Buccaneer S.2B XZ431 Cockpit Tour with Ken Norman

[@davecottrell8292]

Takes me back to my early days in the RAF, working on the Buccaneers of 12 squadron at Honington before they moved to Lossiemouth.

[@gtheritage]

I worked next door in MEAS at that time.

[@dorsetdumpling5387]

Watching this with the cc subtitles on is surreal! Who knew that cheese was so important in the cockpit?

[@1903chrisholden]

nice tour of the buccaneer from Mr Ken Norman a lovely guy

[@nickbayer7847]

Simple, to the point explanation 👌

[@kennorman8511]

Good point Vivid City, the Buccaneer wasn't a well designed cockpit. The radios weren't as big a problem as you may think as normally when we flew low level there were rarely any frequency changes. The radios had pre tuned "Stud" frequencies ie Tower Stud 1, Approach Stud 2 etc. If we're flying low level in battle formation and needed to change frequency then the leader would call " Blue Section Stud 5, Stud 5 Go", pause while all changed, then called "Blue Section check in" followed by "Blue 2" "Blue 3" "Blue 4". Just in case there were problems we all monitored "Guard " frequency on 243. The Buccaneer was a wonderful aircraft and modern digital avionics and weapons system would have been superb but at the end of the day modern Airforces require multi role aircraft rather than the single role the Buccaneer excelled in. Sadly with limited budgets and huge development costs we will see more and more cheap Drone alternatives replacing front line aircraft in the future.

[@TheDarwiniser]

Thanks so very much for your time explaining the aircraft, there are many of us that just soak this stuff up. First hand info is priceless, thanks again for your time.

[@allgood6760]

A different generation of aeroplane✈️👍

[@caspercat39]

The best low level attack aircraft of its day. 👍

[@simonpotter7534]

It was like he had never been away from his airplane home.

[@1903chrisholden]

is XZ431 there all the time now ? as I understand she is privately owned and trailered for airshows?

[@xenaandzenafromsanbernadin3807]

No radar up front for the pilot or was that handled exclusively by the observer in the back?

[@Akm72]

I guess so, maybe the HUD could provide steering cues to the pilot based on a radar locked target or to a target waypoint.

[@Tonkotsu2k10]

did he call the guages "cheeses"?

[@Davros-vi4qg]

Nope the flap position indicators, the yellow wedges on the gauges to the left

[@MartinHopkinson]

Yes, we did refer to them as ‘cheeses’ because they looked like wedges of cheese. If they didn’t move together, the aircraft would pitch down uncontrollably so you had to monitor their movement and intervene with the standby switch (cut out) on the starboard side if they went out of sync. The navigator didn’t have a repeater in the back and couldn’t see them in the front so, to re-assure him that we were checking, we would say “cheeses moving….. cheeses moving……” as they motored! What Ken didn’t mention with the blow gauges was that, as well as monitoring the mainplane blow, we also had to watch the tailplane blow which, usefully, was obscured under our left elbow! Great ergonomics!

[@fst-timer7107]

Looks straight forward. Practically fly's itself.... At 500 knots..... 10 feet off the deck..... ,🤨 What!

[@1903chrisholden]

hasn't she now been sold to VTTS

[@julianflood8150]

That makes me feel my age. JF

[@1903chrisholden]

where is Buccaneer S.2B XZ431 based please?

[@camf7522]

The humans factors just on the instrument panel looks horrendous.