RAF Phantom left behind at STCAAME

[Tramatoa]

Can anyone help with identifying the Phantom left behind at STCAAME RAF Valley sometime around 1991? 

I recall visiting it in the small STCAAME hangar but can't recall why (we very rarely went round there) and then subsequently had a wander round what was left of it on the burning pan during a weekend guard stint. My memory has it that a missile motor exploded just after firing which badly damaged the right intake and the decision was made to leave it where it was rather than repair it and fly it out as it was going to be scrapped anyway. I thought it was a F4J(UK) but none seems to have ended its days on Ynys Mon according to t'internet. I have the frequency card off the combing somewhere and I'm sure I scribbled the reg on the back but lord alone knows when it will turn up. 

Thanks,

Tramatoa

[Wez]

2 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

I have the frequency card off the combing somewhere

Coaming, the word is coaming!  ARRRRGH!

 

Sorry, one of my pet hates along with chaffing when they really mean chafing!

[TimB]

Combing through the wreck?  Bit like beach combing? No added value, I know...

Regards

Tim

[Tramatoa]

Sorry must have been autocorrect and I missed it. Sticks out like a dog’s hind leg when you re-reid it.............

[Troffa]

74 had relinquished their J's by then and flew FGR2's. The Phantom must have been from one of the last RAF sqns to operate them- 19? 92?

 

[iainpeden]

Ian Black's "The Last of the Phantoms" has XT895 as scrapped at RAF Valley Fire Section by 9/92.

 

While we're on the subject, does anybody know where XV420 was scapped; she had been preserved at Neatishead?

[Rickoshea52]

12 minutes ago, iainpeden said:

Ian Black's "The Last of the Phantoms" has XT895 as scrapped at RAF Valley Fire Section by 9/92.

 

While we're on the subject, does anybody know where XV420 was scapped; she had been preserved at Neatishead?

According to UKserials it suggests being scrapped at Neatishead?  

“d/d 25/01/1969, flown under a Chinook from Wattisham to Neatishead on 29/11/1995 and placed on display as 9247M, scrapped during 2005”

[iainpeden]

33 minutes ago, Rickoshea52 said:

According to UKserials it suggests being scrapped at Neatishead?  

“d/d 25/01/1969, flown under a Chinook from Wattisham to Neatishead on 29/11/1995 and placed on display as 9247M, scrapped during 2005”

Thanks, Rick. Interesting it took 3 years to get her from Wattisham to Neatishead.

 

I seem to remember reports that her fuselage was seen on a low-loader going towards the midlands at about the time the Cold War Museum was being opened at Cosford and there was speculation she was on her way there. I mean, how can you have a Cold War Museum without a (complete) Phantom?

[petetasker]

Could be FGR2 XV402. Hard landing at Valley 30/4/90, port main tyre burst, ruptured fuel tank and the fire caused major damage to the lower surfaces. The aircraft wasn't repaired pending the types imminent retirement. Both crew survived, the nav ejecting whilst the pilot stayed with the aircraft exiting rather sharpish once it was on the ground. Apparently the nose went to Belgium. (source British Phantoms 1979 - 1992 by Patrick Martin)

[bobsyouruncle]

Definitely XT895 'Q'. I've got a poor, distant shot of it but there are better ones on google searches, such as this one:-

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/code-number/XT895 xSx Q

 

 

 

[petetasker]

74 machine - that would explain why you thought it might have been an F4J (UK)

[Tramatoa]

20 hours ago, bobsyouruncle said:

Definitely XT895 'Q'. I've got a poor, distant shot of it but there are better ones on google searches, such as this one:-

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/code-number/XT895 xSx Q

 

 

 

That’s it, just as I remember it. You can even see the hole in the right intake on some of the photos. Such a shame it ended up on the burning pan but it seems that my pocketing of the radio frequency card was quite minor. There seem to be bits of her all over the country! 

It was odd on that bit of the airfield over on the Rhosneigr side, not somewhere you went very often. There was the main wing and centre section of a Vulcan with the nose and vertical stab hacked off and the shell of a Harrier if my memory is correct, a sad sight. Great for bondu bashing in the Air Portable at weekends though 👍. 

A couple of related stories......

When I first went to Valley in about 1980 there was a Shackleton parked up which was headed for the same grisly end but I believe someone started a campaign to ‘save the Shack and burn Valley’ which must have worked because I don’t recall seeing any evidence of it when I was actually posted there. I was given a guided tour but sadly those were the days when photos meant cameras which were verboten.

Regarding the Vulcan I was told it was parked up some time in the early eighties prior to the build up to the South Atlantic kicking off. A team was dispatched to assess the Avionics on board and rob anything useful only to find an enterprising ‘Chief’ had got there first and had been flogging bits of it off for months, leaving it past salvation. Nice to think it was true but you know how these stories are.

While I have the attention of the Phantom crowd, can you recommend a kit in 1/72 as a base for this aircraft?

Thanks,

Tramatoa

[Tramatoa]

21 hours ago, petetasker said:

Could be FGR2 XV402. Hard landing at Valley 30/4/90, port main tyre burst, ruptured fuel tank and the fire caused major damage to the lower surfaces. The aircraft wasn't repaired pending the types imminent retirement. Both crew survived, the nav ejecting whilst the pilot stayed with the aircraft exiting rather sharpish once it was on the ground. Apparently the nose went to Belgium. (source British Phantoms 1979 - 1992 by Patrick Martin)

I remember this one well, we were on shift that day. 

Our Comms guy was in the Ops Room watching the radios (Fairy speak for reading the paper) when a PLB started to ping on the speaker. He picked up the phone and rang the Tower assuming it was yet another budgie getting out of his Hawk and forgetting to disconnect only to be told to look out the window because the Nav was still drifting gently back to earth. Obviously we would occasionally remind him about it........

The aircraft blew a tyre and slewed off the runway adjacent to the old tower (RAF Regiment building), the Nav must have thought bugger this for a game of soldiers and exited, whereas the steely eyed killer in the front was with very brave or very slow. I seem to recall the aircraft was towed off within a couple of hours and don’t recall it being stuck at Valley for any great time.

Happy memories 👍

 

 

[Tramatoa]

Looks like Airfix is the obvious choice, perfect timing 😉

[iainpeden]

39 minutes ago, Tramatoa said:

 

 

While I have the attention of the Phantom crowd, can you recommend a kit in 1/72 as a base for this aircraft?

Thanks,

Tramatoa

You have 2 choices, the 30 year old Fujimi FGR.2 or the newly released Airfix one. If you want a kit that goes well together, looks good and won't give you grey hair go for the former (I have made over 40). If you want something with some significant omissions, panel lines deeper than the 1:1 original, could have been designed not to fit well and leaves enough unused plastic to give any environmental campaigner apoplexy, go for the Airfix one (I'm currently fighting my 2nd one).

Just now, Tramatoa said:

Looks like Airfix is the obvious choice, perfect timing 😉

50/50 and you gor the wrong answer!

[Tramatoa]

40!?! Either you love the Phantom as much as I love Walter or your wife is very, very bad at dusting..........

[iainpeden]

40 out of a total of about 210 (  have lost count).

Of the Spey engined Phantoms, I have every RAF and RN squadron kitted, 11 of XV470 (in all her various squadron markings) and a number of doubled up units in the evolving markings they carried.

As for dusting - I leave them in gloss finish and they get a bath (Literally) about once a year on the big spring clean.

[Irish 251]

That Valley Vulcan:

 

And Shackleton on the dump:

[Tramatoa]

Wonderful photos, thanks for taking the time to post them.

What a shame about the Shackleton, I always hope it had escaped its fate. I can remember climbing over the wing spar up to the cockpit and lying on the leather cushion in the back end during my first ATC camp.  As I said previously there was nothing left by 1986.

The Vulcan is quite a bit more intact at this point in time, the whole forward fuselage had gone in my time. Always upsets me to see an old warrior hacked to bits.

When I was a kid there were the burnt out remains of two Meteors at RAF Woodvale on the Liverpool to Southport train and we would always be looking out for them, although you would be past in the blink of an eye.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Tramatoa
Off at a tangent again......

[wombat]

On 6/26/2019 at 7:23 PM, Tramatoa said:

Sorry must have been autocorrect and I missed it. Sticks out like a dog’s hind leg when you re-reid it.............

Yew knead two bee maw watch full of the spell chequer on yore pea sea 

[Tramatoa]

Comedy is all about the timing..........

[DougC]

On 6/26/2019 at 6:43 PM, Wez said:

Sorry, one of my pet hates along with chaffing when they really mean chafing!

Except sometimes we do actually mean chaffing...... as in chucking out all those little radar-reflective strips to confuse the enemy!

[Wez]

7 hours ago, DougC said:

Except sometimes we do actually mean chaffing...... as in chucking out all those little radar-reflective strips to confuse the enemy!

In which case that's correct.

 

It's when people use chaffing to describe items being damaged by rubbing together e.g. chafing.  It vexes thee greatly!

[Ed Russell]

On 6/29/2019 at 10:36 PM, wombat said:

Yew knead two bee maw watch full of the spell chequer on yore pea sea 

That would be "off there spill chequer an" 

Great pictures - maybe half a million dollars worth in new condition.

[Tramatoa]

I have obtained an Airfix FGR2 for my next build despite Ian's cautionary post as I'm currently working on regenerating my decrepit modelling skills rather than trying to build the perfect Phantom. This came from Transport Models in Preston, a place I haven't visited in many a long year and I have to report it is well worth the effort. I was smiling when I went in and I was smiling when I went out and I have a feeling that this is going to be one of my happy places. 

 

The Phantom wasn't an aircraft I have anything other than a passing interest in so I have no intention of getting carried away, however I do have a couple of questions for you;

• There is a superbly detailed earlier post on this forum regarding Q config for weapons and tanks. Can anyone tell me what the config would be for an aircraft at MPC? i.e. the config XT 895 would likely have been in when it departed on it's last sortie?
• Was there ever an aftermarket solution to the Airfix pylons? 
• When you put the kit Sidewinder next to the ones on the Revell Tornado the guidance fins are clearly different, the Airfix ones have straight leading edges while the Revell ones are concave. Are both correct?
• Lastly, for no other reason than curiosity, what is the odd shaped pod provided in the kit? 

Thanks,

Tramatoa