Avro Vulcan

For anyone interested in Avro Vulcan XH558, there is a talk on Saturday evening in Tuxford, 10 mins North of Newark on the A1 by the current display pilot, Kevin Rumens.

Tickets are £10 per person, payable on the door, doors open at 18:45. This is a chance to have a talk from the man himself, about his career and also flying the Vulcan. You should also be able to have photographs with him at the end, as this venue is for JUST 35 people.

THere are also numerous planned talks by various aviation figures, WW2 veterans, Falklands pilots, Afghanistan Harrier pilots and also other related guests including Auschwitz survivors. I met Johhny Johnson there just a few weeks ago where he gave a talk followed by signatures and photographs.

If anyone is interested in meeting Kevin Rumens, let me know.

Damnn!! Would love to have gone to this but can't make sat night. Kev 'king of the wingovers' Rumens really knows how to display '558 well to the audience.

1. i see on old films of the vulcan that there was a few vulcan simulators, do any of these survive today anywhere?
2. cant find many pictures or film of the black buck vulcan XM607 that's at Waddington ? original footage or shots of the the aircraft in motion etc

re, question 1.

I believe that one of the cockpit sections at Doncaster Aeroventure is a simulator of some sort

That was the procedures trainer, mounted high up on a cradle it was used for entry, exit and emergency drills training, I'm under the impression that it moved to be with TVOC but could be mistaken.
I'm a simulator owner myself, but I'm unaware of any Vulcan simulators kicking around, that's not to say there isn't, it's sometimes surprising what is still lurking around in barns etc!
There was a really good live Victor simulator at Elvington.

There are some photos of XM607 in 'Black Buck' colours around, but bare in mind it only wore those colours briefly for the operations, I haven't seen film footage but it may be around. there was a good BBC documentary on Black buck and XM607, and there is the book obviously.

That would seem logical, thats what the Nimrod sim was like at Kinloss.

I understand there were front crew trainers a rear crew electrical trainer and an abandonment trainer but as far we know there are no pilot sims left, we certainly couldn't find any during the 90s & VTST restoration of 558.

There used to be a front section at Scampton, this was used for rear crew escape training, as there were no ejector seats for the rear crew they had to eject the crew entry door and go out through there I believe they had also to swing out round the nose wheel landing gear but I'm not sure on that.
I will have to look up my old scrap book from my ATC cadet days.

I have just found this on the internet I'm not sure how correct it is, but it sounds about right:

" Squeezed into the drop-down section behind the cockpit were three officers: navigator Harvey Skull, 35; radar navigator Jim Watson, 34; and electronics officer Tony Baker, 23. They sat shoulder to shoulder, facing backward, their work area 4 feet below the flight deck. Like a tribe of atomic-age cave dwellers, the “rear crew” inhabited a clammy, claustrophobic world of glowing dials, flickering needles, and jammed chart tables. Their only view of the outside came through a pair of small portholes high above them. Even their method of escape was primitive when compared to the pilots’ ejector seats. In an emergency, they were expected to force open a floor hatch and then slide down the door into the slipstream, a static line pulling open their parachute. Unfortunately, the hatch was directly in front of the main wheel; if not retracted, an exiting crew member risked being blown straight into it." OUCH!