Our first group visit of 2016 saw 15 hardy members of the Spice Group eager to see XM655, despite the bone-chilling easterly wind.

Once Charles and Len had run the systems demonstration, including running the Airborne Auxiliary Power Pack(AAPP) (with Anne lending a hand in the P2 seat), they passed the aircraft over to our regular pilot, Wg Cdr Mike Pollitt (RAF Retd.), who once again had been ‘volunteered’ to conduct all the cockpit tours. At least he spent the morning out of the wind!
The group split themselves up into 5 smaller groups of 2, 3, or 4 and whilst one group took the cockpit tour, the others went in turn to Len who talked about the Cold War and the Vulcan in service, James, who told them all about the 1982 Black Buck Falklands raid, Damaris who filled in the history of the V-Force and finally Anne and Jackie who were looking after the shop. In view of the outside air temperature and wind chill factor, the nicely warm shop was a particularly popular venue!