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Ah!, so many memories being evoked in this thread. Not only the venerable Viscount, but others too.

I remember Tango Bravo. She went through several evolutions: ManAv; North Scottish; etc before being named rather pompously after himself by the Great Mr Steve.

One memory is of a call from her, with two pilots whom I'm ashamed to say I can't remember the names of (one was the Chief Pilot). I think one was doing a Line Check of the other. They said they had smell of smoke in the cockpit and asked for immediate clearance to land on the Bredford Dolphin. They had the presence of mind to land on the very edge of the helideck to allow another aircraft to bring AOG spares or whatever. Within a second of touchdown they shut down the engines and the rotors stopped instantly, as if there was a great big **** rotor brake which clamped down hard on the main. The MGB had welded itself into a solid lump. Two more seconds of flight and they'd have been a clumpweight on the seabed. She was craned off the deck later that day and sent home on a supply boat's deck with brown paper taped over her Registration letters and company name.

Of course I remember the Bristows reprobates in the Craighaar of an evening. Many of them were old mates from Port Harcourt and Warri; some were also old chums from the days of the original Piper/Claymore/Flotta development project.

Happy memories of Sumburgh too. On the Thistle platform installation job, which was the subject featured in an hour long 'Tomorrows' World' special edition as it was the biggest ever jacket installation ever, at the time. Our Safety Officer was the first casualty. He somehow managed to fall off a bar stool in the Sumburgh Hotel and break his neck, ferfuxake.

Now that's what I call porn, ya bass!

Beauty, in mid air.

I can almost hear the growl and scream of the engines/props from here.

When I was on 214 Sqdn, I had to sign of some mods done by Vicker's at Hurn on one of our Valiant's.

The Vicker's people showed me around a rather special Viscount it was the personal a/c of King Hussein of Jordan.

It was fitted out rather nicely.

Undried Plum wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 16, 2020 7:53 pm

Now that's what I call porn, ya bass!

Beauty, in mid air.

I can almost hear the growl and scream of the engines/props from here.

+1!

Another one for TGG

In 1984 I joined the newly formed Channel Express Air Services as Station Engineer at Hurn, formerly Express Air Services owned by Art Carpenter this cargo airline operated to and from the Channel Islands, general goods going down to Jersey and flowers and fruit coming back from Guernsey, during periods of high demand just before Easter and Mothering Sunday we supplemented the two Heralds with Air Atlantic Daks and the BAF Freightmaster, flying fuchsias back to Hurn for onward road trip to Covent Garden. Sunday was a busy day, each Herald carrying out three trips, the aircraft bulked out before reaching max weight, but if the boxes of flowers were wet then the aircraft would become over weight, we would bring in tons of flowers each day, it was a good business.

Here is the aircraft we chartered in to supplement the Heralds when needed.

The mighty Viscount truly giving power to the flower as noted in the interesting post above.

Decca fitted, possibly Mk10, so guessing at a BEA Viscount equipped for the Berlin corridor?

CharlieOneSix wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 23, 2020 2:53 pm

Decca fitted, possibly Mk10, so guessing at a BEA Viscount equipped for the Berlin corridor?

Spot on C16!

The “office” of a BEA Viscount V.802, the new variant being fitted with the Decca Flight Log system, which incorporated a moving-map display, seen here beneath the central windshield panel. The radio operator was positioned behind the co-pilot facing aft, with his radio table in front of him. The Viscount was popular with its pilots, many of which had graduated on to the turboprop from rather more work-intensive piston-engined airliners. (Philip Jarrett Collection)

G-APIM when PAWOODY was looking after her



As she is now at Brooklands

Oh dear, Brooklands have not done their PDI very well, the props need to be vertical/horizonal, (stops water accumulation in the spinner).
It looks a very tidy aircraft, it is sad to see old Vulcans, Heralds, and so on parked in corners of airfields just slowly rotting away, I will arrange a visit up there when we can get out and about again.

Clever petal arrangement to the cowling. Engine nacelles very thin.

A thing of beauty.

The cowlings are held in that position by a strut, in the event that they opened in flight the cowlings would fold back, the hinge point had a cut out which allowed the cowling to disengage and leave the aircraft. Compared to some modern turbo prop engine installations this was simple to work on, great access and cowlings could be opened or closed in minutes, it was a good design, less so on the Herald and F27 which had side cowlings that hinged up and removal took four people, not ideal if you were on your own. The Avro 748 was the same design as the Viscount.

I’m sure Mike would approve

Woody wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:01 pm

I’m sure Mike would approve

Mike would have also reposted a memorial to those so cruelly killed by an infamous act.

TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 06, 2020 7:36 am

Woody wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:01 pm

I’m sure Mike would approve

Mike would have also reposted a memorial to those so cruelly killed by an infamous act.

Two of those aircraft were the ones shot down

Just finished reading Barry LLoyd's "Vickers Viscount 1948-1949", a slim, but lavishly visually illustrated and well written account of the history of this legendary turboprop. The book is rich with anecdote and covers some of the incidents that perforce attend even the best and most reliable of aircraft that have been sold in significant numbers. I thoroughly recommend this book for a quick, lucid overview and history of this aircraft.

The only personally peevish, and South African chauvinistic, complaint that I have is that while the book does mention SAA as a Viscount operator, it does not have have an image of a SAA aircraft (or if it does, I need a stronger glasses' prescription), nor does it mention Lionel Haworth, the South African Rolls Royce Dart engine designer by name.

One of the anecdotes that really caught my attention with reference to the Dart engine, was the reference to the Turco Carboblast Compound used as a compressor wash to keep the occasionally recalcitrant Dart engine (amongst many others) up to horsepower specification on occasion. No doubt some of the aircraft engineers here (or who were here previously) will remember this compound well.

It sounds "nuts" but it works!

TURCO CARBOBLAST, a soft grit blasting material, is a mixture of walnut shells and apricot pits. These semi-abrasive lignocelluloses pellets are injected into jet engines to clean the compressors of contamination caused by salt, dust, smog and exhaust deposits sucked into the engine during reverse-thrust braking procedures. Removal of these deposits results in improved engine performance and fuel economy.

TURCO CARBOBLAST offers these benefits:
1. Pellets are tough, possess high strength and resist breakdown.
2. Will not pit, scratch or damage metals, or other materials that are harder than the pellets.
3. Conforms to MIL-G-5634C, Amend 2, Type VI.

More Viscount memories

http://www.vickersviscount.net/Pages_Hi ... COUNT.aspx

OneHungLow wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 23, 2023 2:15 pm

Just finished reading Barry LLoyd's "Vickers Viscount 1948-1949",

One year of history will not suffice - Barry Lloyd's Vickers Viscount 1948 - 2009.

How the hell did 1949 creep in there?