The #TwitterVForce revolution

@victorXL231 first joined Twitter around three years ago. In an age where people share their every waking moment on social media we thought we better join the 21st century.

With scepticism and little idea of how Twitter worked we took the plunge and who would have guessed that we would have ended up here; with over 2300 followers, some great 'Twitter' friends which have turned into many 'real' friends and our own #TwitterVForce revolution.

Through the magic of Twitter, below are just a few of the fantastic people we've had the pleasure of "meeting" some of them in person and some of them virtually!  

@alexbirtwisle the nephew of Wing Commander Barry Neal, who played a substantive role during the Falklands Black Buck Raids and who has taxyed Lindy on many occasions. Read his story here!

@Reay75 who first met XL231 over 50 years ago whilst serving with the RAF at Wittering. We have since been able to reacquaint Ray with the aircraft he learnt his trade on. Read Ray's story here  

@JamesBlatch who's father John R Blatch was a Victor Test Pilot. James very kindly shared his father's story HERE

@FlyingPodcast who introduced me to the world of podcasts - another new experience! My first podcast!

@Scoutbloke who photographed the disbandment of the Victor Fleet at Marham.



Victor Disbandment photo by Steve Cockayne (@Scoutbloke)

The Twitter revolution continues with the formation of #TwitterVForce to promote & raise awareness of the V-Force preservation projects, of both the Avro Vulcan & Handley Page Victor.

Vulcan XH558 (@XH558)

Vulcan XM655 (@XM655)

Vulcan XL426 (@XL426) 

Victor XL231 (@VictorXL231)

iRod Holmes (@ROD558)

XM655MaPS (@XM655MaPS)

 

Thanks to a huge amount of effort by Rod and Dave we now have a #TwitterVForce blog and forum http://twittervforce.com/ make sure you sign up add them to your favourites!

If you haven't already signed up to Twitter I hope this blog may have motivated you to check it out and find some of the fantastic Tweeters I haven't named in this post (you know who you are!)

And just to prove how the Twitter V-Force revolution is continuing to grow, whilst writing this piece I've been followed and tweeted by @42BTYRA who's father served as ground crew on Victors!

May 2013 Taxy Run's - Battle Group North

At the beginning of the year we hoped to be able to raise enough money to refuel XL231 to a satisfactory level, enabling us to carry out displays and engine runs for 2013.  We were immensely pleased to be able to do this with the help and support of team members, colleagues, friends and supporters - Thank you one and all.

Saturday 11th May was to be XL231's first 'debut' for the year. Resplendent in her new and fully authentic, early 1980's to end of service, Hemp and Light Aircraft Grey colour scheme she shone like a new pin. The crew was; Myself in the left hand seat, Flt lt Olly Suckling R/H seat,  AEO Sqn Ldr Al Stephenson and the Crew Chief, Chief Tech Grant Sparks.   Passengers for the test run were; Christine Mellor (6th seat) John Hawkridge (ever suffering electrician) in the Nav Plotter seat and Brian "tow bar" Watmough in the Nav Radar seat.  After going through the checks in the Flight Reference cards with Al Stephenson reading them out, the engines were started without any fuss. No snags were picked up and I taxyied the aircraft around the massive 52 acre concrete pan, to test out brakes and steering. Once we were satisfied that all systems were in great shape, the engines were taken up to high power in pairs to check that the engine air bleed valves closed above 90% RPM. The AEO reported all four engine alternators were on line and their loads and busbars fully synchronised. I taxyied the aircraft around the pan a few times before taxying back to the Crew Chief and see-in crew and the aircraft was shut down serviceable for the next days full runway display.

The Crew: Rachel, Ollie, VIP, Andre, Al (photo credit: Rachel Semlyn)

In addition to XL231 the Museum's extremely well maintained Nimrod MR2 XV250 was skilfully displayed by its crew on the runway.  That wasn't all for the day as Olly and I took the Museum's Buccaneer S2 Prototype XN974 for a 'spirited' display down Elvington's 2 mile runway, I have to say that I really enjoyed myself!

For the main display on Sunday I decided to offer the Captains seat to Olly, he didn't take much persuading!  I was in the right hand seat.  We had several guests on-board for the display including; Vulcan XH558's pilot Martin Withers and Yorkshire Air Museum founding Trustee Rachel Semlyn in the Nav plotter position, the Nav Radar seat was occupied by an invited guest of the Museum.  The day wasn't the greatest, gusting winds and on and off heavy rain showers. However, the aircraft was started and checked over without any problems and Olly very confidentally taxyied her out of the pan to a tight turn through the intersection to the runway. He taxyied her completely naturally and at the Eastern end of the runway turned her fully, in one go, on the runway. The power up, high speed run up to 85 knots in a wall of spray was extremely well carried out and we kept on the centre-line for the whole run. At the Western end we turned for a brake check by the fire crew and some of our team and treated them to a high power departure with a clean pair of heels!  The taxy back in was fine and the aircraft threw no snags at us, I noted all the compass headings as being correct on all systems at shutdown, not bad for an aircraft that last had a compass swing in 1993!   The only noted snag was the Starboard landing lamp had rattled its bulb to pieces during the taxy back in!

All in all a first class effort by all concerned and we celebrated with a good bottle of Champers and YES, XL231 did also have a drop, Olly poured some on her Port underwing tank!

Photos courtesy of Amy Parkin - Thanks Amy :)

May Taxi Run Footage

Footage from yesterdays run, full blog piece to follow later.

Pre-taxy preparation

As XL231 has been stationary as regards moving under her own power for longer than anticipated it was decided to inspect and recify any brake defects as well as any tyres that we did not feel were safe enough to use.

In the end we changed only one wheel on the Starboard undercarriage and cleaned and inspected the braking system. With a complex multi-piston hydraulic system (same as Vulcan B2) leaks and weeps inparticular are going to happen especially, as she is not in daily use. Weeps can be lived with, leaks cannot.

The Stb'd braking system is extremely dry as regards fluid loss and did not require much apart from a good look-over. The Port side required a little more attention.

The front inner braking unit has always been a source of minor leaks from the day XL231 left the RAF. We have always cleaned and monitored it and with use it generally stops. However I noticed the fluid was showing a bit more than I would have liked and so it was decided to remove the brake unit and 'nail it' once and for all. The tube nuts which connect the supply piping are easy enough to undo and replace bonded seals on, but only when removed from the aircraft and this entailed a trip to the bench and hoping the offending tube nuts wouldn't shear off as they are only made of alloy! Luckily they didn't and I replaced one of them with an item that I had removed from XL190 in (well, more years than I care to remember)! The bonded seals were renewed and the whole assembly wire-locked back together before refitting, after John had done his spring cleaning bit!

 

 

The main reason I deferred removing the brake unit is the fact that it takes pints and pints of OM-15 hydraulic fluid to bleed the air out until the fluid runs clear. Its a messy job but must be done 100% because any air left, in particularly the maxaret 'anti-skid unit', will render the brakes likely to grab and flat-spot or blow a tyre, an expensive mistake and also likely to un-impress any airfield manager!

 

 

I have bled all of XL231's brakes previously after we replaced every hydraulic wheel cylinder seal and I enjoyed it not one bit!

Incidentally we are LOOKING for replacement mainwheel tyres, cuurently we have several spares but, there are 16 on the aircraft, it is the same wheel and tyres as a Vulcan B2, any leads or help would be appreciated.

From Victor to Dakota

Having almost single-handedly rubbed down and repainted YAM's Douglas DC-3 Dakota KN353 'G-AMYJ' (except for help from Peter Condras) and being a life-long Dakota nut I was, highly delighted to be asked to sit in the right-hand seat for the first attempt at starting AMY J's replacement engines alongside George Astley, ex-RAF Senior Engineering Warrant Officer of many years.

The first attempt didn't quite go to plan, we found fuel pressure to be excellent but a distinct lack of 'spark' to be the culprit in stopping her engines running. The fault was traced down to faulty boost coils on the magneto circuits. Ken Sanderson 'Radio Ken', the YAM radio ham and electrical genius repaired the offending items ready for the next attempt and this took place with Olly Suckling in the Left hand seat and myself in the right. The Port engine surprised us and ran up almost immediately but, displayed no RPM indication and a very low oil pressure. The Starboard refused to start despite a few 'coughs and bangs'. After some discussion we decided to run the port engine again and this displayed the same indications as previously and so it was shut down, it had however run very well and very smoothly. We were all immensely pleased with the result as this was the first time an engine had run on AMY 'J since her retirement in 1997 by Air Atlantique. The Starboard engine we diagnosed as having a lazy starter motor. This was removed and sent away for repair.

Two weeks later on Sunday 21st April Steve Pepper and I were given the task of the 3rd attempt at running AMY'J. The port engine ran up beautifully with all good indications except for RPM which refused to indicate, oil pressure was good (after the gauges had been bled of air) and the engine ran for several minutes. The starboard took quite a bit to get going and required a good bit of fuel priming. It fired up with a massive cloud of oil smoke and ran very roughly, all indications however were good in the cockpit. George Astley, who was stood between Steve and myself wasn't happy and so we shut the engine down for investigation. After a look around we convinced George that it needed to be run to clear it out, somewhat reluctantly he agreed! The next attempt the engine ran up well, it was a little rough to begin with but, after a few minutes began to even out with the odd puff of smoke. We then decided to start the port engine again and that ran up fine.

So; There was AMY'J, built in 1944 for the RAF, living and breathing again after a massive amount of effort by the Dakota team with both engines running. A massive achievement by everybody and we were all beaming with glee afterwards. Lots to do still though!! Braking system next...................

 

 

My take on it is; Compared to running a jet engine a huge radial and that huge propeller spinning by your elbow is just AWESOME, fact! More please!!

RAF Role Demo - Mildenhall 1990

RAF Role Demonstration footage taken at Mildenhall Air Fete May 1990, featuring Victor, Tornado, Phantom, Hawk and more!

Tanker Trash to Tornado

I think it was 1994 when I first went aboard XL231. My dad had taken me to the museum to satisfy my constant demand for all things aviation and we saw that the Victor's crew door was open! As an excited (things never change) 8 year old I begged my dad to ask the man who was working on the aircraft if we could have a look inside. He did, and the man said we could as it was quiet but just from the top of the ladder! I scrambled up and had a peek, on the way down my dad thanked the man, who then told us he was the owner and the aircraft hadn't been there that long. Who'd have thought, in 10 years time I would be sat next to that man (Andre if you hadn't figured it out yet!) on my very first taxi run in XL231....

 

Roll on to 2002 and my interest in aviation hasn't faded, I apply to join the museum and spend the next two years moving aircraft, sweeping hangar floors and doing various odd jobs until I start work on the Victor simulator which was then at Elvington, which was run by a kind gentleman called Jim Carnson. Jim used to be a pilot and taught me a foundation in what the instruments were called and how they operated and he let me fly the sim around and practise all the procedures associated with flying an aircraft. As a young man in the air cadets with only a couple of real hours under my belt this was a fantastic insight! Through this I developed an in depth understanding of running the victor and how to monitor its many complicated systems.

In 2004 I was working on the museums Buccaneer (little did I know what my involvement with this particular aircraft type would be in the future) when 'that man who owns the victor' came over and started chatting to me. It transpired that he had the aircraft out on the airfield for a taxi run, however he didn't have a co-pilot. He asked if I wanted to right hand seat given my experience in the sim....excitement doesn't quite cover it. So I went out to the airfield, also meeting an Andrew King for the first time, who strapped me into the seat, with a Yorkshire 'I'm not touching you up mate, just need to make sure you're in properly'! So off we trundled around the airfield before a fast run during which we encountered a small hydraulic snag, not to worry though, I had a brilliant time!

 

Having experienced life on the Victor team (eat this/drink them/smoke that) I decided I needed a role change at the museum so I 'defected' to the 'dark side'. A change that I never looked back on. I spent the next 3 years working on the jet, balancing university, Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron (hurrah) and working on Lindy (including the 2006 repaint) before there was a small interruption in 2007 when I was accepted into the RAF as a pilot. I distinctly remember the last Sunday (the normal work day) that I attended when Andre said, well that's it we'll never see you again! I said I'd prove him wrong, and bar a few absences due to work and my more recent commitments with the Buccaneer aviation group after 9 years in total on the team I think I've proved him wrong!

 

 

So I toddled off to Initial Officer Training to learn how to eat properly, fold blankets and iron immaculate shirts before graduating in June 2008 as a Flying Officer in the RAF, about to start Flying Training. I did this at Cranwell on 16(R) Sqn which was convenient for Elvington and following the first of many happy holds on the BBMF (yes I went flying in the Lancaster, and the Dakota, and have 30 hours on the chippy...I had to get all that in there!) I was streamed to fast jets and moved to RAF Linton on Ouse to fly the Tucano, which was immensely convenient for attending the museum and working on my beloved Victor! After Linton came Valley and the Hawk (not so convenient for Elvington!) which was a great laugh and by the beginning of 2012 I had graduated as a Fast Jet Pilot, ready to go fly the Tornado GR4! However various things transpired that meant my course wouldn't start for around 9 months, however I got offered the hold of a lifetime on the Hawk Display Team, flying the spare aircraft, on my own all around the country. The highlights were leading a 3 ship of Hawks out to Malta and the challenging landing at Duxford, which is a bit on the short side for a hawk! All this meant that I didn't spend as much time as I would've liked a Elvington including the big repaint which I essentially missed, after suggesting (before I knew I'd be otherwise occupied!) to Andre that we get on with it!

 

 

In Dec 2012 I left Valley bound for RAF Lossiemouth where I am currently on XV(R) Sqn, itself an ex-Victor Sqn, learning to fly the Tornado GR4, which I still find immensely exciting! There is no doubt I wouldn't be in the place I am today, without the help, support, beatings and all the other things that make part of being on the team that maintains XL231, especially the likes of Andre, Andy, Rick, Barry, Al, Pancho and all the others that have given me encouragement over the years.

 

 

This year sees 20 years of XL231 being at Elvington. Lets make it a good one give the old girl the thrashing she needs and enjoy the next 20 years of this wonderful aircraft.

Ollie Suckling