stuartcox
Charter Member
News From 'Vulcan To The Sky':
"What a high yesterday was, with the culmination of your great financial support and the dedication of our small team, resulting in Avro Vulcan XH558 returning to the skies once again to begin what is hopefully, going to be the most exciting display season since her restoration. Thank you to everyone who made it happen!
We had to wait till nearly 5pm before the weather at Robin Hood was good enough for the crew to start engines. Thankfully, just before 5.30pm, XH558 rose off Runway 20 and headed south-east to start a pre-determined series of maneuvers and tests of her systems.
Piloted by Kevin Rumens and Paul Mulcahy, CAA Chief Test Pilot, and accompanied by AEOs Barry Masefield and Phil Davies in the back, the crew assiduously recorded all of the results of the various tests, whilst going through all the regions of the cleared flight envelope. This included shutting down and re-lighting each engine in turn, and carrying out other in-flight emergency procedures. All this was conducted at between 5,000 and 14,000 feet in clear and open airspace for reasons of safety.
Landing back at 18:58, the engines were kept running and Martin Withers effected a crew change with Paul before carrying out four low level circuits including two "rollers" to maintain his currency, allowing Paul to complete his test flight report on the ground. It was nearly 19:45 when the engines were finally shutdown."
"What a high yesterday was, with the culmination of your great financial support and the dedication of our small team, resulting in Avro Vulcan XH558 returning to the skies once again to begin what is hopefully, going to be the most exciting display season since her restoration. Thank you to everyone who made it happen!
We had to wait till nearly 5pm before the weather at Robin Hood was good enough for the crew to start engines. Thankfully, just before 5.30pm, XH558 rose off Runway 20 and headed south-east to start a pre-determined series of maneuvers and tests of her systems.
Piloted by Kevin Rumens and Paul Mulcahy, CAA Chief Test Pilot, and accompanied by AEOs Barry Masefield and Phil Davies in the back, the crew assiduously recorded all of the results of the various tests, whilst going through all the regions of the cleared flight envelope. This included shutting down and re-lighting each engine in turn, and carrying out other in-flight emergency procedures. All this was conducted at between 5,000 and 14,000 feet in clear and open airspace for reasons of safety.
Landing back at 18:58, the engines were kept running and Martin Withers effected a crew change with Paul before carrying out four low level circuits including two "rollers" to maintain his currency, allowing Paul to complete his test flight report on the ground. It was nearly 19:45 when the engines were finally shutdown."
then again at RIAT! 
