Zealand. Darrell Hamley described the
deployment: “The three B.1s, XH498, XH499
[Darrell’s aircraft] and XH502, departed late
from Scampton due to fog. We refuelled
at Akrotiri and pushed on to Pakistan. On
landing at Karachi XH502 did not stream its
’chute. As a result, the brakes got hot and the
port undercarriage caught re. It was rapidly
put out but delayed us a bit. From Karachi
we went to Butterworth, outside Penang
[Malaysia].” They all proceeded to Darwin,
Australia and nally to Ohakea in New
Zealand, arriving on October 19.
The deployment was in part to celebrate
the opening of Wellington International Airport
and the three aircraft ew around the islands,
so everyone could get to see the impressive
V-Bomber at rst-hand. On the day of the
airport opening the trio was due to y past,
with one aircraft, XH498 own by Sqn Ldr
Tony Smailes, to land and be placed on static
display. Darrell: “After two roller landings and
on nals for a full stop, a gust of wind saw
the main port undercarriage of Tony’s aircraft
clip the raised end of the approach runway.
The aircraft swung towards the crowd, but the
crew applied full power and the Vulcan got
back into the air, with a severely damaged
main undercarriage and leaking some fuel.
The squadron OC, Wg Cdr Douglas Bower,
was my navigator plotter and so we quickly
headed back to Ohakea, landed and he
raced to the tower to advise in any way he
could. Douglas suggested to go out over the
sea, get the rear crew out and abandon the
aircraft. However, Tony managed to safelyrecover XH498 and his crew to Ohakea.
As he landed he put all the aircraft weight
on the starboard undercarriage for as long
as he could, then deployed the braking
chute. When the port wing nally dropped,
the Vulcan ran off the runway and the nose
undercarriage sunk into the ground.” The
aircraft remained at Ohakea for some months
while a team from Avro completed repairs.
“We left New Zealand with two aircraft on
October 31. Our return home was via Fiji,
Christmas Island and Honolulu, then onto
San Francisco and Offutt AFB in Nebraska,
arriving November 6. Even then there werefurther delays following a nose undercarriage
malfunction on XH499; XH502 continued
[via Goose Bay] to the UK. XH499 stayed
a further 10 days awaiting repairs before
leaving for Goose Bay in Canada.” Finally, on
the last leg of their ight on November 19,
over the Atlantic, Bomber Command declared
a generation exercise and so XH499 went
to Lossiemouth in Scotland for its part in
the dispersal plan, before nally returning to
Scampton the following day.
Darrell continued: “The other thing we
were working on at the time were ‘scrambles
and rapid starts’. It was crude with thehttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 43Vulcan B.2 XL321 from
617 Sqn carrying a Blue
Steel practice round. This
aircraft joined 617 – the
rst operational unit to be
armed with Blue Steel – at
Scampton, Lincolnshire,
on January 10, 1962. MoDThree 617 Sqn Vulcans arrived at RNZAF Ohakea in October 1959, demonstrating the Vulcan’s
global reach. Air Force Museum of New Zealand42-47_dambusters_617_vulcansDC.mfDC.indd 43 06/04/2018 15:31