Abbotsford, British Columbia - Airshow 2016

Fra Member in Good Standing i foreningen Vulcan to the Sky, Reinhard Lillebø, har jeg mottatt denne saken hvor hovedmeldingen er en etterlysning etter bilder av Vulcan tatt utenfor UK.

We have been able to stitch together the image from the book Keith refers to from 1971. Did you attend and photograph any ‘overseas’ Vulcan air shows or deployments and do you have Pictures? A typical spectacular departure image of Vulcan XM650 appearing at a flying display in Canada in 1968 led us to think we could involve some of our overseas readers more. Our thanks to Keith Knight MBE (Sqn. Ldr. Retd), who kindly sent in some pictures and this note about his experiences when in British Columbia, Canada at the Abbotsford air shows. Seeing the impressive shelves of Malcolm Martin, (Friday’s newsletter), I thought you might like to have the attached Vulcan pictures from the US book “AIRSHOW! Pictorial” by Bill Johnson, 1971. Having been a member of the crew of Vulcan XM650 displaying at Abbotsford in August 1968, I later transferred to maritime flying and, from 1978-1980, was lucky enough to get an exchange tour at the Maritime Proving & Evaluation Unit (MP&EU) at CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia. At a subsequent visit to Greenwood some years later, the MP&EU presented me with the above-mentioned book, which has some good shots of our Vulcan air and ground displays at Abbotsford all those years ago. I have attached the photos for your Vulcan archives. The best picture in the whole book was the only “centrefold”, showing the displaying Vulcan, with the crew names on the left hand page. As you will see, I was the AEO on the crew. If any of your readers know the whereabouts of any of the other crew members, perhaps you could pass this email onto them. The caption to the image read: Squadron Leader R.H. Wood gets the big (111-foot wingspan, 180,000 lb) Hawker Siddeley Vulcan off the runway after an astonishingly short run to begin one of its daily flight demonstrations during the 1968 show. The British have a gift for visually stunning designs and the Vulcan is a wonderfully organic appearing machine. First flown on 30th August 1952, the Vulcan is still in service with the Royal Air Force. The aircraft shown here was stationed at Waddington, Lincolnshire, and the crew in addition to Sqn. Ldr. Wood were Flt. Lt. M. J. Goodwin, Flt. Lt. P. T. Middlebrook, Fg. Off. C. C. Saunby and Fg. Off. K. A. R. Knight.  Another picture in Keith’s collection of memories from the book was this one showing the crowd sheltering from the sun. While on static display, the huge Delta planform affords a welcoming sunshade to the Public. Det jeg husker best fra mitt besøk der i 1997 var at B2 skulle komme på sin første tur utenlands. Det ble annonsert at den dessverre ikke kunne komme, men en C-17 kom i stedet. Da gikk jeg for å tisse i skogen, og gjett hva som kom; en B2. Jeg fikk fyrt av et hofteskudd i all hast som på ingen måte yter flyet noen rettferdighet, men gitt omstendighetene var jeg glad jeg fikk "skutt" den.