A Valiant, no, Victorious, no, Vulcan Return!

**dobar** · 07-30-2009, 07:12 PM

I knew I'd get the right V-Bomber in the end in that title! Anyway, sorry I've not been around for a while chaps, things got hectic and I had to sort of reshuffle my life around to cope and unfortunately, Flight Sim had to be pushed to the back for a while. But, luckily, I've got time now and I've made a good start of a new summer of fun and flying with this post.

I present to you, esteemed visitors, the Vulcan To The Sky Trust's XH558!

Sitting between 5 Squadron's Sentinels, G-VLCN, or XH558 as she's more commonly known, gets ready to put on a show for the hardworking folks at Waddington to show their gratitude for the hosting of her. At the controls today are myself, Martin Withers as co-pilot and Barry Masefield as flight engineer in our minimum crew.

With the classic 'Vulcan Howl' we power into the skies above Lincolnshire.

We give the photo-shoot aircraft a view of our underside as we turn back towards Waddington.

First, a low pass along the runway, roaring the Olympus 301s as we turn out again.

The light reflects well off her large 'V' wings. What a sight she is wherever she goes!

Showing off her legs as we fly slowly by. She wants to descend rapidly with these down, need to be very careful not to hit the stall at around 130kts!

We follow the camera along the runway, waving. You might not see us in those small windows!

And what's a visit to Waddington without seeing the most famous Vulcan, XM607! Martin flew her to bomb Port Stanley 26 years ago!

Our retake of the classic image of XH558 from just before she was retired.

Time for one final flypast with the bomb doors open before heading off to our next destination!

Hope you enjoyed the shots as much as I did taking them!

**JBnTX** · 07-30-2009, 07:20 PM

Nice Shots!

I'd love to see one of those in real life.

**dobar** · 07-30-2009, 07:21 PM

Cheers, I've seen her 4 times now, still gets me excited! Last week was when I last saw her, and for the first time, I heard that howl, what a noise...

**FlyingKiwi** · 07-31-2009, 01:01 AM

Great shots, it's fantastic to have one of these back in the skies again.

**bumpkin** · 07-31-2009, 04:22 AM

Thanks for that, Vulcan is one of my favourites, was really disappointed she didn't get to fly at Leuchars last year, but the roar from the crowd as they did a couple of runway runs and just got all the wheels off the ground was highly memorable, there were folks in the crowd in tears at that including myself

Got my tickets for Leuchars booked again, hopefully we'll get better weather and she'll get to fly properly for us

***Smutley*** · 07-31-2009, 05:26 AM

Wonderful set of Vulcan shots Tom.

**thindog** · 07-31-2009, 06:46 AM

Very nice shots of the lovliest of the V series bombers

**peer01** · 07-31-2009, 08:05 AM

Beautiful Vulcan shots!

**yankeesji** · 07-31-2009, 12:08 PM

Great plane and shots!

**dobar** · 07-31-2009, 04:15 PM

Thanks for all the comments! This is one bird I'm now addicted to flying, I've now mastered landing her properly. Turns out you need a lot of flap to keep her on approach at 125 kts! Also, the power needs to stay on right the way to the ground, she'll happily sink to the ground wheels first if you don't keep her physically going.