Vulcan B.2 XH561 at Finningley airfield.
On the night of 14th / 15th January 1965 this aircraft was flown on a training exercise and took off from Finningley at 19.30hrs. The unit records list what
the crew then undertook. I quote.. "EX4 ICC ASTRO X/C EFTO ADF DROITWICH 1X 2A HSR +/- AMT 45' TURNS DIV TO LECON/TACAN APPROACH INTO ILS TO DP21 PAR/ILS ASYM
O/S & ROLLERS VIS CIRS WITH FAILS PARA AS REQD". Make of that as you can. It possibly involving a cross country flight to Droitwich, then to Leconfield, then
making asymetric overshoot and roller landing practice. What must have been during one of the practice landings, at 00.25hrs, it landed on the runway at
Finningley with the undercarriage up.
Pilot - F/Lt E E Fell (probably F/Lt Eric Edward Fell AFC RAF (1179544)).
Co-Pilot - F/O B E Jones
Navigator (Plotter) - F/Lt C Deadman (Probably F/Lt Christopher David Deadman RAF (3512883)).
Navigator (Radar) - F/O Stanley Wilfred Keyte RAF (4231391).
Air Electronics Officer - F/Lt Martin William Davidson RAF (4230203).
Elsewhere on the internet it is claimed that Vulcan XH561 was damaged in October 1965. Following every entry in the 230 O.C.U. record book (AIR29-3655) this
cannot be the case. The 230 O.C.U. ORB listed XH561 as having a Cat.3 damage assessment made against it in May 1963 and remained as such until December 1963
when it was listed as "Recovery from CWP modifications". It then remained "On Line" until May 1964 when it went back for CWP modifications. It was back with
the unit in June 1964. In July 1964 it was Cat.3 again. It was still under Cat.3 on 26th October 1964 when the unit undertook Exercise "Mickey Finn" that was
to test crews to scramble the Vulcans to operational squadrons. In November 1964 XH561 was awaiting engine runs. This must have been completed as it was
then listed as available in December 1964. It was then servicable but crashed in January 1965. The aircraft was eventually made servicable in March 1966
and was then flown to Woodford for a retrofit.