Handley-Page Victor Vs. A Tropical Storm

This is a first-hand account of a close encounter between a Handley-Page Victor B.1 and a cumulonimbus storm cloud over Gan Atoll in 1963.
Tony 'Dobz' Dobbie was the co-pilot responsible for taking off that day, and in this video he describes how he and the crew only just avoided ditching their V-bomber in the Indian Ocean.
This story, and many others, is recounted in Tony's autobiography: Suki, Me, & World War III, which is available via Amazon - www.amazon.co....
Intro/outro music courtesy of Daddy_s_Music - pixabay.com/us...

[@johnerickson6704]

This is what we need to hear, too many of these stories have been lost , keep it up.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Thanks. I couldn't agree more. These stories need to be recorded before they're gone.
I have a few leads for other ex-RAF pilots that I'll be contacting soon.

[@theflyingfool]

What a terrifying story. Without knowing it, because at that time nobody knew anything about microbursts, Tony actually did exactly the right thing.

[@markryan9708]

Great story, thank you. Important that these get told.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Thank you. Absolutely 👍🏻

[@nickcarter9538]

Around about that time was a Line Chief on Gan doing a 1 year unaccompanied tour.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Very good. From what I've heard, it wasn't a bad place to spend your time although I imagine the night life was a little quiet.

[@PaulStewartAviation]

Great story!

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Thank you :)

[@NVRAMboi]

Never trust a wet micro-burst.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Sounds like good advice 😄

[@elwoodzo]

Holy smokes...😮

[@timhancock6626]

I'm no pilot, but I do sail and used to skydive so I am an avid weather watcher. My question in all this is why they chose to launch into an unstable weather pattern ? A hold of five or ten minutes may well have seen the system pass through. Either it would have worsened or improved. There was more than one Valiant crash from failure to gain height due to lack of thrust and the Victor B1 as was mentioned was similarly compromised. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in those circumstances when they came very close to disaster, should they have done something different..ideally that is ?
Edit: I visited Cottesmore as an air cadet in 1970 when the Canberra OCU was in residence. The V Bombers had left by then.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

I think someone commented previously on this video saying that not much (if anything) was known about microbursts at that time. A lack of knowledge and having a schedule to keep are probably to blame for more than a few accidents

[@jeremyrichards8327]

Later Victors had Conway engines with larger intakes.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

...twice as much thrust, I believe.

[@pascalcoole2725]

Hmmm never heard of a mini-burst, is it the same as a micro-burst ? and indeed, Flying trough a microburst on T/O or final is a great receipt for a crash due to stall.
The guy sounds like he's Dutch btw.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

Yeah, he meant micro burst.
...and, he's from Scotland 😄

[@craigpennington1251]

Too much bass on the Audio otherwise great video.

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

I had to tweak the audio to make the vocals legible. Not too bad for something recorded on a smart phone though 😉

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

...and thank you 😊

[@timhancock6626]

@@AirForceAnecdotes You mean audible..😉

[@AirForceAnecdotes]

@@timhancock6626 alright... alright... steady now 😄