Chasing Vulcans 13-07-2009
In 1983 I stood upon RAF Sealand, North Wales with my parents, watching some kind of aircraft display – not uncommon for the territory. My father worked at the base back then, and we’d been to other open days and get togethers. This one was different because I cried.
Aged 4, experiencing the Vulcan fly past for the first time was completely terrifying. Not its aesthetic appearance, but the sound of four Bristol Siddeley Olympus engines scorching the sky above, that was more than enough to make this four year old boy cry his eyes out…
Fast forward 25 years and three bleary-eyed members of Aeroplane Attack are on route to the Yeovilton Air Show with high hopes of seeing this beast of an aeroplane in the sky again. As a band we adopted the silhouette of the Vulcan as our logo and branded ourselves with this iconic bomber that only in recent years retired from service.
It was a big day for Phil, K.O. and I as we’d been following the single remaining airborne Vulcan on Twitter for the last few months. The XH558 is funded and maintained by the Vulcan to the Sky Trust who first got her back in the air in 2007.
The Twitter updates by the crew of XH558 read like some kind of soap opera, will she fly? What technical problem next? Cleared for flight. Awaiting taxiing. Etc, etc..
We planned on checking their updates using our phones during the course of the day, as the weather had the potential to get a little sketchy later on.
Upon arrival we checked out a lot of the static aircraft on display, notable mentions include the Dutch aircrew of the F-16 (really not too bothered about anything, simply passing UN peace resolutions left right and centre! 
), A range of Harriers, Sea kings, Aquatic planes, and military vehicles.
The Red Arrows put in a minor display, visibility was an issue as the cloud dropped lower. Then there were appearances from a range of aircraft, The Eurofighter Typhoon certainly sounded the best, and the F-16 pulled some slick manoeuvres too. The Apache and Sea kings did a nice routine too which was all very reminiscent of Vietnam!
Around this point we decided that vantage point for the XH558 take off was paramount and we didn’t want to miss any of it. We gaily skipped though the crowds of observers laughing at the music from other display teams until we saw her in the distance. Things were looking good, the Olympus engines were turning over nicely, warning lights on and flashing, Twitter even told us the team were crewing in – all looked good… It almost drew a tear from K.O.’s eye! (Not Phil’s though!)
Moments later the engines power down, the lights go out, and we start looking at each other for answers. The announcer says there’s a problem of some sort and the crew are working on it. We fear the worst and go for a walk around the site again. Coffee and pasty later, we check the Twitter…
Gutting. Especially knowing we got this close. Hoards of people start leaving the site, as the rain picks up and the cloud lowers. Later on we found out that the ground crew had managed to fix the problem (brake hydraulics) but it was indeed the poor weather conditions that had scuppered the flight. Dang.
They towed XH558 to crowd side which was a nice touch. She looked resplendent in her coat of camouflage paint colours, and oddly shorter in length than I had expected. We took photos from every conceivable angle, bothered the pilots by giving them handshakes and Aeroplane Attack pin badges, and generally got in the way of aircraft enthusiasts!
So we left Yeovilton saddened that we didn’t get to see our precious XH558 Vulcan in the sky, but enjoyed the aircraft geekary that the day presented.
We won’t stop chasing the Vulcan; we have plans to follow her to another show in Bournemouth this summer…
VULCAN TO THE SKY!
Posted by by Rusty
