaving for U.K. I have some photos of it at Ohakea, but not taken by me so can't post them; also have a bit of duralumin from the wing.
@wazza1939 well you've set me a task there, to verify the year of the airshow and the aircraft. I've always been 98% sure it was a Vulcan, Concorde??? Never seen one that I was aware of and disappointed for it, the times they knowingly came here I was unable to travel and see. I can still picture the plane and the skyhawk escorts flying over very clearly, one of those images that even at 3 or 4 years old imprinted on my brain. I went to the show with my mother, who worked for NAC about that time
@tweetingsparrow My apologies; you are right. The last visit by a Vulcan of the Far East Air Force was 1973. The repairs were carried out by AVRO Australia with very little input by the RNZAF other than the initial recovery. There were NO army personnel present
@tweetingsparrow I agree that they are a very graceful aircraft. A story I remember is of an American airman looking over the Vulcan on jacks in the hangar. he was heard to say, "Weeel, Ah've seen some mighty big birds in my time, but this is the biggest f----r Ah have EVER seen".
@3549Kevin Sorry Kevin, The Vulcan which crash-landed at Wellington and later at Ohakea is not the one which crashed on its return to London; that one crashed after its round-the-world trip in 1956; the Ohakea one [XH498] occurred in 1959. I was at Ohakea at the time. [I previously identified the Ohakea one as XH458 - my mistake. I also have b & w pics of it at Ohakea.
I have just been given some black and white pics of the Vulcan as she lay off the runway at Ohakea after a crashlanding with broken undercarriage. She was evetually winched back onto the tarmac after repairs by a Scammell pioneer. About 10 photos.
I would love to see one of these fly here in the U.S.A. - Sorry but i had to laugh when he says the pilot took the plane away from the crowded airport and then it looks as he's flying over houses instead.
@megashegem I believe there's still afew airworthy examples doing airshow arounds, best chance of one in the States would be if it snuck over from England. I guess the airport was (comparitively) crowded due to the airshow, the place is a whole different state of affairs now 50-odd years later.
@tweetingsparrow There is only one flying here in the UK. A couple are capable of taxi runs only. If you want to see it fly then you better get over here soon, it only has 2-3 years left on its fatigue life.
@tweetingsparrow There is only one air worthy in the UK, and it rarely goies out of the UK. We live at the back of BAE woodford where they made it originally, and in the summer it comes and does a fly by when it has air shows on elsewhere. I will upload a video from Lake Windermere when the Vulcan made an appearance there. Tag me, and give me a day or two.
@themadmanc your message came through twice was flagged as spam? Anyway I'll keep and eye out for your vid would be great to see, I have only ever seen one in the air, was on a trip to NZ and done a flyby at our local airport, I was about 6 years old or less so that's around 1970, can still picture it very clearly surrounded by and dwarfing 6 RNZAF A4 Skyhawks.
@tweetingsparrow There is only one air worthy in the UK, and it rarely goies out of the UK. We live at the back of BAE woodford where they made it originally, and in the summer it comes and does a fly by when it has air shows on elsewhere. I will upload a video from Lake Windermere when the Vulcan made an appearance there. Tag me, and give me a day or two.
Once again, a youtube'er speaking about something without any knowledge on the subjet. Airplanes are made to fly and unless something catastrophic has occurred(ie losing a controlling surface) so they handle much better in the air than they do on the ground at high speeds. The pilot did the right thing in this case. If you experience any loss of control on landing and you still have the speed to go flying, you go flying.
@Parubhi Sorry but i had to laugh at your comment...Don't take it so serious otherwise you'll die at an early age. I'm glade the everything worked out well for plane and pilot...PEACE.
@megashegem - their is only one Vulcan still flying XH558, she is scheduled to display in the UK in May and June this year. After years of painstaking restoration she took the skies again in 2008 from Bruntingthorpe. I was there for her first flight, but had a little problem with dust making my eyes water. An unforgettable moment.
@amron2006 Thank you for the info. I saw one on static display here in the states at Castle museum in Atwater, Calif. I thought it would be bigger but i was still impressed.
@tweetingsparrow There is one in Sunderland a/c museum. It is sitting outside, been there since 1983(?). It will end up being scrapped I guess. Shame that a proper indoor display wasnt made.
Cool video! I heard that the same day a massive flying boat touched the runway during a low pass and had to land on water and then be beached to avoid sinking! An eventful day.
@hogey74 Your memory serves you well, young Skywalker. There is a clip somewhere in Youtube showing the incident. The Sunderland was doing fine at an altitude of about a metre, except the runway slopes up slightly. That's when the crew heard loud scraping noises underneath. I saw a photo in the Weekly News the following week, showing the Sunderland driving down the runway with sparks showering out behind the keel. It flew back to its base at Hobsonville in Auckland and parked up on the shore.
@MarsFKA Cool I will have a look for that - but I want to be a jedi now! There is a story about a WW2 aussie crew that nearly landed wheels up in Sydney until a timid rear gunner spoke up. Then, upon landing in Sydney harbour, the captain promptly stepped out the door into the water!
Date sounds about right, I keep meaning to confirm that. Yes this was footage from the opening, I have a VHS tape with a lot of footage of that day, plus some from Auckland in the early days.
You just reminded me I meant to check the exact date some time ago but kept forgetting, however the 50th anniversary of the opening was just a couple of months ago, so it may well have been 1960, which means it would be an early model Vulcan. The son of the pilot has made a comment further back on this page, could ask him.
My elderly 91 year-old cousin only told me just yesterday that he got sprayed with kerosene made by that bomber. Apparently he was not the only one to be drenched with it that day.
Yeah i guess a few people would have gone home ponging. I see that over the weekend there was a 50 year celebration of the airport opening, would have been good to visit if possible, be some interesting shots on display.
A good portion of a pilot's skill however is recognizing a bad situation and being able to get out of it. Whether the problem was his mistake or something else.
A good number of pilot's don't realize their own mistakes or they ignore them until it is too late.
@pulsejet1 very much agree - my instructor taught me that I will stuff up plenty of times, especially during flying tests, but that the mark of a pilot is how they deal with a situation they created. That, and assuming you will make errors and constantly checking your actions.
Wellington airport is notorious for cross winds, and 'interesting' landings. Last year, an aircraft was flipped over when it was on the runway. Even though it is an international airport, the 747's and A380 would never land here as the runway's too short.
Yes it is bumpy at the best of times, I've been across a few times recently and last Friday in a Caravan was fun. They seem to have canned the 767's a while ago, I guess due to economics and passenger demand, but some people around must have flown on the 747-SP's when they did their thing. Went and watched them myself when younger.
A friend has just given me a DVD full of National Film Unit archives including all of this footage and more, from the opening of the Wellington Airport extensions in 1959. I was watching from a nearby hill. My sister was sprayed with jet fuel!
Bloody hell! You wouldn't know weather to be fascinated or terrified. DVD sounds a go, I have a fair bit of stuff on VHS but it drops some quality when digitising.
I have posted some still photos using the same title as this, to compliment tweetings Video. They show the actual crash landing half an hour later. (Where do you you get these great vids, loved the RNZAF Vampire display vid)
Thanks for that, curious to know where you got the pics. Air force crew or journos? I have the vaguest recollection of seeing a newspaper article from the time, probably one my father had kept but I expect it would have got chucked at some point while having one of his mad periodic clean-ups.
This and the Vampire are flogged off a video I got some time ago on historic NZ aviation, I have been meaning to post more from it for ages but just don't seem to get the opportunity.
This looks a lot like the 14th October 1975 incident at Luqa, Malta (XM645). If this is the case, the aircraft did NOT safely crash-land: the aircraft climbed to allow the rear crew to safely depart the aircraft (no ejection seats for the rear crew -- the procedure was to jump from the bottom of the aircraft) but the aircraft blew up. The P & CP ejected but the rear crew and a woman on the ground perished.
I can guarantee you 120% this is Wellington, I was born and grew up 40 miles away so know it well, and used to visit Ohakea air force base as often as I could. My parents were both involved with aviation at the time and I vaguely remember them telling me about the opening of Rongotai as they both attended.
It's NZ, not Malta. Read about this one. They eventually landed (there are pictures, sans canopy that was blown off) and the aircraft was repaired. It was even 'zapped' with a kiwi while there. The rear crew purposely put the safety pins back in the pilots' seats to prevent them from bailling on them, hence the safe landing later.
Ha! You can imagine the pilots going to bail out and wondering what the blazes was wrong with the ejection system. Probably the crew weren't too happy with the idea they were expendable.
Yeh it can be. I've flown in at night on a 767 and many years ago in a DC8, both when a bit rough and wouldn't want to be in charge. Probably the hairiest approach in a Cessna Caravan though from Koromiko/Picton.
He learnt about flying from that! Did any of the crew bail out? The Pilot and Co-Pilot have ejection seats but the other crew have to climb down a ladder attached to the nose gear door.
No, they flew on to Ohakea Air-force Base about 60 miles north and made a crash-landing there, but no-one injured and the plane was subsequently repaired and went back to England as far as I know. There was a crash in England around the same era that killed some of the crew.
Yep 3 crew died when they attempted to land at Heathrow in fog Pilot and Copilot ejected and walked away the other 3 were killed as they couldn't bail out due to the landing hear being extended
holly crap, even the wing tip struck the ground, great piloting to recover from that !!
wolfe1970 1 month ago
All very 'hurrah' and very British...what they don't say is that the pilots then released the ejection canopy ( I am led to believe and just in case of course) , but weel reported... the crew at rear ( who could not eject ) came forward and pushed the safety pins back into the ejection seats - telling the pilots by such means that - "quite frankly their company remained desireable- whatever the outcome". One cannot help but feel such action must encourage pilots to do their absolute best!
Sqdrn1 2 months ago
@Sqdrn1 I have read elsewhere that the crew was fairly expendable and no provision for escape was provided. I guess they had 'chutes, but trying to bail out of a jet bomber going downhill at 500+ knots was probably not a feasible option either. NZ still very much a 'colony' at this point too, hence the BBC-style voices.
tweetingsparrow 2 months ago
@tweetingsparrow They had an entry hatch that came down and formed a slide under the cockpit. Halfway down the 'slide' they had to put their arm out and hook around the hatch strut and pivot around so as not to hit other parts of the airframe!!! Not something I would have liked to do.
MrWhelts 2 months ago
@MrWhelts all sounds bloody awkward.
tweetingsparrow 2 months ago
@tweetingsparrow Not as awkward as sliding down the hatch and going straight into the nose wheel haha. Must admit, I am glad I never had to use it.
MrWhelts 2 months ago
@tweetingsparrow Yes. non flying crew could leave by 'traditional means' through a hatch directly before the nose leg u/c leg.. nmot practical when extended. I guess ti8nking was ... if low enough to extend gear one was too low to bail anyway. Makes sense but for pilots option to depart on rockets upward! Interesting comment on colonies. Harsh to say but a corsican chum claims current lack of popluous there stems from French use of their colonies before mainlanders as wartime 'canon fodder'
Sqdrn1 2 months ago
watch?v=GAzI_IIHkbg
omg.
rugbyguybean14 3 months ago
Awsome vid Tweet
tsns1 3 months ago in playlist Flying
@tsns1 ta, even though not originally mine I'll accept the brownie points. :-)
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
@MrBroxi1873 interesting to look at the concept similarities between Vulcan and Stealth, ditto some of the early flying wing planes from Lockheed et al circa late 40's into the 50's. All worked after a fashion but it has taken 50 plus years for the electronics/computers to catch up with designs and ideas. Weaponry is another issue though, especially with certain people who I won't name here being all to eager to fire something back without thought of consequence.
tweetingsparrow 5 months ago
@tweetingsparrow Personally I wouldn't want to wipe out Afghanistan as such, just a few key personnel and rebel groups would do.
tweetingsparrow 5 months ago
@MrBroxi1873 interesting comparison and hard to know why some planes are kept mobile and others aren't.
I suspect economics and avionics and airframe stress and fuel efficiency and public pissing about noise and war-mongering etc etc all play a part. Certainly there are a lot of aircraft whose designs started in the 50's and 60's still mobile in 3rd-world countries - ha, read New Zealand we're riddled with them here. No flying Vulcans though.
tweetingsparrow 5 months ago
@tweetingsparrow Nice idea!! :-)
CaptOReilly 6 months ago
#plasticspastic201
Does your Mother know you're still up?
CaptOReilly 6 months ago
@CaptOReilly don't know if plastic spastic or whatever the shithead calls himself got your note. Pity these smart-arses aren't here in NZ - limited population is very easy to find people and pay them a visit!!!
tweetingsparrow 6 months ago
A small population does have its benefits, tweetingsparrow.
SiliconBong 4 months ago
@SiliconBong yeeesss....although I've never met anyone from Waikikamukau yet...tried to find the place.
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
I didn't know sparrows were into 'tweeting', tweetingsparrow :P
SiliconBong 3 months ago
@SiliconBong were tweeting, especially up in my roof when i was trying to sign in, long b4 twits were tweeting on twitter. or bonging up.
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
I haven't 'bonged up' in quite a wee while, tweetingsparrow, the economy has buggered that up. [i'm scraping together enough to afford a bottle of milk, a block of cheese and some butter. . .the way things are going it's cheaper for me to throw some methylated spirits on my wheat-bix, spread some petrol on my toast and layer on some slices of heavy fuel oil from the Rena]
SiliconBong 3 months ago
@SiliconBong ditto the bong, and very well know the state of the economy. 2 months ago myself and the other half would be counting what change we had to debate if we could afford a wee cake from the bakery, now I'm in Queensland on the equivalent of $35/hr - a full $19/hr more than I was offered at home. And my accommodation is paid for. Not all roses though, lot of hoops to jump through and I've done a lot of the hard work on previous visits, and still have a house to pay off.
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
Wow, i'm getting a little under half of that, tweetingsparrow. We've got an election about a month away and the politicians are almost as apathetic as the voters. Every party's saying we're up sh!t creek in a barbed wire canoe, . . no heartfelt expositions of wonderous results and fantastic turnarounds, just a promise that the sh!t won't smell as bad next year :)
Did you hear it's cheaper to buy new zealand milk in the middle east, than it is to buy middle eastern petrol in new zealand?!!
SiliconBong 3 months ago
@SiliconBong yeah prob left too l8 2 sign on and vote. Fear of paying a decent wage and ostentatious greed are key factors for the current situation. Speaking of Key, the man who is worth $55 million has no notion of what day to day life is for a lot of people, not that I begrudge people having bucks but telling you things aren't bad when $50 a week for bills is a struggle...truck drivers $30/hr oz, mechanics $150k year, local service station wants attendant $21:70 hr cant find workers...
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
$21.70 for being a service station attendant, tweetingsparrow, !exclamationmark!
True Story: I'm in a pub. . .I think I see a NZ $100 dollar note, I whip it into my pocket, finish my drink and leave quietly. I'm so pleased and happy :) I unwrap this orangey reddish bit of paper that i've found-only to find it's an Australian twenty dollar note :( - - - I go to the bank and they give me NZ$24.90 for it :) :) !!!
That gets me thinking, am I living on the wrong side of the ditch ?
SiliconBong 3 months ago
@SiliconBong and the servo attendants don't touch the pumps, they're just there to take your money and sell you pies. the ad is on the noticeboard in the shops and on the garage door. are downsides though, rent expensive, tax rate varies, heat and flies - but then you get paid... i don;t like being a kiwi knocker and i love the area i live in, but when you compare struggling to find $50 a week to pay a bill off, or working a month and paying $1000 off something.
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
@SiliconBong is also good when i transfer $ back to NZ to pay off said bills. exchange rate fluctuates though. if you have a trade or skill is certainly worth considering for a short while at least. yesterday we worked 11 hrs - not incl benefits (food & living allowance, travel, safety clothing) b4 tax is NZ$374. for one day.and usually we do 6 days a week. however today off and its a struggle to even do laundry, or go anywhere. life is machine operating and thats it. & 3000km travel in 10 days
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
What you get before tax in one day is what I can expect after tax in one week, tweetingsparrow. Admittedly it would be an easy week; less than forty hours work, but after taking off rent and buying some groceries anything that's left disappears into electricity and telephone and the occasional drop of whisky :)
SiliconBong 3 months ago
@SiliconBong after 10+ years of developing a property and having no spare coin it makes a change to be able to afford cheese and tomato juice. As my other half said, this trip will pay off some bills, maybe the next one will save some dollars. Still driving a 23-year old Holden. Need to finish my computing diploma for a start, those pieces of paper make a world of difference and give you some credit.
tweetingsparrow 3 months ago
I'm getting into a cheaper flat in the next couple of weeks, tweetingsparrow, so every cloud has a silver lining, Speaking of which it's slow and steady heavy drizzle at the moment, at least it's not windy though. Monday tomorrow, sigh, think it'll be a decent working week so I might be able to afford some scotch for christmas :)
SiliconBong 3 months ago
That's some piloting skill!!
Saw the last flying Vulcan last weekend at an airshow - an incredible piece of kit, we must do all that we can to keep her in the air for as long as possible.
Once she's gone, there will never be another!!!
CaptOReilly 7 months ago 2
@CaptOReilly
tweetingsparrow 7 months ago
@CaptOReilly Indeed - I've seen some interesting aircraft slowly rotting away in what people want to be museums (an F-86 Sabre behind a garage in Queensland, for example) but just don't have the time or resources. Keeping airworthy is the key. If you haven't heard of Omaka here in NZ do a bit of a search for it. Here's a vid of mine from there, Spitfire doing it's thing -
tweetingsparrow 7 months ago
@CaptOReilly yeh real skill. he managed to twat the landing gear and piss fuel everywhere. REAL good .
He just pulled up out of it because it was what ANY pilot would do. leave your superhero fantasies up your ass where they belong. Fool.
plasticspastic201 6 months ago
If yuo would like to send me your email I will attach them to you/ Not sure how you get them out into the wider viewing populace... maybe you could help with that. Cheers kevin
3549Kevin 7 months ago
@3549Kevin yeah here's is my yahoo mail hairy_nz@yahoo.com off the top of my head the one way would be to assemble a video out of the stills, I can do that in a few minutes, or make up a slideshow with Powerpoint, which is something else I work with. Failing that, having a hosted webpage or posting them onto a blog is yet another way, then sending that link onwards...If you send them to me at a reasonably high resolution I'll make up a video. Ta.
tweetingsparrow 7 months ago
I have just been given some black and white pics of the Vulcan as she lay off the runway at Ohakea after a crashlanding with broken undercarriage. She was evetually winched back onto the tarmac after repairs by a Scammell pioneer. About 10 photos. This is th same Vulcan that crashed on her return to London. I was 10 years old and saw her fly over our city on her way to Wellington. STill the most amazing and graceful aircraft I have seen
3549Kevin 7 months ago
@3549Kevin They would be worthwhile seeing if you manage to scan them. Have commented elsewhere here that I have very clear recollection of seeing one fly over Pararparaumu escorted by Skyhawks when I was about 6 years old, circa 1970. A fella below here has a video of one flying in England a few months ago, I think it was, worth having a look. Is in one of his sailing videos.
tweetingsparrow 7 months ago
@tweetingsparrow Hi. I doubt if you saw a Vulcan escorted by Skyhawks. More likely the Concorde as no Vulcans came to NZ after XH458's accident at Wellington [18th?] October 1959. I was there and saw it happen - horrors! If she had crashed there what of the people lining the runway?.She spent 81/2 months at Ohakea undergoing repair- great display prior to leaving for U.K. I have some photos of it at Ohakea, but not taken by me so can't post them; also have a bit of duralumin from the wing.
wazza1939 5 months ago
@wazza1939 well you've set me a task there, to verify the year of the airshow and the aircraft. I've always been 98% sure it was a Vulcan, Concorde??? Never seen one that I was aware of and disappointed for it, the times they knowingly came here I was unable to travel and see. I can still picture the plane and the skyhawk escorts flying over very clearly, one of those images that even at 3 or 4 years old imprinted on my brain. I went to the show with my mother, who worked for NAC about that time
tweetingsparrow 5 months ago in playlist Aeroplane Stuff
@tweetingsparrow My apologies; you are right. The last visit by a Vulcan of the Far East Air Force was 1973. The repairs were carried out by AVRO Australia with very little input by the RNZAF other than the initial recovery. There were NO army personnel present
wazza1939 5 months ago
@tweetingsparrow P.S. The reference to Army Personnel was regarding a post that I saw on the 'Plane Talk' site. A whole lot of misinformation there.
wazza1939 5 months ago
@tweetingsparrow I agree that they are a very graceful aircraft. A story I remember is of an American airman looking over the Vulcan on jacks in the hangar. he was heard to say, "Weeel, Ah've seen some mighty big birds in my time, but this is the biggest f----r Ah have EVER seen".
wazza1939 5 months ago
@3549Kevin Sorry Kevin, The Vulcan which crash-landed at Wellington and later at Ohakea is not the one which crashed on its return to London; that one crashed after its round-the-world trip in 1956; the Ohakea one [XH498] occurred in 1959. I was at Ohakea at the time. [I previously identified the Ohakea one as XH458 - my mistake. I also have b & w pics of it at Ohakea.
wazza1939 5 months ago
I have just been given some black and white pics of the Vulcan as she lay off the runway at Ohakea after a crashlanding with broken undercarriage. She was evetually winched back onto the tarmac after repairs by a Scammell pioneer. About 10 photos.
3549Kevin 7 months ago
I would love to see one of these fly here in the U.S.A. - Sorry but i had to laugh when he says the pilot took the plane away from the crowded airport and then it looks as he's flying over houses instead.
megashegem 11 months ago
@megashegem I believe there's still afew airworthy examples doing airshow arounds, best chance of one in the States would be if it snuck over from England. I guess the airport was (comparitively) crowded due to the airshow, the place is a whole different state of affairs now 50-odd years later.
tweetingsparrow 11 months ago
@tweetingsparrow There is only one flying here in the UK. A couple are capable of taxi runs only. If you want to see it fly then you better get over here soon, it only has 2-3 years left on its fatigue life.
GustavG10 10 months ago
@tweetingsparrow There is only one air worthy in the UK, and it rarely goies out of the UK. We live at the back of BAE woodford where they made it originally, and in the summer it comes and does a fly by when it has air shows on elsewhere. I will upload a video from Lake Windermere when the Vulcan made an appearance there. Tag me, and give me a day or two.
themadmanc 9 months ago
@themadmanc your message came through twice was flagged as spam? Anyway I'll keep and eye out for your vid would be great to see, I have only ever seen one in the air, was on a trip to NZ and done a flyby at our local airport, I was about 6 years old or less so that's around 1970, can still picture it very clearly surrounded by and dwarfing 6 RNZAF A4 Skyhawks.
tweetingsparrow 9 months ago
@tweetingsparrow There is only one air worthy in the UK, and it rarely goies out of the UK. We live at the back of BAE woodford where they made it originally, and in the summer it comes and does a fly by when it has air shows on elsewhere. I will upload a video from Lake Windermere when the Vulcan made an appearance there. Tag me, and give me a day or two.
themadmanc 9 months ago
@megashegem
Once again, a youtube'er speaking about something without any knowledge on the subjet. Airplanes are made to fly and unless something catastrophic has occurred(ie losing a controlling surface) so they handle much better in the air than they do on the ground at high speeds. The pilot did the right thing in this case. If you experience any loss of control on landing and you still have the speed to go flying, you go flying.
Parubhi 10 months ago
@Parubhi Sorry but i had to laugh at your comment...Don't take it so serious otherwise you'll die at an early age. I'm glade the everything worked out well for plane and pilot...PEACE.
megashegem 10 months ago
@megashegem - their is only one Vulcan still flying XH558, she is scheduled to display in the UK in May and June this year. After years of painstaking restoration she took the skies again in 2008 from Bruntingthorpe. I was there for her first flight, but had a little problem with dust making my eyes water. An unforgettable moment.
amron2006 10 months ago
@amron2006 Thank you for the info. I saw one on static display here in the states at Castle museum in Atwater, Calif. I thought it would be bigger but i was still impressed.
megashegem 10 months ago
This is in Wellington!
MaverickOnTheMoon 11 months ago
@MaverickOnTheMoon It is!
tweetingsparrow 11 months ago
Chocks away Ginger.......
amemy1 1 year ago 2
@amemy1 Biggles would be proud.
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
@tweetingsparrow There is one in Sunderland a/c museum. It is sitting outside, been there since 1983(?). It will end up being scrapped I guess. Shame that a proper indoor display wasnt made.
amemy1 10 months ago
lolol @ the end -> a pooman production?
nzecureuil2 1 year ago
Wow, this is almost like what happened to the Air France Concorde, The Pilot is very lucky that the trailing fuel didn't catch fire,.
LTF85199 1 year ago
@LTF85199 Indeed, hadn't thought of that angle.
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
Bet that did the undercart the power of good!
7607987600 1 year ago
@7607987600 good for testing tyre development
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
it was the greys,they wanted the tecknoligy
d9andy992 1 year ago
hahahahaha - all seems horribly outdated now I guess, suppose Stealth tech is getting old hat too.
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
Cool video! I heard that the same day a massive flying boat touched the runway during a low pass and had to land on water and then be beached to avoid sinking! An eventful day.
hogey74 1 year ago
You might be right, somewhere that rings a bell.
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
@hogey74 Your memory serves you well, young Skywalker. There is a clip somewhere in Youtube showing the incident. The Sunderland was doing fine at an altitude of about a metre, except the runway slopes up slightly. That's when the crew heard loud scraping noises underneath. I saw a photo in the Weekly News the following week, showing the Sunderland driving down the runway with sparks showering out behind the keel. It flew back to its base at Hobsonville in Auckland and parked up on the shore.
MarsFKA 1 year ago
@MarsFKA Cool I will have a look for that - but I want to be a jedi now! There is a story about a WW2 aussie crew that nearly landed wheels up in Sydney until a timid rear gunner spoke up. Then, upon landing in Sydney harbour, the captain promptly stepped out the door into the water!
hogey74 1 year ago
Date sounds about right, I keep meaning to confirm that. Yes this was footage from the opening, I have a VHS tape with a lot of footage of that day, plus some from Auckland in the early days.
tweetingsparrow 1 year ago
the vulcan was known as the 'wanking bird' due to its two tier cockpit.
ianupton 2 years ago
Will do re: the link, can't do right now though. Thanks for your input.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
You just reminded me I meant to check the exact date some time ago but kept forgetting, however the 50th anniversary of the opening was just a couple of months ago, so it may well have been 1960, which means it would be an early model Vulcan. The son of the pilot has made a comment further back on this page, could ask him.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
I reckon the next landing was not "remarkably free of damage" or expense LOL.
schlusselmensch 2 years ago
Apparently he got it on the ground without too much kerfuffle, was repaired and flew back to England eventually.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
My elderly 91 year-old cousin only told me just yesterday that he got sprayed with kerosene made by that bomber. Apparently he was not the only one to be drenched with it that day.
4OSouth 2 years ago
Yeah i guess a few people would have gone home ponging. I see that over the weekend there was a 50 year celebration of the airport opening, would have been good to visit if possible, be some interesting shots on display.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
Dodgy flying I would think!! No doubt the Pilot got a reaming after that!!
geoac 2 years ago
I believe a short sunderland of the RNZAF also had problems after it's hull struck the runway during a flyby at the same event.
64TrueKiwi 2 years ago
Somewhere that rings a bell. Don't know if it was this show or not but possible, I might have to check the full-length video at some point.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
I love how the comentator is 'praising' the pilots skills etc .. when he actually 'F*cked up in the first place!
xoio 2 years ago
A good portion of a pilot's skill however is recognizing a bad situation and being able to get out of it. Whether the problem was his mistake or something else.
A good number of pilot's don't realize their own mistakes or they ignore them until it is too late.
pulsejet1 2 years ago 8
@pulsejet1 very much agree - my instructor taught me that I will stuff up plenty of times, especially during flying tests, but that the mark of a pilot is how they deal with a situation they created. That, and assuming you will make errors and constantly checking your actions.
hogey74 1 year ago
@pulsejet1 One of the smartest comments I've read on youtube, I guess I do still have some hope left in humanity.
MrPhucdatbich 4 months ago
Maybe so, but you have to admit he done pretty well to keep it moving and up in the air again.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
Wellington airport is notorious for cross winds, and 'interesting' landings. Last year, an aircraft was flipped over when it was on the runway. Even though it is an international airport, the 747's and A380 would never land here as the runway's too short.
NZWolf2 2 years ago
Yes it is bumpy at the best of times, I've been across a few times recently and last Friday in a Caravan was fun. They seem to have canned the 767's a while ago, I guess due to economics and passenger demand, but some people around must have flown on the 747-SP's when they did their thing. Went and watched them myself when younger.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
Actually do the RAF have any nuke bombers? I guess some of the strike aircraft are nuke capable.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
The RAF don't need a nuclear bomber's because the Royal Navy are in charge of nuke's if one was ever going to be used.
XTR3M3uk247 2 years ago
it true that the vulcan is still the RAF nuclear bomber?
foxy123ok 2 years ago
Crosswinds???
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
There must've been a few of them come to grief around the world then. Guess it happens to a lot of military craft though.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
My father saw the Vulcan that crashed
into a landfill near Glenview Naval Air Station
in Illinois (near Chicago) in 1978.
airraideagle 2 years ago
A friend has just given me a DVD full of National Film Unit archives including all of this footage and more, from the opening of the Wellington Airport extensions in 1959. I was watching from a nearby hill. My sister was sprayed with jet fuel!
wynmead 2 years ago 6
Bloody hell! You wouldn't know weather to be fascinated or terrified. DVD sounds a go, I have a fair bit of stuff on VHS but it drops some quality when digitising.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
I have posted some still photos using the same title as this, to compliment tweetings Video. They show the actual crash landing half an hour later. (Where do you you get these great vids, loved the RNZAF Vampire display vid)
zulunine 2 years ago
Thanks for that, curious to know where you got the pics. Air force crew or journos? I have the vaguest recollection of seeing a newspaper article from the time, probably one my father had kept but I expect it would have got chucked at some point while having one of his mad periodic clean-ups.
This and the Vampire are flogged off a video I got some time ago on historic NZ aviation, I have been meaning to post more from it for ages but just don't seem to get the opportunity.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
This looks a lot like the 14th October 1975 incident at Luqa, Malta (XM645). If this is the case, the aircraft did NOT safely crash-land: the aircraft climbed to allow the rear crew to safely depart the aircraft (no ejection seats for the rear crew -- the procedure was to jump from the bottom of the aircraft) but the aircraft blew up. The P & CP ejected but the rear crew and a woman on the ground perished.
gromit1943 2 years ago
I can guarantee you 120% this is Wellington, I was born and grew up 40 miles away so know it well, and used to visit Ohakea air force base as often as I could. My parents were both involved with aviation at the time and I vaguely remember them telling me about the opening of Rongotai as they both attended.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
It's NZ, not Malta. Read about this one. They eventually landed (there are pictures, sans canopy that was blown off) and the aircraft was repaired. It was even 'zapped' with a kiwi while there. The rear crew purposely put the safety pins back in the pilots' seats to prevent them from bailling on them, hence the safe landing later.
evilintel 2 years ago
Ha! You can imagine the pilots going to bail out and wondering what the blazes was wrong with the ejection system. Probably the crew weren't too happy with the idea they were expendable.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
I bet there was some paper work to do after that li'l scrape.
TheDepotCat 2 years ago
Yes...
Hope his insurance was up to date, I wouldn't want to pay the panel beaters.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
Welly Apt is a bastard to land at in a 737 let alone a heavy slow mother like the Vulcan.
lol excellent vid tho!
devine666darkness 2 years ago
Yeh it can be. I've flown in at night on a 767 and many years ago in a DC8, both when a bit rough and wouldn't want to be in charge. Probably the hairiest approach in a Cessna Caravan though from Koromiko/Picton.
tweetingsparrow 2 years ago
you only get away with doing that once!!!
fuzzdmedic 3 years ago
Indeed.
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
I'm not surprised. It's like shoving an elephant on a tricycle off a cliff, and telling him to aim for a target.
peepeevagi 3 years ago
Hahahaha.
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
He learnt about flying from that! Did any of the crew bail out? The Pilot and Co-Pilot have ejection seats but the other crew have to climb down a ladder attached to the nose gear door.
tvfilmglamdirector 3 years ago
No, they flew on to Ohakea Air-force Base about 60 miles north and made a crash-landing there, but no-one injured and the plane was subsequently repaired and went back to England as far as I know. There was a crash in England around the same era that killed some of the crew.
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
Yep 3 crew died when they attempted to land at Heathrow in fog Pilot and Copilot ejected and walked away the other 3 were killed as they couldn't bail out due to the landing hear being extended
pup2097 3 years ago
That pilot is a legend!
voxadvt30 3 years ago
Guess you're right - hadn't thought of that. Pretty spectacular recovery.
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
OWNED!!
pwnage0013 3 years ago
You what?
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
Great post!
nighthawk006 3 years ago
Thought you'd like the footage of Wgton. Actually have the whole article on the opening of the airport, will try to get it on one day.
tweetingsparrow 3 years ago
That would be great.
nighthawk006 3 years ago