Vulcan XH558

I personally think the trust well and truly missed a trick by not have one last air show. I think that there should have been an event lined up to see her off properly. Even with post Shoreham restrictions something better than wasting 6 flying hours doing fly bys around the country could have been put on. What a waste


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I think you do them an injustice. The farewell tour was great, covering a lot of the country and they were lucky enough to get good weather on both days (not just acceptable flying conditions). It was quite possible that this event could not happen on the planned date so there were a few weeks to still fit it in before the deadline came around.
If this event had been panned for this week to make it a proper farewell tour it would never have managed what it did and then there would have been a considerable number of disappointed people.

 

Agree with that. I'd planned to see her for a final time at Old Sarum airshow, but she had to scratch. I thought that would be my last chance, so the extra opportunity of the round-Britain trip was an extra bonus. OK, it wasn't a display, but there's a trade-off between what they did which ensured maximum number of people could see her right across the country; or a smaller number of longer displays, which would inevitably have had a smaller public "reach".

Tom

 

That's what I found. Very disappointing video/ commentary and to miss the landing live was inexcusable. I was due to leave to catch a train to the smoke but hung on to see....zilch.

The whole event was an anti climax and I simply don't ever want to see a video feed of hi vis wearers again.

I have immense respect for what the trust has done this year and have seen XH a few times but this was not an apt finale for this supporter. Very sad.

 

There have also been many shows this year that many people will have gone to to see her display. These and the farewell tour must have shown many thousands of youngsters what could be done with a bit of vision, foresight and British aeronautical engineering 60 years ago.

 

I agree with NeilL and James on this one. I was at an event organised by the society I belong to and there was great excitement that 558 was planned to fly quite close to where we were having our event. As word spread that we were "on the route" it pulled far more people to our event than we have had on previous occasions. What happened was absolutely stunning, 558 appeared fairly low on the horizon heading straight toward us and as she got overhead done a sharp left bank, opened the taps and headed off to her next waypoint. The place shook, we heard the howl for one last time and then she was gone. Everyone had a massive smile on their faces - I had a lot of grit in my eyes as well. I think VTTS got that tour right and a lot more people got to see 558 than had she displayed at a solitary airshow .

 

Well that gives me a few more free weekends next year as wont be visiting as many airshows without the excitemenr of seeing the Vulcan. Maybe the air Tattoo will manage to get a B 52 over this year.

 

Sorry but for me the farewell flypast just didn't do anything for me. Logistically it must have taken a lot to organise and credit for that. But a 30 second long distance glimpse of her flying by is no comparison to a full or even half display.


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On local TV news last evening.....it had a final cruise around yesterday from Finningley, It was all too short a clip, it just showed the take off.
I cant agree with spindizzy....a hell of a lot of people have had a chance to see it around the country, Look at Ralph's clip in post #241. How many at a single airshow???

 

To answer those who are complaining about no final show I will say this, Shoreham was the game changer. By all accounts they had planned a farewell display over Finningley for the 18th of October, the anniversary of her return to flight. A NOTAM was posted for that day to reserve airspace over Finningley for that display. Then came Shoreham. Add to that the vast number of people turning up at Finningley to see her every takeoff and landing, some of whom were parking in some very daft places, and the authorities at the airport started getting twitchy. Regarding the parking, they threatened to bill the Vulcan Trust for any problems caused by spectators and regarding the display, it would have been impossible for XH558 to display over Finningley without going over the crowds outside the perimeter. Pre Shoreham that was no problem as the rules in place protect those inside but post Shoreham it's a whole different ball game.
The round Britain farewell tour enabled thousands upon thousands of people to see her, many more than could have attended a final show. Yes the final flight was a bit of a damp squib but the Vulcan Trust pretty much had its hands tied by matters outside its control.

 

Just feel that there should have been a special send off show for such an iconic aircraft. Never mind I suppose I'm disappointed that there were three no shows at the 4 air shows I'd had lined up to see her.


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I've explained why that didn't happen - at least at her home base. And if a show had taken place elsewhere, many people would still have wanted to be at Finningley to see the final landing so the parking problems would have still been the same along with the associated concerns of the airport authorities. For what it's worth I think they were being over cautious but it's their airport and they can dictate what does or does not happen there.

 

I understand why Shoreham was the game changer, we had the misfortune of watching the tragedy unfold.


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Without Shoreham I suspect we would have seen XH558 do a display to end all Vulcan displays but sadly it was not to be.

 

I grew up in Watford and sometimes saw Vulcans on what I believe were test flights. So one day this year, when the route of this last one was to take it only a few miles away, I planned to go out to see it.

A little while before it was due I checked the website and there was no indication that it had even taken off, so I stayed at home. Subsequently I found that it had flown as planned that day but that they only posted updates on Facebook or some such and they couldn't be bothered to update their website. I took umbrage with that attitude to potential supporters and have made no effort since then to see it anywhere else or make any donation.

 

You were lucky to get through at all to their website on those two Farewell Tour days, every time I tried it was "no go". I believe that there were so many hits that the website packed up but evidently Facebook and Twitter were updated and were accessible through published links without having an account with either.

 

You made no effort to see it after the Southern Farewell Tour? Just as well as she made only two "non public" flights after that so not a lot of effort was needed to not see those. As alrohomer explained, the sheer
volume of traffic was the problem for the web site and also the flight tracker I believe. No deliberate action by the Trust to keep people in the dark. I and many others simply chose our preferred viewing point and simply waited, many of us having set off hours before she took off just to claim pole position in the gallery.

 

You have a preferred ale for plane spotting then, Spamcan?

Tom