Posts : 7461 Join date : 2011-12-03 Age : 33 Location : Nr Panama
Subject: Plane Spotting Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:02 pm
Lots of, well 3, interesting old aircraft flying over the South Hams this morning. I'm no expert but it looked like a pair of WW2 bombers, I saw them a bit before 11 am, and a single double turboprop job shortly after 11 all flying roughly north->south. I'm guessing a pair of Lancasters and a Vulcan but those really are guesses...
Did anybody else see them or does anybody know what is going on?
As far as I know there are only two Lancasters in an airworthy state. One of those is based in Canada & the other is part of the Battle of Britain memorial flight & usually flies in the company of a Spitfire & a Hurricane. As for the Vulcan, that is a jet bomber & the noise they emit is deafening, also not sure but I doubt it could fly slow enough to allow a WW2 turbo prop aircraft to keep up with it. Whereabouts in the South Hams did you see them SFD ? I was in Bantham at that time & didn't hear anything
Tgwu
Posts : 14779 Join date : 2011-12-11 Location : Central Park (most days)
I did see on TV about a aircraft museum in Cornwall closing and the planes were going back to Coventry airport.
Quote
Shock as Newquay’s Classic Air Force attraction announces closure
Newquay's Classic Air Force museum has closed its doors for the last time, just months after directors promised they would keep it open.
In a statement posted today on the trust's Facebook page, directors said financial pressures had forced the attraction to close.
The news has shocked aircraft enthusiasts, who were assured by trustees last December that the organisation remained "committed to staying in Cornwall."
Volunteers at Classic Air Force told the Cornish Guardian last year that they feared the attraction would suffer irreparable damage when many of its flying aircraft were suddenly moved to Coventry airport.
But Classic Air Force spokesman, Mike Collett, said in December: "We've not been secretive about what's happening, we're committed to staying in Cornwall.
"The exact shape of next year's Newquay operation is still being thrashed out, but you can be sure that we'll be there."
Since the trust relocated from Coventry airport to Newquay in March 2013, the planes have been based in the 60,000sq ft former Nimrod '404' hangar at RAF St Mawgan, rented from the Cornwall Council-owned Aerohub.
Rent "unsupportable"
But the trust said rent costs for the hangar had increased to an "unsupportable" £250,000 a year, leading directors to confirm the museum's closure.
The statement read: "As Airbase gets airborne for 2015 we have to announce another side to the coin with the closure of our Newquay site. This has been an incredibly hard decision, but the costs of maintaining two attractions are too much to justify, given our status as a charity.
"Our focus now is on our traditional home here in Coventry, where we'll be doing more flying, more events and adding more to see and do than ever before. Our task now is to maintain the fantastic visitor reputation our Cornwall guys achieved as the number one attraction on TripAdvisor. Thank you guys, you've done a truly outstanding job.
The Shackleton did an all-engine run that turned out so successful that she went for a little stroll! Everything was working well, pilots Jon Corley and Dave Woods were on hand, the tug was available and ATC were cooperative, so the old girl moved under her own power for the first time in seven years.
It's wonderful to see this magnificent bird coming back to life. The noise of those four Griffons is a fanfare, and the sight of those eight massive propellers flattening the grass is breathtaking. We hope to see her back in the air next year.
Brought back memory when posted to RAF Ballykelly late 1969 - 1970
The double turbo-prop isn't a Vulcan...... which is a jet bomber with of course V-shaped wings.
As a school kid living on an RAF camp not far from RAF Boscombe Down I can remember seeing an all white Vulcan with it's huge dart shaped wings fly over our school......no one had ever seen anything like it at the time.......also saw the Brabazon an eight engined job crawling it's way into the sky.....all noise and no speed.....and a total flop.....exciting times for a kid living only ten miles from Boscombe Down around the early 1950's.
Sir Francis Drake
Posts : 7461 Join date : 2011-12-03 Age : 33 Location : Nr Panama
As far as I know there are only two Lancasters in an airworthy state. One of those is based in Canada & the other is part of the Battle of Britain memorial flight & usually flies in the company of a Spitfire & a Hurricane. As for the Vulcan, that is a jet bomber & the noise they emit is deafening, also not sure but I doubt it could fly slow enough to allow a WW2 turbo prop aircraft to keep up with it. Whereabouts in the South Hams did you see them SFD ? I was in Bantham at that time & didn't hear anything
Like I said I'm no expert.
All I can be absolutely certain of is that the pair were identical and the solo had a prop on each wing. The pair were too far away to and the road I was on too narrow and windy to gawk at them. All 3 were flying very low and, again this is a complte guess, I'd say they were no more than about 300 feet up.
I saw the twinned pair near Ugborough on the road linking Modbury and Wrangaton. Once on the A38, sort of near South Brent, I suppose, the twin-propped job flew over. There was maybe a 15 minute gap between the two sightings - possibly less.
All 3 were headed left to right according to my easterly direction of travel and all 3 were far too big to be Spitfires or Hurricanes - speaking of which I saw that Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane team fly past the Otter garden centre a year or two back.
Thinking on a bit more I don't think either was a Lancaster and the solo one definitely had props so it couldn't have been a Vulcan but those are the only 2 biggish old planes I could name.
All 3 were silhouetted against white cloud and as a result just looked black so I couldn't see any markings on them.
As far as I know there are only two Lancasters in an airworthy state. One of those is based in Canada & the other is part of the Battle of Britain memorial flight & usually flies in the company of a Spitfire & a Hurricane. As for the Vulcan, that is a jet bomber & the noise they emit is deafening, also not sure but I doubt it could fly slow enough to allow a WW2 turbo prop aircraft to keep up with it. Whereabouts in the South Hams did you see them SFD ? I was in Bantham at that time & didn't hear anything
Like I said I'm no expert.
All I can be absolutely certain of is that the pair were identical and the solo had a prop on each wing. The pair were too far away to and the road I was on too narrow and windy to gawk at them. All 3 were flying very low and, again this is a complte guess, I'd say they were no more than about 300 feet up.
I saw the twinned pair near Ugborough on the road linking Modbury and Wrangaton. Once on the A38, sort of near South Brent, I suppose, the twin-propped job flew over. There was maybe a 15 minute gap between the two sightings - possibly less.
All 3 were headed left to right according to my easterly direction of travel and all 3 were far too big to be Spitfires or Hurricanes - speaking of which I saw that Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane team fly past the Otter garden centre a year or two back.
Thinking on a bit more I don't think either was a Lancaster and the solo one definitely had props so it couldn't have been a Vulcan but those are the only 2 biggish old planes I could name.
All 3 were silhouetted against white cloud and as a result just looked black so I couldn't see any markings on them.
So what you really saw was a few seagulls then?
Sir Francis Drake
Posts : 7461 Join date : 2011-12-03 Age : 33 Location : Nr Panama
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Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:02 pm
