Accidental take-off of Victor Bob Prothero explains what happened.

[4NICK8TER1]

Pilot : Close throttles.......Co-Pilot : Lets go flying

[awlcvl]

It would be interesting to hear the co-pilots version. Where the flaps set for take off or landing?

[palwing]

LOL.. yea right Bob "wink wink" Nice one.....

[Backpacker1uk]

BZ Bob let me know when you intend taking her up again top man

[c0neyisland]

The last four letters of his surname explain the man entirely!

[starryshaman]

The best of the best pilots. RAF. :O)

[canals22]

You still have it Bob, good job, I'll fly with you any time... If we ever meet, the drinks are on me.

[supersabrejet]

Good machines, in the hands of GOOD PILOTS.

[Daehawk]

Wonder what happened to the idiotic co-pilot?

[MrSebfrench76]

First thougt: what a beauty!!! A pity she has such a poor gas mileage,hehehe..

[wolfacer]

thumbs up to you Bob , a brilliant job of getting that back on the ground.Taking that for a circuit could have been fatal, thats why he never took it for a circuit and plus hes a professional pilot whose not gona break rules to please the crowed and put lives at risk.. It is a shame that these planes cannot be flown.maybe one day they mite.

[philippe747300]

why didn't he took the oprtunity to make a full circuit ? ;)))

[louistheonion23]

The bloke who interviewed me for my pilot scholarship with TAG was a victor pilot =) great guy

[JasonJason210]

I would have, ah fuck it, we'll take off anyway and go for a spin.

[blondwiththewind]

Pretty interesting story. I'm not an aviator, but I have to wonder.....what became of the co-pilot?

[BarneySaysHi]

@blondwiththewind I think he had to change his underpants.

[blondwiththewind]

@BarneySaysHi Well...you're probably right! But after the co-pilot cleaned himself up...what became of him??

[LfcGoddardENGCJG]

fix it up and get it flying.

[19thSFGA]

That is one ugly aircraft and a slow pig to boot.

[1bearcatf8f]

@19thSFGA I think it look's cool its cockpit looks like a spaceship

[rhysybum]

So what happened to the co-pilot?

[ArcturanMegadonkey]

absolutly fantastic! heart warming too to hear from Bob and how he IS the last to fly a Victor. brilliant, just brilliant!

[xfire7]

If the vulcan broke up in the middle of a display and killed hundreds, what then?

[voxadvt30]

CAA - Cancel All Aviation?

[upthepole]

My all time favourite aircraft, those few seconds of flight were truly spectacular.

My hat goes off to you Bob, should have kept going. A flypast would have brought the audience to tears!!

Take it to the USA, and show em we can build planes too

[funnyminky]

Simply amazing! and what a pilot

[AVMamfortas]

Damned fine codicil to a fine career.

[nipponhouseplayer]

Bravo!

[bithot2nite]

Sir, you have balls! TOTAL respect goes to you....

[zoso11]

what a top bloke, good to see the old boys still got.

[stevey2020]

I bet he wanted to just jam those throttles open and power on straight in to the sky

[arbitar222]

i would love to see this copilot and shake his hands and say good job old boy you gave the victor her last dream ... :)

[125brat]

As for the CAA, they interviewed everyone concerned and found no case to pursue. Had the a/c left the airfield ANC flown a circuit, I am very sure they would have taken action. Just be happy everyone survived unscathed. Well done Bob, Hope you've logged the 10 seconds in your log book?

[125brat]

This i can understand in a high workload situation such as take-off or landing. There was plenty of runway ahead to land and brake, so that's exactly what the PIC did. It is possible the a/c could have completed a circuit and landed, but with so many unknowns, the safest and best response was for Bob to do exactly what he did. Why all the conspiracy? The poor chap in the R/H seat froze - Fact ! I know everyone involved learnt from this event and procedures for the runs have been revised.

[125brat]

As the nose was lifted, the combination of the gust of wind and the throttles not being retarded when called, the a/c lifted off. The "copilot" froze and didn't retard the throttles and the pilot who was concentrating on keeping the a/c on the centre line. When there was no response from the copilot, the pilot had to move his left hand from the yoke to the throttles and close them himself. I am pretty sure SOP is for the co to operate the throttles on command whilst the handling pilot flies the

[125brat]

Right, to counter all the garbage on here, the plan was as I understand from talking to the chap in the r/h seat, to demonstrate a rejected take-off and at 90kts to lift the nose and close the throttles. This meant the a/c was in a nose up attitude, but without the power to get airborne. As a pilot, I am pretty damn sure the trim would be in neutral, not nose up. Yes it had a light fuel load and therefore would lift-off at a comparatively low speed.

[taffy402]

Mr Prothero had two choices ether land her as he did, or take her around and land again. I bet the vast majority of folk wishes he had done the latter, although the manure would have hit the fan rather hard.

[tubernation1]

Great save! Mr. Prothero says he didn't have time to be scared when it happened, but I'll bet his knees were a little weak for a while afterwards! Don't know all the details, but sorry the CAA doesn't seem to want to let this beautiful plane fly. Vulcan XH558 is flying, why can't the Victor?

[davelowe1977]

@tubernation1

That's because XH558 is maintained and is airworthy. This aircraft is not and as such isn't fit to be airborne.

[MontytheHorse]

@tubernation1 One word: money.

[lupo0144]

Bob should have taken her up and around for her last flight! It would have been awesome for everyone there on the day and everyone who's seen it on Youtube" Plus it would have been a "Fuck You" To the Civil Aviation Authority! "Bob... Your a Fucking Legend!!!"

[WhitakerSJA]

@lupo0144 you mean the Criminals Against Aviation

[lupo0144]

@WhitakerSJA lol....Don't you just love 2 hate em!

[libertechnet]

Wow! What an amazing pilot and gentleman. We are profoundly grateful to have had such men as examples and guardians of our freedoms - much respect!

As an American, I am proud to call Great Britain and the RAF dear friends and allies - we owe you so much and our best is drawn from your example.

[WakeUpDummies]

Note to self: Don't taxi a non-airworthy aircraft at 100knots

[FASTBOOBS]

QUESTO S'è CAGATO 3 PAIA DI MUTANDE!

[manxcafe]

Great pilot, greater gentleman, reminder to the world of the stuff that put the Great in Britian.

[lewdoom1]

how close did the wing come to hitting the runway?? my god what agreat pilot to recover this

[cbrxxsuperblackbird]

is there any airworthy victors around?

[collierman1957]

Great flying, but my word what a close call.

[AVMamfortas]

First Class flying (or a damned good excuse) Hahahaha. But, yes, you should make the claim to being the Last Victor Pilot. Hopefully, just for a while. Maybe one day allowances can be made to get the Beautiful Lady up again.

[3ridetec]

What a great pilot.

[stu1002]

As to why he ended up in the air so easily: I have a suggestion: Remember this plane was NOT airworthy. It wasn't rigged for flight. It would have had only a microscopic amount of fuel in it. It had no payload. It was possibly stripped out bare inside. Very likely it was the lightest Victor to ever roll down a runway, and thus got airborne way easier than you might expect. Notice that the aircraft got up and down again in less than the length of the runway, which shows how early it rotated

[stu1002]

Our Servicemen..past and present..are very special people. However this aircraft got in the air and the rights and wrongs of that, the fact remains that a old man in 70s recovered the aircraft quite beautifully and totally instinctively back to saftey. Respect to him for that...good to see the instincts don't die!

[flygweilo]

What grabbed my attention was Protheroe saying that to retard the thrust levers, he was obliged to let go of the control column in order to do so. How far away are the thrust levers? And how does the PF fly an approach and landing?

I know this is a very old aircraft, but I am also troubled by the fact that letting go of the control column automatically resulted in rotation. How was the elevator trim set normally set for take off?

Has anyone reading this flown Victors?

[dazyboy1973]

@flygweilo From what I know of it wasn't meant to fly at all, in fact I believe the air craft wasn't even certified for flight maybe that's why the trim wasn't set for flight correctly. not sure...

[flygweilo]

@dazyboy1973 It was not an approved take off - of that we can be sure.

The question still remains, though as to how the aircraft became airborne?

I've watched the 'accidental' explanation, and heard Protheroe state that it happened because he had to let go of the control column in order to retard the thrust levers.

Take off only occurs if the pilot lets go of the thrust levers, if the elevators are already trimmed nose-up and no-one retards the thrust levers.

So - how did it happen?

[dazyboy1973]

@flygweilo Is there a procedure for where to set the trim when you don't plan to take off or reach flight speed, because having the trim set nose-up does seem like a mistake to me but not being a pilot I don't know.

Also I'm unsure as to why he couldn't keep the nose down on the runway while he closed the throttles him self, he said that he used his left hand to close the throttles so what was his right hand doing.

My biggest question has got to be why the hell did the co-pilot freeze?

[flygweilo]

@dazyboy1973 I can accept that the co-pilot froze - this was never intended to be a flight and no take off was purposed, so a properly constituted flight crew was neither necessary nor boarded. The co-pilot was thus not a pilot at all, and would have been overwhelmed by the situation.

On the ground, the stab trim should be set to a calculated neutral position for take-off - it is part of the Before T/O Checklist. The nose should not elevate without considerable elevator back force by the PF.

[trefod]

She didn't want to be grounded the old girl.

[Paddyo11]

what does it mean by 'froze at the controls' - was he a trained pilot?

[themanfromwem]

I flew with Bob, as supernumery crew, to get a few extra hours in my flying log.

 I found him to be a real gentleman, and was so pleased to see him again on Youtube.

Thank you for uploading. TMFW

[mcwolfus]

We need to clone lots of Bob Protheroes, to end all global problems.

[G777GUN]

Could the Victors Super Cruise?

Pause at 1:19

Why does the dial show mach 0.7 to 1.3?

That has to be a supercruiser. Or is it just for show?

[crocfme]

There should be at least a couple of each warplane saved for posterity. My Gr.father was killed in a bombing mission in a Whitley, and as far as I know, not a single Whitley or even part of one still exists.

[kvwloon]

Amazed at some of the crass mis-informed comments on here. 'STUPID NANNY STATE rules' are there to keep aviation what it is today, intrinsically safe, and protect us from people inadvertently flying un-airworthy aircraft when the mood or circumstances strike them. Harking back to some dewy eyed era of aviation when aviation safety had much to learn from is rubbish. Presumably had the aircraft come down on a car park or school, opinions would be somewhat altered.

[Diddleywah]

An inspiring piece of video that, thankfully, didn't end in tragedy - Congrats to Mr Prothero for his 'cool' and quick thinking! What a fascinating aeroplane this has always been - I find it even more fascinating in its presence and looks to the Vulcan but I must say The Vulcan always created an impressive spectacle at air shows. 'Also understand that the Victor cockpit was not the most comfortable of places to be??

[Theriomalstrom]

How does someone "freeze" at the controls? And why couldn't he pull the throttles back with one hand while maintaining forward pressure on the stick with the other? People fly one-handed all the time - it seems like the minimum of coordination required.

[Diddleywah]

@Theriomalstrom ...... 'freezing' at the controls is not uncommon from a nervous passenger flying, maybe for the first time, who grabs the first solid item they can get hold of for reassurance without realising the consequence (a bit like not releasing a brake pedal when a car 'skids') but a little odd from a 'Co-pilot' I must say. I am guessing that Mr Prothero may have had to wrestle his co-pilot off the controls to some degree. I would guess that quite a lot happened in those few seconds!!

[tileajb1]

A fine pilot, well trained and confident, must be like riding a bike, once you've done it a few times you never forget, well done Bob Protheroe!

[workshop77777]

If that was Russia, he would have just stayed flying :)

[Deac505]

A big 'Up Yours' to the CAA and their STUPID NANNY-STATE rules. Glad you're all enjoying your JOBS that writing the IDIOTIC and national pride killing rules keeps you in. Shame on YOU. These aircraft are maintained and operated by people with more LOVE AND DEDICATION than any of you buraucrats would even know how to measure. These wonderful machines present what WAS the 'Great' in our Britian title. I think John Beachy Head should SLAM PAST THE caa offices in a Lightning and WAKE YOU PEOPLE UP!

[blueflame53]

@Deac505 I'm an American and i can't agree more with ya.

[immensecat]

@Deac505 Don't hold your breath....they're breeding these bastards in vats somewhere, I think!

[my235]

@Deac505 God I love you Brits!!! :)

[Prickler32]

Is there are reason he didn't just fly around the field and come back in for a normal landing? I don't recall him explaining this

[planeboy737]

@Prickler32 . Because the aircraft is not allowed to fly. The aircraft wasn't fit enough either. Luckily it's preserved well but this was a serious incident which needed quick action straight away.

[joethefuturepilot]

@Prickler32 As the aircraft is not certified to fly in UK skies - believe they got out of this one because the aircraft didnt exit the airfield boundaries and was only off the ground for seconds. The aircraft has not flown since 1993 (and is not airworthy) - so a few minutes in the air could have ended completely differently

[Rob187ok]

What a time to freeze,,, with his hand on the throttles and the engines at full power. If it wasn't for the co-pilot the Victor would have never left the ground and we wouldn't have this video. Maybe the Victor was crying out to fly again and it overpowered the co-pilot to make it happen,,, errrr,,, or maybe not.

[pigpenthegreat]

Give that man a pat on the back, and the co-pilot a slap!

[FSXISCOOL]

Fantastic....a real hero..best of British!..well done to this great pilot..retired but still got what it takes...as for the guy who froze!...keep him out of the cockpit in future!

[handball1967]

Fantatic, what nicy guy.

Would give and arm and a leg to fly in a Victor with the guy

[LordFlasheart575]

Now thats what we wanted to see. Thanks for posting =]

[LarryCanFly]

Good job! Thanks for posting!