Five a day - Part 33

[haveblue]

About as far away from a sharp and pointy fast-jet as you can get - the unglamorous Vickers Varsity crew trainer. A piston engined aircraft from a very different age which operated into the 1970s.

Varsity RAF Ser WJ921 - RAF Kinloss early 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

Varsity RAF Ser WJ948 - RAF Lossiemouth 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

Varsity RAF Code U - RAF Losseimouth 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

Varsity RAF Ser WJ916 - RAF Lossiemouth 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

Varsity RRE Ser WF379 - RAF Lossiemouth 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

[Punkrunner62]

A type i have never seen, thanks again Alan for these brilliant posts.
Cheers.

[Thunder]

Ditto, can’t remember ever seeing one. Bit of a strange looking bird, it’s got a bit of ‘Wellington’
about it.

[Mike]

Another fine set of shots Alan, I must admit to having seen around 55 of these in the 60's & 70's and at least there's still a few preserved in UK museums + 1 in Berlin and the Swedish example at Linkoping.

Here's one I took of WL679 at Cosford..............



Edit!!!

And here's WF369 at Newark...............

[Mustang531]

Thanks for sharing these, I can remember seeing them in service. When RAF Andover was open, for many years there was one in use for fire training next to the A303, I used to see it regularly from the late sixties to about 1975, when going to visit relatives in the West Country. Seeing the picture of the long nosed version brings back memories of seeing these when I was at school and they used to overfly on the way to West Malling. I think there were three modified in this way.

[raptor9]

The Cosford one was the very last Varsity to fly, and on it's way to the Museum it flew over me. Many R.A.F pilots and navigators cut their teeth on these workhorses.

[daggerfan]

Good memories there, Alan. I saw quite a few Varsities at Lossie over my early years in the hobby, plus the odd Valetta or two. Alas I never got photos of any of them!

[raptor9]

Jeez Daggerfan. Mentioning the Valetta makes me feel really old. Flew in one as an ATC Cadet from Benson. Happy days.

[Jabba]

Ah, the Varsity. It was never the first aircraft you went to photograph at an airshow back in the day! Luckily I did get a few shots when they were around. Daggerfan mentioned a Valetta and I have a distant memory of there being one in a rather dismembered state in the Quarrywwod scrapyard at Elgin in the early seventies.

[Mike@Heathrow]

Varsities..... Holidays on the Isle of Wight were always good for them coming out of Tangmere... going over Shanklin on a day-out to the Channel Islands, I believe, returning late in the afternoon. Easily readable under the wings as long as the early morning mist had cleared away.

[Petepilot]

Another daily dose of great memories - thank you! I remember seeing Varsitys at Oakington - Wikipedia tells me that they stopped flying from there in 1974!

[paddyboy]

Hi Alan

Yet more shots reminding me of Coltishall displays of yore

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[jpickers56]

Nothing wrong with Varsities, believe was nicknamed 'The Flying Pig' , remember these in the circuit when as a lad I lived near RAF Watton in the sixties, believe they moved on around 1970. Many thanks for sharing these.

[Kevin Brewer]

Thanks for sharing all of your pics, a brilliant selection and reminder of days past, please keep them coming.

I always had a soft spot for the Varsity following an Air Cadet Easter Camp to Oakington back in 1971 when I was lucky enough to get two trips - a daylight sortie in WJ920/R and a 3.5 hour night flight in WF326/I. The Instructor Pilot on the daytime flight was like something out of Flight International's 'Uncle Roger' section':

"Not like that Hoskins - if you're going to turn the darn thing, do it properly!"

-promptly slamming the stick right over and turning on a wingtip. Not quite what I had expected from what was a pretty old and sedate aircraft even then!

[GeorgeA]

If I remember correctly after retirement quite a few found their way to fire services at airports - Bristol and Glasgow being two that come to mind.

Again, a good set of photos that brings back memories of my early spotting days. Keep it up!

[Sparts99]

I saw one a few years ago in Berlin, looked like it had been converted into a cafe next to main road but the taxi was going to fast to get a proper look, and there was one at Sibson about 1984 or 85, no idea how it got there, the strip was grass and really short. I remember at an airshow a Varsity taxied past, all clanking squeaking and groaning.

[Mustang531]

There were two at Bristol, both of which ended up as razor blades, the cockpit section of the Glasgow one was/is displayed at the museum at Tinwald Downs. As for Sibson, there were two there, one is now preserved at Brooklands Museum. The Berlin example was used by 23MU at Gatow, but was moved to Berlin Tegel, where it became part of a private museum on the perimeter. It had a French AF Fouga Magister and Luftwaffe F-84F for company. As the airport at Tegel is now closed, I understand the museum also shut down. No idea if the airframes are still there, maybe someone could confirm?
I always had a soft spot for the Varsity and remember going to At Home Days at Biggin Hill, there would be a flypast of either three, four or five examples. Great days.

[BFM]

Don't think I ever saw a Varsity fly and thanks for sharing.

[roughcutter]

I recall in the early 1970's, there was a Varsity that regularly performed calibration flights on Liverpool (Speke)'s then "new" runway, can't remember the name of the unit (probably RAE?).

[Mustang531]

Regarding the comment about Speke, the Blind Landing Evaluation Unit at RAE Bedford operated a Varsity, maybe two, so perhaps that's what you noted.