The "Whistling wheelbarrow"
Different Continent
November 1966: 3 of the 105 Sqn Argosies used for withdrawal of the Army battalion from Swaziland (Op LOPEN, see post 109) on the ramp at Matsapa.
Ian, you have just reminded me about one of your previous posts about Matsapa.
I don't know if you were aware of it but the beautiful but not very long runway at Matsapa was actually a 1/8th of an inch of tarmac on top of murram? It looked absolutely wonderful from above but Frank (*) used to beg us not to use the brakes on landing otherwise his runway surface came up in great black bananas and was probably why the maxarets couldn't deal with the situation.
It was very easy to say don't use the brakes but the airfield was on top of a plateau and only about 4,200 feet long.
In fact, the challenge of landing there proved almost too much for a Beverley that touched down 10 feet below the threshold and bounced off the side of the hill on to the runway.
If that had happened to any normal aeroplane, it would have been a disaster but the Beverley was not a normal aeroplane!
(*) Frank: I have it mind that he was SATCO, Chief Fire Officer, Handling Agent, CFI of the Flying Club and ran the Airport Bar?
I don't know if you were aware of it but the beautiful but not very long runway at Matsapa was actually a 1/8th of an inch of tarmac on top of murram? It looked absolutely wonderful from above but Frank (*) used to beg us not to use the brakes on landing otherwise his runway surface came up in great black bananas and was probably why the maxarets couldn't deal with the situation.
It was very easy to say don't use the brakes but the airfield was on top of a plateau and only about 4,200 feet long.
In fact, the challenge of landing there proved almost too much for a Beverley that touched down 10 feet below the threshold and bounced off the side of the hill on to the runway.
If that had happened to any normal aeroplane, it would have been a disaster but the Beverley was not a normal aeroplane!
(*) Frank: I have it mind that he was SATCO, Chief Fire Officer, Handling Agent, CFI of the Flying Club and ran the Airport Bar?
Last edited by JW411; 5th Mar 2011 at 13:29.
Jock: I'm pretty certain his name was Frank Brindley. I can't be sure about his being CFI of the Flying Club (I have a club badge somewhere, I'm sure, after our extended stay there) but I think he fulfilled all the other positions you mention. It's probably now safe to say that, once we had the first 2 aircraft serviceable and were waiting for the other 2 to arrive, we did a formation Air Test around Swaziland with Frank and a number of other locals on board. Very pleasant - I had some Super 8 footage of that once, but that too has vanished with the passage of time.
No pictures of the runway, but here's the locally produced TAP we all used, no Jeppesen or AIDU product being available, which I guess you will remember.
No pictures of the runway, but here's the locally produced TAP we all used, no Jeppesen or AIDU product being available, which I guess you will remember.
My father, Bill Tait, was at Masapa Flying Club from Feb 1966. I've had a look through his log books and he has the occasional remark like 3 RAF as pax. On 26th June 1966 he did a conversion to the Cessna 180 for a chap called Trevor. He probably never worried about his surname.
ICM: The let down plate is dated 1st June 1965, but I can't recall seeing a copy of it during my time on 105. (Aug 64-Aug 66)
BTW can you confirm the pub we stayed at in Manzini was called the Chequers. I remember it being owned by a Czech Countess and it used to be the regular watering hole of King Freddie, with whom I enjoyed a few pints.
BTW can you confirm the pub we stayed at in Manzini was called the Chequers. I remember it being owned by a Czech Countess and it used to be the regular watering hole of King Freddie, with whom I enjoyed a few pints.
I'd put these elsewhere on Prune but perhaps they're worth re posting here:
Argosies over Channel 1968
Argosy "Running in, live drop!"
RAF Benson Argosy 1968
Benson boys behaving badly 1968 (Petrol and Roman candles - recollect worse later outside
)
Anyone recognise themselves? Yes, I know, one or two no longer with us.
Argosies over Channel 1968
Argosy "Running in, live drop!"
RAF Benson Argosy 1968
Benson boys behaving badly 1968 (Petrol and Roman candles - recollect worse later outside
)Anyone recognise themselves? Yes, I know, one or two no longer with us.
Now this debate about Argosies reversing; I believe we did have an example of one doing just that - IIRC, at Cottesmore.
As der (das, die) Flugzeuge was being towed from the hangar the bar disconnected.
The aircraft promptly rolled backwards, caught the stbd wing on the door and swung back into the shed trashing the right boom on the inner wall.
So, yes, Argosies CAN go backwards - ramp slope permitting
As der (das, die) Flugzeuge was being towed from the hangar the bar disconnected.
The aircraft promptly rolled backwards, caught the stbd wing on the door and swung back into the shed trashing the right boom on the inner wall.
So, yes, Argosies CAN go backwards - ramp slope permitting
Brakedwell: By November 66, we were using the George Hotel in Manzini. I was in my first weeks on the squadron and only went that one time, with the trip ending by our pulling everyone out, but my impression was that it had been used by 105 crews on the Matsapa-Francistown resupply flights for some time beforehand. Certainly, others in the crew appeared familiar enough with the place. Which brings me to my last logbook souvenir (Bremersdorp was the name of the town till sometime in the early 60s, I think):
Last edited by ICM; 12th Apr 2011 at 19:38.
That's the one, I stayed there about a dozen times and remember the Countess had a soft spot for Flight Engineers 
Last edited by brakedwell; 5th Mar 2011 at 06:27. Reason: memory recovery
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Heh, there's a movie on the box down here (Oz) tonight, all about you guys. Called Jason and the Argonuts. So who's Jason? 
Last edited by alisoncc; 5th Mar 2011 at 05:43. Reason: Remove second 'a' from Argonauts.
Heh, there's a movie on the box down here (Oz) tonight, all about you guys. Called Jason and the Argonuts. So who's Jason?
Well Tony Morris's beagle was called Jason and he had fairly prominent argonuts!
I can also confirm the George. I think the landlord's name was Earl.
Stompie's cousin was married to the Judge Advocate General in Manzini and we used to get invited round there followed by the casino after a few beers.
I can also confirm the George. I think the landlord's name was Earl.
Stompie's cousin was married to the Judge Advocate General in Manzini and we used to get invited round there followed by the casino after a few beers.
Brakedwell: I seemed to miss out on any aristocracy around the George during my visit - but still being fairly new in the business, I recall being much impressed when my beer at the Royal Irish Fusiliers' mess, well out in the bundu, appeared in a goblet presented by the father of Ensign someone-or-other some 200 years back. A quick bit of googling suggests the George is still there:
Filex Tum's George Hotel Manzini Swaziland.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and that my logbook sticker is a museum piece:
The George Hotel - Bremersdorp Swaziland (luggage label) by Artist Unknown | Vintage Posters at International Poster Gallery
File
x Tum's George Hotel Manzini Swaziland.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaand that my logbook sticker is a museum piece:
The George Hotel - Bremersdorp Swaziland (luggage label) by Artist Unknown | Vintage Posters at International Poster Gallery
IIRC the George faced the road that ran from from Lourenco Marques to the SA border. Manzini was a small one horse town and the bar (colonial/public bar type) had a front door that opened on to road. I'm sure "King Freddie" was the local nickname for Ngwenyama Sobhuza II , who was a charming man.
After one particularly heavy night, I rolled out of my room in the morning into the swimming pool feeling not very good. I think Graham Humberstone was already in there.
The waiter came along and looked at the pair of us with practiced eyes and disappeared. He came back with two glasses on a silver salver, charged with ice cold water and with two Alka Seltzers bubbling merrily away, and handed them down to us in the pool.
What service!
The waiter came along and looked at the pair of us with practiced eyes and disappeared. He came back with two glasses on a silver salver, charged with ice cold water and with two Alka Seltzers bubbling merrily away, and handed them down to us in the pool.
What service!
XP411 at Masirah. This aircraft survives in the RAF Museum at Cosford. I'm not quite sure why, but I seem to remember that it was a bit of a dog.
The wonderful, exotic and luxuriant Masirah. I was reliably informed that there were two trees in the centre of the island.
What I do remember was the door in the Officers Mess which was marked "TV Room". In those days, it simply was not possible to receive TV signals of any sort in this part of the world.
However, there was always some visiting dumbo who saw the sign, opened the door and then fell three feet downwards into the bundu!
Incidentally, the cross runway was a natural surface runway. It was looked after with huge care by the lads and it was like a billiard table. Some time after I left the Argosy and had gone on the Belfast we arrived one day with a hell of an easterly wind blowing. My captain was a wonderful chap called Colin Bond and I persuaded him that we could easily land on the easterly strip (07 I think).
The tower were a bit surprised but they cleared us to land and asked that we kept the use of reverse thrust to a minimum. Well, we landed very happily on our high pressure tyres and didn't use an ounce of reverse.
Did any of you out there also ever land a Belfast on a bundu strip?
Last edited by JW411; 5th Mar 2011 at 15:01.
Somebody told me in the early sixties that the Sheik of Wherever was short of a few readies and offered to sell Masirah to the British Government. They turned it down, renting it instead.
This is what Salalah looked like at the end of 1966.
Salalah Airfield
Strangely enough, Salalah suffered (suffers) from a local monsoon from May until about September. (If anyone is really interested, I will do my best to explain the phenomenon). It meant that getting into Salalah was not easy. Because of the terrain, it meant that an approach could only be made from the south on to the 35 strip with a tailwind.
The best time to get in during the monsoon was around 1400 in the afternoon (period of maximum heating) when the cloud base might just rise high enough to make a landing possible.
The best approach aid available was an ACR7 (PAR without a glideslope). It was quite usual to break out of the low cloud over the sea at around 300 to 400 feet and then have to go through at least one other layer before finally breaking out at "a rather low altitude".
When it was really bad, we had the additional help of a couple of 44 gallon drums full of scrap fuel set into the bundu on finals and aligned with 35 which were set alight and gave us an orange glow and something to aim at.
The ATC controllers were brilliant and I particularly remember having total faith in Colin.
The airfield also had a published NDB approach procedure which always made me smile. It made it very, very clear that flying north of the NDB was forbidden (because of the jebel which went up to "several thousands of feet"). I could never work out how anyone could ever follow this procedure because, the only way you knew you had passed over the NDB was when the needles "dropped" and by then, you were already in mortal danger according to the plate!
I was quite fond of Salalah and I have lots of stories about the place.
Raisut is located about 10 miles west of Salalah. There was a fairly basic pier built there which allowed landing craft etc to land with supplies. In the monsoon season, the sea could get pretty rough and it was sometimes impossible for the landing craft to dock. Occasionally it was necessary for the vessel to move just to the south of Salalah and throw the 44 gallon drums of fuel over the side into the surf. Most of the drums would then wash up on the beach and be retrieved. Inshallah.
Greenpeace eat your heart out!
The JW Mecom Oil Company also had a strip at Raisut. It can be seen at "just below centre" in the photograph and it is interesting to note that it can still be seen on Google Earth. I've seen their C-82 there and it would be interesting to know if anyone ever landed an Argosy there.
Last edited by JW411; 8th Mar 2011 at 18:21.