A very popular series of flights for the Victor Tankers in the 1970s were known as Western Tankex Rangers. Two tankers were used. On Day 1, the first tanker positioned at Goose Bay to refuel the second tanker that was flying non-stop from Marham to Offutt AFB on Day 2. The first tanker then flew on to Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska, the next day. The tankers reversed roles on the return flights to UK.
Click here to see the logbook entries covering one particular Western Tankex Ranger that I flew in 1973. Note that our Crew Chief did not fly on the Goose-Goose sortie - that was quite normal. Also note that the 4hrs 40mins flight from Goose Bay back to Marham ended with 1hr 35 mins night flying.
The idea of the Western Rangers was to give tanker crews an opportunity to operate independently away from base, and a chance to visit Strategic Air Command HQ at Omaha. Timings, by both aircraft, were critical because the tanker transferring fuel overhead Goose Bay had to take off at a precise time which would enable it to climb to the operating height, usually about 30,000 feet depending on upper cloud conditions, to be at the RV exactly on time – pointing in the right direction. In those days the RV had to be completed by the hard work of the navigators – the civilian Air Traffic Controllers would not, or could not, assist. Civilian Controllers would not help achieve the RV since, as they often told us, their task was to keep aircraft apart not bring them into close proximity.
The tanker on the direct flight, in either direction, typically received 40,000 lbs (roughly 20 old-fashioned tons) of fuel in 22-25 minutes, during which time its own engines used up about 6-8000lbs of fuel so the net gain was about 33,000lbs. The Flight Refuelling Operator in the tanker (one of the two navigators) had the fuel gauges which measured accurately the amount of fuel which flowed from tanker to receiver. Maximum transfers, as they were called, were always tiring for the receiving tanker’s Captain/1st Pilot because he had to fly the aircraft manually, one hand holding the control column and the other hand operating the four engine throttles together. The auto-pilot could not be used by the receiver because it did not have the sensitivity to make the necessary continuous small corrections and, let’s face it, the Victor K1’s auto-pilot, with its 1950s technology, was not totally reliable anyway. (I once had to fly all the way back from Singapore to Marham via Gan, Dubai and Akrotiri, with an unserviceable auto-pilot. That meant my co-pilot and I had to share about 20 flying hours operating the aircraft manually – and my navigator had the cheek to complain when we occasionally allowed our heading to drift off by a degree or two for a few seconds.)
Slight digression. The Captain was not always the 1st pilot (defined as the pilot in the left hand seat) because sometimes a suitably qualified captain flew in the right hand seat when he was training a senior co-pilot to operate from the left hand seat or when he was conducting an examination or appraisal of the pilot in the left hand seat. However, captains were the only ones authorised to take on fuel from a tanker so such right hand seat captains had to be able to carry out maximum on-loads from either seat and in that respect they had to be ambidextrous. When I was OC the Victor Standardisation Unit I sometimes allowed selected co-pilots to make contact with a tanker without any fuel transfer taking place; it was good for their morale (if they did it well!) but not good for the morale of the rear crew members who were always a little anxious whilst taking on fuel whoever was flying the aircraft.
Pilots reading this will readily appreciate, but non-aircrew often do not, that the weight of both aircraft changes significantly during this long transfer of fuel. Obviously the tanker gets lighter and its pilot has to reduce power to maintain a constant speed, while the receiver gets steadily heavier and its pilot has to increase power to maintain speed. Towards the end of a maximum on-load of fuel, a Victor K1 receiver required almost the maximum permitted power setting on all four engines to remain in position without falling back and breaking out of contact. The co-pilot was responsible for making sure the fuel flowing into the receiver was pumped into appropriate tanks, in so doing aiming to keep the aircraft’s centre of gravity within allowable limits. Sometimes the receiving Victor would find that it was impossible to remain in position at maximum permitted power. In these circumstances the receiver would request a manoeuvre known as ‘toboggan’. Subject to ATC clearance the two aircraft would gently enter a very slow descent thereby allowing gravity to assist and allowing both aircraft to reduce power slightly. ‘Gently’ was the keyword. Both aircraft had to start descending at exactly the same time and at the same rate otherwise a ‘whip’ was liable to develop in the refuelling hose and contact would be broken. In the worst case the receiver might break off the nozzle of its own refuelling probe and thereafter no further transfer could take place. A rate of descent of about 300 feet per minute was usually sufficient for tobogganing.
Goose Bay airfield, 53 degrees 19 minutes North, 60 degrees 25 minutes West, was jointly operated at this time by the Royal Canadian Air Force and United States Air Force. The USAF operated their Strategic Air Command B52 nuclear heavy bombers from a vast dispersed site on the base. The B52s were held on permanent readiness, as they were throughout the Cold War, to counter any Soviet nuclear attack coming over the North Pole. Fortunately that contingency never came about although the B52s carried out frequent exercises to test their readiness. The RAF had a small permanent detachment at Goose Bay to assist the Victor tanker crews and other Bomber Command aircraft that used to operate in Canada and USA.
During the long Arctic winter the only way into and out of the Goose Bay area was by air.
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