Near miss

[NETTIE]

This is a photo copied where the plane over run the runway near miss

[philthehill]

https://xm655.com/
Watch the video of the high-speed taxi.

A while back I had a car club visit to see the Vulcan at Wellesbourne. You were allowed inside the cockpit and if I can find them, I have a photo taken of me in the pilot's seat. Now found.
A bit more complicated than the Morris.

Vulcan 1.JPG (1.48 MiB) Viewed 3064 times

Vulcan 2.JPG (1 MiB) Viewed 3064 times

The runway has been shortened since the Vulcan flew in to Wellesbourne airfield, so it has very little room for high-speed runs.
As an aside - in the 1960s and living local to Wellesbourne I was able to gain access to the then disused main and perimeter runways and for half a crown was able to tear up and down the runways in my A35. Happy days.
The Touchdown Cafe next door to the Vulcan site is well worth a visit to sample their full English.
https://www.facebook.com/airfieldcafe/

[NETTIE]

Thats fantastic Phil what an experience
And you haven't aged a day?

[philthehill]

Thank you but now fast approaching 75 years young.

[NETTIE]

Thank you but now fast approaching 75 years young.

Your doing good my friend i think its about having an interest
Im 10 years behind you Phil but always had hobbies and interests cars and motorsport until my mid 40s then salt water marine tropical fish and coral now back to cars and a move to Cornwall by the sea.

[geoberni]

The runway has been shortened since the Vulcan flew in to Wellesbourne airfield, so it has very little room for high-speed runs.

Phil
They were using runway 18/36 for the high speed run which hasn't been shortened. It's still the length it was in WWII. The 'useable length' markings have been moved in, but it's still the same length of concrete & tarmac.
The official explanation for the overrun of the end threshold is that the Air Speed Indicator gave a false reading, despite being OK at the start of the run, "which resulted in the aircraft remaining at full power for approximately 2 seconds longer than intended".
So they missed all the visual markers of where they would expect to cut the throttles.......
Were they relying on cutting power at an indicated airspeed, irrespective of how near the end of the runway they were getting?
Had they not briefed on all eventualities?
It's likely the most feeble excuse I've ever heard from a crew.
As an RAF aircraft engineer for 37 years, I can categorically state I have never known a Pilot admit to making any mistake, it's always some technical failure, no matter how outlandish.
I've know Pilots pull too much G while flying and they reset the cockpit G Indicator as when they sign the aircraft back in they are supposed to report it, because excess G has 'levels' and as those levels increase there are increasingly more stress and damage checks required.
Pilots are too dumb to remember that the ground crew, at every After Flight Servicing, record the Fatigue Meter Readings which tell the engineers exactly how many times the aircraft has been into each level of Positive and Negative G.
When you confront them with the recorded evidence, they still deny it and try to blame the Recorder...
I've even had to get an Accident Data Recorder downloaded to confront them with exactly when during their flight they pulled the excess G they are denying, and they get memory loss of the instance....

Wellsbourne.JPG (93.55 KiB) Viewed 2954 times

[philthehill]

geoberni
Many thanks for the explanation and the view from above.
When my visit took place, they did say that the runway had been shortened (perhaps really meaning that the useable length had been shortened) and that because of the shortening the Vulcan which flew into Wellesbourne could not even if airworthy take off again.
Phil

[geoberni]

Phil
There's always an element of what is Possible and what is Practical.
From their own videos, where they are getting the Nose up, if conditions were right, a strong headwind to power into and minimum fuel, they might well be able to, so Possible. Whether Practical is entirely another question...
You might be interested in this short video of one being delivered to Newark Air Museum in 1983.
Making the Possible, Practical.
https://youtu.be/GDhq4zImDM8

But after all this time, the Wellesbourne one's not going anywhere.
It's had 40 years of standing there with only essential systems maintained to be able to taxi it.

Looking at the data for the airfield, it says 18/36 is 3,009 ft, which is the current markings. End to End the full length is 4,000ft.
It's the other runway, 05/23 which has been shortened to 1,926ft because of the industrial estate, but that would have only been as long as 18/36 had been.

[Mick Lynch]

Thank you but now fast approaching 75 years young.

75 = four times round recycled teenager

There was a Vulcan in Sunderland for years, visible from the road. I used to drive past it but never in a minor

[sirrom918]

The Vulcan B.2. XL319 is still on outside display at Sunderland next to the Nissan plant.

https://www.nelsam.org.uk/Exhibits/Outside/