Vulcan Delivery Diary 09A
Waiting – 4-6 February 1983
By Howard Heeley
Nearly forty years ago on 7 February 1983, Vulcan XM594 landed at Winthorpe Airfield in eastern Nottinghamshire. When it safely touched down it became the only Vulcan to be flown into a non-licensed airfield in the UK. This is the ninth part of an abridged version of an article, which describes the acquisition process, that was originally published in an edition of Aviation News that year.
Waiting!!
Despite the fact that the required easterly wind was the normal prevailing wind at Winthorpe during the winter throughout the rest of January we were waiting for favourable wind and weather conditions.
Long-range reports from the Met Office had suggested a suitable change in conditions by Friday 4 February.
The 4th duly arrived, but with a fresh westerly blowing, definitely no go!
Saturday 5 February became a possibility, as the wind was expected to veer to the northeast, as usual the weather forecast was wrong and we still had a westerly wind.
Sunday 6 February 1983
This became the strong favourite as the "Met Men" were convinced the wind would move to the northeast. Such was their conviction many museum members were notified and they came along to the Museum.
The wind did veer to a heading of 020', but it unfortunately grew in strength to near gale force. This was unacceptable, so once again the arrival was postponed for at least 24 hours.