Glen

Are these A-4Ms? I thought the A-4M had the bigger canopy or did they have the original canopy at first? Cheers Glen

Fantastic. They are the best books ever produced!

Hi Des I'm pretty sure it was never released. I can't find the email now but I did ask the publishers and they said it hadn't been published -can't remember why now! Cheers Glen

Hope to make it - see how the roads are!

Wow, that flight deck shot took me back!

It's still fab Kev!

There is a photo of the aircraft after it ditched in Hong Kong on page 56 of Tony Buttler's Sea Fury in British, Australian, Canadian and Dutch Service (Dalrymple and Verdun). It is in the scheme in the profile above with a yellow? ring around the roundel, fin flash, old colour scheme and no visible wing stripes or serials. I've tried posting a scan of it but not working so far!

That’s just fantastic! What a way to finish the modelling year. Cheers Glen

That’s fab!

I've heard that the the A1M, particularly southbound, is a prime location. Deceptively spacious with great transport links!

I did my AAR course from 8 - 21 Jan 92 on XR806, 808, XV102, 108. The C1s were flying to the Falklands with AAR in the late 80s http://www.vc10.net/Memories/Recordsetting.html Still betting the house??

The C1s virtually all had probes back on in 1990. I think only 2 were missing. They were a very useful crosswind indicator although on a flapless approach with the nose high they could hide the runway so a bit of guesswork was needed! We had about 3 crews receiver qualified so used to chase a tanker around the North Sea every so often to keep current. The first C1K conversion (XV103?) was back at Brize in about Sept 1992 but I think there were a few problems so it was a long time before it was ready to use. I was supposed to be on the first crew to be trained on it but as my posting date approached 6 months later another crew trained first. Although the aircraft stayed in their traditional scheme the pods were in hemp and grey as per 101s jets. Cheers Glen

That's really nice!

That's just stunning Kev. A fantastic model of a fantastic aeroplane. Cheers Glen

As others have mentioned, the flaps and slats are controlled from one lever and sequenced depending on the aircraft type. The 747-400 only gets inboard and mid span leading edge flaps at the first setting (flap 1). At flap 5 the trailing edges move and the outboard LE flaps extend. The A300 only extends the slats at the first position (this could be used for take off - long runway with no obstacles on climb out eg Bahrain). The A320 family only extend the slats at Flap 1 in the air but on the ground the same setting will give you flaps as well! On the VC10 there were separate levers for the flaps and slats but they were pinned together so used as one. In the event of a double engine failure on take off (with 2 engines close together it was considered highly likely that one failing would take out the other) the pin was removed so that the flaps could be retracted first. The slats are lower drag and increase stalling angle of attack so would be retracted later once the aircraft had accelerated. 'Double engine failure drill' was called so that everyone knew that a non standard procedure was to be completed. Cheers Glen