Belvedere engine blow out

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct place.

I'm trying to confirm a piece of information I found on the 'net.

During an exercise in Malaysia in 1966-67, Belvederes were moving landrovers and guns of 'A' Field Battery, RAA. One of the Belvederes had an engine blow up. The pilot informed air traffic control that they had lost an engine and they would have to drop the load. This they did from 200ft. The Belvedere landed safely. The landrover on the other hand was a write off.

I would assume the Belvedere was from 66 Sqn. Would anyone have further details of this incident such as the identity of the Belvedere and or crew.

Any help would ne appreciated.

Regards,

Alex

[sycamore]

I doubt you`ll find anyone who can give you specific info,unless `Old-Duffer` was there/knows someone who was. Anyway,the L-R probably was just washed -down and put out again,and may have even gone to war in the Gulf,or maybe sold to `Bennyland`..Need to drop them from 1000ft to kill one...

[Alex Crawford]

Hi Sycamore,

It was a bit of a long shot, but you never know. Sometimes people know the answer to the strangest of queries.

I'll get in touch with the RAF Museum and order up the movement cards for the Belvederes. Wonder if the RAF still used crash forms, AM Form 1180, in the 60's.

Alex

[Herod]

Need to drop them from 1000ft to kill one...

Seen that; it was dead. Two of us were doing USL training for the Army which involved picking up a landrover, flying a quick circuit and dropping it again, repeat all. I was lifting an old and tatty landrover and my colleague was lifting a brand-new one. Whilst hovering to pick up mine I watched the other aircraft fly downwind and proceed to pickle the "landy". Ooops!! :O

[Fareastdriver]

At a Finningley Air Day I was tasked to remove an illegally parked vehicle. A Lada with a big eyelet welded to the roof. I carried it away and whilst transiting in front of the crowd climbing to 1,000 ft. it was inadvertently jettisoned over a clear patch of grass.
I banked over to watch it go down and when it hit the ground the shock wave circle spreading out looked just like a 2nd WW bombing raid.

One flat-packed Lada.

[brokenlink]

I would have liked to have seen the flat packed Austin Champ, 25Pdr Gun and Limber that came out of the back of a Beverley over Salisbury Plain when they forgot to take the pins out of the parachutes. Was only about 12 inches tall when the dust settled apparently!

[brakedwell]

All the parachutes failed to open after we dropped an underslung Austin Champ from a Hastings in 1958. It was only about two feet tall when they recovered it from Weston on the Green.

[Fareastdriver]

In Borneo a slab of Tiger cans in a pallet could withstand a ballistic drop from a Beverley without too much trouble. The result was that they lost an inch of height and had a similar expansion in girth.

One would clean out a bucket and at arm's length pierce the top. It would then take about fifteen minutes for the foam to turn back to beer.

Flat and warm but beggars can't be choosers.

[VX275]

The first Air Portable Fuel Container (APFC) to be dropped on the RAFs new cruciform parachute was incorrectly rigged (no one noticed the design of the APFC had changed). Consequently when the parachutes opened the APFC with its 400 gallons of water ballast said bye bye to the parachutes and continued earthwards on its own. The result was Larkhill range being attacked by a 4000 lb water bomb.
This question was later asked; If it takes two men three hours to dig a hole ten foot round and three feet deep and half fill it with water, how come it only took us nine seconds to do the same? :E

[ancientaviator62]

Once had a triple ULLA maldrop (3 x 14000lbs per platform) on the descent into Knighton Down. We did high level free fall para the next day and the scar on the DZ was awesome !