THE SLEEPING PRINCE.

By Dave Sidgwick (RIP).Engines.


In journal 37, dated Nov 2013, I wrote an item about an incident on a VIP VC10 concerning a senior member of the Royal Family who required some attention to her hair. I was able to help out then, but more importantly the incident served in introducing me to the Gp Capt who was OC the Royal Flight. Later, during my time on 10s, I was the Crew Chief on a flight carrying Prince Charles to Singapore; if I remember correctly, he was to meet the Prime Minister of that country, Lee Kuan Yew. We were heading down the usual route from Akrotiri to Muharraq and were on the descent when the Flt Eng called my attention to number three engine; its rpms were wandering all over the place so I suggested that he should shut it down. We were to have a crew change before continuing on to Gan and the senior steward had just told us all that Prince Charles had gone to bed in his VIP suite. I advised the Captain that I would do the checks on the ground and let the replacement crew know the result ASAP.

As luck would have it the previously mentioned Gp Capt was also on this flight; I do not remember his name but I heard him being referred to as 'Archie'. I remembered that he had had a mischievous look in his eyes during our previous meeting and had came across as a good bloke then; anyhow there he was again as we faced this new situation.

When we got on the ground I set about diagnosing the problem, bearing in mind the itinerary of the Prince. I favoured a fuel feed problem caused by a failure of the high pressure fuel pump and recommended an engine change. The Gp Capt was anxious about the Prince so I suggested we could leave him in his suite undisturbed whilst I worked on; so we did.

I knew that I would require some help from the TSF lads at Muharraq and I also happened to know their OC Eng, none other than Ian Blunt - ex 84th. Ian and I had worked together at Brize Norton and Fairford prior to his 'blood change' and, when approached, he agreed to provide me with two fitters and an electrician - I also asked him to include a fork-lift and driver. I asked for the latter because of what I always thought was a weakness when engine changing on the VC10, even during my time on the aircraft project team at the factory - away from base bomb winches were normally used to lower and raise the rear mounted Conway engines but the snag was that the winch cables were not long enough to do the complete job so the lift had to be paused and the engine transferred to four strops whilst the cable lengths were adjusted. The fork lift did away with this pause, and the need for the strops, by lifting the engine into the nacelle where the winches could take over.

As I recall the engine change went very well. The replacement crew and the Gp Capt had been sent back to the hotel by Ian whilst I worked on with the TSF lads; Ian and I had discussed what time we wanted them back in. By the time the engine change was finished the new crew had returned so I did a couple of motoring cycles to check for any leaks and resolved that, in order to save time, the full power checks could be completed whilst we taxied out for take-off.

All we had to do was wrap up the details and we were off. Prince Charles, I guess, was a bit mystified to find himself still in Bahrein but the Gp Capt was brilliant about it all. I am unsure how late the Prince was for his meeting but all parties seemed well pleased.