[Help] Where do you fly to?

[Mithras]

I've been itching to buy some classic British military hardware for some time, but I've never known what to do with it. Where do you go in a Vulcan? Or a Lanc? Or a Canberra or Shackleton? I've just got back from a great day at the Waddington Airshow, however, so I'm even more keen to fly some classic RAF kit.

Where do you go, other than from one RAF base to another, and back again?

PS: Quite keen to fly Modern British kit, too, like the Sentinel and King Air. Just no jet fighters.

[TSR2]

The Vulcans went all over the world (albeit with refuelling). Guam, Cyprus, Ascension, Goose Bay? etc etc

[DaveB]

That about sums it up I think Ben. They're all warplanes and of their era. The Vulcan and Canberra (include the Shackleton too) were 'Cold War' aircraft with the primary threat coming from the former Soviet Union and its allies so wherever they were, our aircraft would be in striking distance to counter any perceived threat. The Lancaster was pretty much superseded by the Lincoln soon after WWII and saw the vast majority of it's service life bombing targets in Europe.

Because of the nature of what they are (or were).. warplanes.. I think they'd almost exclusively fly between military bases. That's not to say there wasn't the odd 'Jolly' A difficult and almost impossible question to answer with any certainty

ATB
DaveB

[Myles]

How about Hamilton Ontario to Coningsby for the Lanc? That might keep you amused for an hour or so !

Myles

[Brian Franklin]

Nimrod was pretty much a globe trotter, Gib, All Canadian bases, Nellis, Florida bases, Australia etc etc etc

[dswanson]

Hi,

Since this is a simulator you can fly wherever you like !

I fly mainly military aircraft and don't restrict myself to travelling between Air Force bases. I have a three ship V Bomber formation recorder "training" flight with a Valiant, Vulcan and Victor, which does a circuit from RAF Leuchars west to Oban, down Loch Ness, round over Dyce and back to Leuchars. Usually the Valiant and Vulcan are previously recorded flights by me and I fly the Victor but I can "mix" the formation by different combinations of the recorded flights, so can fly any of the planes as the "third man".

A real life scenario? I don't know, but low level formation flying in big jets is a real blast...

[plumber]

I would suggest that you take a look at the Military AI Works website, that will provide you with AI a/c and airfields world wide.
Brian H

[Garry Russell]

Most types for not too long FS flights went to Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar although there were special limits on the ampount that could fly through normal French and Spanish (due to the Spanish dispute) airspace so to Gib the routed to Lands End and then South along the edge of the French and Spaninsh FIR.

Near East and Far East were regular routes as aircraft did exchanges or traing/comunications...(Jollies)?

Vulcans seemed to turn up all over the World on courtesy visits...except the Eastern Bloc

[Mithras]

For modern day RAF simpilots, i envisaged something like this:

MALI
The Royal Air Force deployed two C-17 Globemaster III strategic transport planes of No. 99 Squadron from RAF Station Brize Norton (EGVN) to the French Évreux Air Base (LFOE) on 13 January. The planes transported French armored vehicles to the Malian capital Bamako (GABS) in what the British are calling Operation Newcombe. On 25 January, the UK Ministry of Defence said it deployed a Sentinel R1 which could easily have been based at the French forward airbase in Chad, along with French Mirage fighter jets, called N’Djamena (FTTJ).

That would make a nice series of flights. I could use the Hercules instead of the Globemaster.

I need to create a list of these kind of missions. Perhaps a Nimrod offering its services to search for a missing round the sorld yacht near the Canary Islands (since there is no yacht as such you would have to just fly the transfer leg to the Islands).

How about flying the Queen from Northolt in an Avro RJ to Gibralter for a commemorative ceremony?

Flying the Nimrod or Shackleton or Sentry or Sentinel up to Iceland to a NATO airbase there (BIKF) where it is on exercises over the North Atlantic, tracking Russian planes.

How about creating traffic file of a Russian bomber incursion, then trying to intercept it using a fighter, Phantom, Lightning, Typhoon, Tornado etc.

Sentinels were deployed to Libya, and flew from Akrotiri, a decent mission to fly in stages from RAF Waddington.

Current tensions involve redeploying any RAF assets, especially fighters to any of the Baltic States airbases for a shortish flight.

One friend replied, when asked about where to fly the Vulcan curtly replied "Moscow" ... Low level flight to a Russian city in a 'training simulator', or real life!

I'm sure there are many more in this vein.....

[Mithras]

Flicking through Robert Jackson's book V-Bombers, he mentions quite a lot of Vulcan flights from the early days, over to US airbases for bombing competitions, a couple for fitting out for nuclear missile tests, flights to Australia for drop testing of atomic missiles, to NZ on goodwill flights, to Ethiopia for low level practice, to Kenya for navigation practice, from Boscombe Down to RAF bases - when a prototype has completed its trials and is ready for service ... The flights of some B1 Vulcans that were at the end of their lives and were flown to airfields as testbeds for new technologies and engines... Its wuite a big list, at least a dozen interesting real life flights in the Vulcan.