Last Vulcan take off from Waddington?
by Richard Clarke.
Date: 18 July 2014
Despite the grey and cloudy start to the day (Friday 11 July 2014) large crowds gathered in the Waddington Aircraft Viewing Enclosure (WAVE) and on the A15 adjacent to the perimeter fence of RAF Waddington to witness the spectacular sight of Vulcan XH558 taking to the skies - a great tribute to the amazing and enduring popularity of this iconic and much loved aircraft in 'Bomber County'.
However on this occasion there was a sad and poignant air to the atmosphere because, of course, everyone was aware that this may be the very last occasion that a Vulcan was seen climbing into the sky from this famous and historical base with a resounding cacophony of noise accompanied by the very familiar howl, which is the trademark sound of the 200 series Olympus engine.
Standing Proud
All eyes were on the Vulcan as she was prepared for her flight to Farnborough by the Vulcan to the Sky Engineering team, she stood proudly by the perimeter fence near to her sister aircraft XM607 of Falklands Conflict fame. As the clock ticked down towards the appointed take off time of 11:15 the Aircrew arrived at the aircraft to liaise with the engineers and to carry out their pre-flight checks. The crew for the day was Martin Withers, Bill Ramsey and Jonathan Lazzari.
The aircrew then mounted the steps to the aircraft and began the start-up process and it was not long before the familiar red anti-collision lights start to rotate, signifying that the aircraft now had internal power and soon after that the encouraging sound of the Auxiliary Power Unit was heard leading to the start of the engines with the beautiful and resonant sound of her powerful Olympus engines.
And so the moment all of the crowd had been waiting for had arrived, having completed all of the checks Bill Ramsey released the brakes and the aircraft surged forward, released from her shackles and keen to get airborne, moving forward serenely down the taxiway adjacent to the A15 and passing tantalisingly close to the crowd lined up along the fence, the engines even in idle making a tremendous noise.
Capturing The Moment For Posterity
As she passed by the crowd any number of photos were being taken with people wanting to take the opportunity to capture this moment for posterity - it would have certainly been seen as one of those unforgettable 'I was there...' moments by the people who were present.
XH558 then reached the end of the runway and turned to face southwest to prepare for take off, something that the crew and she had experienced numerous times over the years but now with potentially more significance and a possible finality to the proceedings.
At this point it was also noticeable that there was significant interest from the RAF personnel with groups gathering on the other side of the runway to see the unique sight of a Vulcan taking off. She rolled down the runway and Martin Withers pushed the throttles forward and she roared into the sky after a relatively short distance.
The crew then treated the crowd to a 90 degree bank to the South and turned round into the circuit to make one more fly past before departing in the same direction en route to Farnborough – it was an all too brief experience before she disappeared into the distance heading for Newark as her next waypoint.
Her departure coincided with the large crowds also heading for their cars and the car park at WAVE emptied fairly rapidly as the realisation dawned that this really could be the last time that a Vulcan would be seen taking off from Waddington - her home for so many years...
