I nearly came to a sticky end at Tangmere towards the end of an Argosy Captain's Conversion Course at Thorney Island in June 1964. I took off from Thorney to drop a pair of nine thousand pound Boscombe Platforms on runway 25 at Tangmere. The first drop was perfect, but the second platform became a big problem when it stopped on the rear sill and the drogue extraction parachute wrapped itself on the tailplane. The centre of gravity was so far back that the nose pitched up and it needed the strength of both pilots to stop the nose pitching up to vertical. The stick shakers were going and the speed was falling off when the Boscombe Platform fell off the rear sill. and the nose dropped violently. I managed to pull out at around 200 feet, when the stick shaker finally stopped vibrating, and we flew back to Thorney feeling very shocked. The second Boscombe Platform landed in a ploughed field to the west of Tangmere, fortunately without causing any damage.