Beverleys
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Some very nice pictures guys!
A very impressive aircraft indeed. Unfortunately I never had the chance to see one in flight.
I might well be confused with another aircraft, but was it the Beverly that had a trap door just forward of the toilet that was located at the very rear of the tail boom?
I'm sure I remember reading that some poor fellow fell to his death after exiting the head.
Can someone confirm this?
A very impressive aircraft indeed. Unfortunately I never had the chance to see one in flight.
I might well be confused with another aircraft, but was it the Beverly that had a trap door just forward of the toilet that was located at the very rear of the tail boom?
I'm sure I remember reading that some poor fellow fell to his death after exiting the head.
Can someone confirm this?
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I painted this one a few years ago:
The Beverley did have a trap door on the boom, for parachutists deploying, but I do not know about any accidental fatalities.
The white area was indeed to keep the cockpit area cool(er), and was also present on Argosy and C130 at the time. Flight Safety overides tactical consideration, and in any event, the white is probably almost insignificant in bright tropical locations.
The Beverley was used by the RAF in the early days of US involvement in the Viet Nam war which is not common knowledge. (The war was originally a French one, but that isnt common knowledge either)
The type will become extinct in the near future, as there is no way that the last one left will survive an external coastal location, and I believe that corrosion is already prevelent in it.
Sydney Camm would not have approved of it, for it hardly looks like its meant to fly, but as the advert says, it did what it said on the tin!! and it did it well.
Whilst only 5 years separate the Beverley from the C130, one has the remember that aviation technology in those days was moving at the speed of sound, and a 5 year gap os actually quite significant.
The Beverley did have a trap door on the boom, for parachutists deploying, but I do not know about any accidental fatalities.
The white area was indeed to keep the cockpit area cool(er), and was also present on Argosy and C130 at the time. Flight Safety overides tactical consideration, and in any event, the white is probably almost insignificant in bright tropical locations.
The Beverley was used by the RAF in the early days of US involvement in the Viet Nam war which is not common knowledge. (The war was originally a French one, but that isnt common knowledge either)
The type will become extinct in the near future, as there is no way that the last one left will survive an external coastal location, and I believe that corrosion is already prevelent in it.
Sydney Camm would not have approved of it, for it hardly looks like its meant to fly, but as the advert says, it did what it said on the tin!! and it did it well.
Whilst only 5 years separate the Beverley from the C130, one has the remember that aviation technology in those days was moving at the speed of sound, and a 5 year gap os actually quite significant.
The Beverley at Paull was ex Farnborough (and ex Paull and ex Leconfield I believe). It was sold by MOD to Autair/Court Line to transport RB211s for their Tristar fleet, but the airline then went bust. I recall Farnborough pilots (Rich Rhodes was one I think) flew it from Luton to Paull in about '73 or '74; from there it eventually went to the army Museum of Transport at Leconfield; presumably it's now gone back to Paull.
My own experiences as an ATC cadet were:
Cadets flying in the tailboom; one of them saw this lever on the floor and decided to find out what it was for; it took several cadets jumping on the hatch in the floor to close it again! (Later mentioned in 'Air Clues')
On a later flight on a sunday (an 'affiliation' visit to Abingdon where a volunteer crew came in to fly cadets without the aid of flight line mechanics) as we taxiied in, the loadmaster called several of us more senior cadets down into the main fuselage, where he explained there was no parking brake and no-one to chock the aircraft so on his signal and before shutdown, we were to leap out, grab a set of chocks, and place them either side of the main bogies.
Sadly, less than a year later, I happened to drive past Bicester and saw at least three on the firedump there - must have been about '69 or '70.
My own experiences as an ATC cadet were:
Cadets flying in the tailboom; one of them saw this lever on the floor and decided to find out what it was for; it took several cadets jumping on the hatch in the floor to close it again! (Later mentioned in 'Air Clues')
On a later flight on a sunday (an 'affiliation' visit to Abingdon where a volunteer crew came in to fly cadets without the aid of flight line mechanics) as we taxiied in, the loadmaster called several of us more senior cadets down into the main fuselage, where he explained there was no parking brake and no-one to chock the aircraft so on his signal and before shutdown, we were to leap out, grab a set of chocks, and place them either side of the main bogies.
Sadly, less than a year later, I happened to drive past Bicester and saw at least three on the firedump there - must have been about '69 or '70.
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Any one care to tell us why the aircraft is painted up in Camo....and has that nice pretty shiny white paint over the cockpit area? I know it makes for a lot less heat transfer and all but it does seem a bit daft to spend the effort putting the bird into sandy camo and leave that huge white patch for contrast.
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Akubra
I believe the incident to which you referred occurred at Aden. It was definitely the co-pilot that was killed, but can't remember his name. Understand he had been carrying out part of his preflight check in the loo and someone had removed the rear para hatch. He backed out of the loo, fell and landed on his head.
I believe the incident to which you referred occurred at Aden. It was definitely the co-pilot that was killed, but can't remember his name. Understand he had been carrying out part of his preflight check in the loo and someone had removed the rear para hatch. He backed out of the loo, fell and landed on his head.
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Beverley XL 149
The camouflaged Beverley is 149 - I know because I was flying it for the photo! This was the first one in this colour scheme which I picked up from St. Athan before ferrying it to Aden. You can see that the paint is new by the lack of heavy exhaust marks on the wings. We flew in formation with an Argosy so they could photograph us against a variety of backgrounds.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.
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The camouflaged Beverley is 149 - I know because I was flying it for the photo! This was the first one in this colour scheme which I picked up from St. Athan before ferrying it to Aden. You can see that the paint is new by the lack of heavy exhaust marks on the wings. We flew in formation with an Argosy so they could photograph us against a variety of backgrounds.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.
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Xl 149
The formation Photos were taken on 3rd Feb 1965. We departed for Aden on the 6th: Abingdon - Luqa (Malta) 8:30
7th: Luqa - El Adem (Libya) 3:10
8th: El Adem - Khormaksar 11:00
The last one was interesting as the Bev would run out of oil before it ran out of petrol!
7th: Luqa - El Adem (Libya) 3:10
8th: El Adem - Khormaksar 11:00
The last one was interesting as the Bev would run out of oil before it ran out of petrol!
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Many thanks - another one pinned down! Over which sea were they taken and did you by any chance take some photos of the formating Argosy?
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Beverley Adventures
From the memoirs of an embryo Beverley TP during his time at Boscombe Down.
Early in May 1956 I was assigned to take a crew to Canada to pick up a Beverley from RCAF Base Namao near Edmonton in Alberta where it had been based for cold weather trials over the previous winter.
The trip to Canada to ferry the Blackburn Beverley was quite an adventure. I now had all of 7 hours 15 mins experience in Beverleys. Ray Bray was my co-pilot and he had about two hours experience. The Navigator Flt Lt Ian Penny and two Flight Engineers, Eldridge and Eyre, had a little more time in the monsters. Flying a Beverley was like flying a block of flats from a second floor bedroom!
Somehow we all arrived at an RCAF base in the UK, the night before launching in an RCAF North Star for Ottowa via Prestwick in Scotland and Keflavik in Iceland. The North Star was an unpressurised Skymaster (DC4) fitted with noisy Merlin engines. I managed 2 1/2 hours flying the North Star between Keflavik and Ottawa. It was my first time over the Atlantic.
After an overnight in Ottawa, we boarded a civil Vickers Viscount to travel via Winnipeg and Calgary and then on to Edmonton. It snowed whilst we were on the ground at Calgary and brooms were used to sweep the snow from the wings before we departed.
We stayed a few days in a motel at Edmonton and I enjoyed, for the first time, an automatic electric blanket. There was still plenty of snow around.
Whilst waiting for the Beverley to become serviceable, I became interested in an F86 Sabre variant at Namao. Like all of the Canadian Sabres they had Orenda engines, but this one had three-foot-extensions on its wings to give it an enhanced high altitude capability. I was offered a flight and flew an intriguing 45 minutes.
That afternoon, the Beverley was declared ready for a test flight, so off we went in the general westerly direction of the Rocky Mountains, which looked fairly close. I decided to have a closer look at the Rockies, not appreciating that they were really about an hour's flying away. They looked much closer in the clear crisp atmosphere in the area. That test flight lasted 2 1/2 hours but we saw the Rockies up close.
A cold front went through Edmonton that night but that didn't stop me from launching for Winnipeg the following day. I had on board 27 passengers, a couple of spare Beverley engines, boxes of spares and a torn down Auster aircraft. We had to fly through the weather front to reach Winnipeg, so did not see much of the ground. After an overnight at Winnipeg, during which the front passed us again, we were off next day for Ottowa. We had to penetrate the same front and ran in to heavy icing, losing our HF radio antenna and turned back with a fairly heavy load of ice. The electric de-icers on the props worked overtime but the airframe de-icing wasn't nearly effective enough. Another overnight was spent at Winnipeg whilst our antenna was replaced.
Next day we caught up with the front again and this time went through it above icing levels coming out the other side about an hour out of Ottowa. I wanted to see some of Canada at low level so obtained clearance for flight at 500 ft above ground. During the descent through 2500 ft No 3 engine must have 'felt tired'. Its propeller just auto-feathered and stopped the engine. I couldn't budge the prop out of feather so I cancelled the low level clearance and climbed on three engines to about 5000 ft for the rest of the flight into Ottowa.
The F/Engineers soon found that the electric brush housing for No 3 prop had broken, allowing a short circuit to activate the auto coarsening system. This feathered the prop, effectively stopping the engine.
Next day, we found the weather front again on the way to Goose Bay in Labrador. ATC at Goose called for confirmation of gear down for landing. The reply was "Gear Down and Welded." There we found we had a leaking rudder hydraulic booster unit and no on-board spare. We resigned ourselves to waiting at Goose Bay whilst a spare unit could be flown in from Namao.
The base at Goose Bay is on the southern shore of a large bay which was still partially frozen over. High snow drifts, formed by snow ploughs and blowers, extended down each side of the runways. These were slowly melting. Goose Bay is in the middle of nowhere and only accessible in the winter by air. A USAF squadron of Scorpion fighters based here formed part of the Dewline northern air defences of North America.
Our next stop was to be a WW2 staging airfield called Bluey West One situated on the southern end of Greenland near the small village of Narsarsuak. This airfield could normally only be reached by flying about 35 miles up a fiord which had, at its entrance, a small island on which there was a radio beacon. There was a fork in the fiord about 10 miles in and it was mandatory that one take the right hand fork. To do otherwise and go to the left was most often disastrous as this arm of the fiord came to an abrupt narrow end where an aircraft was unable to turn back. Terrain in the area went up to about 10,000 feet forming huge forbidding cliffs.
All crews departing Goose Bay for Bluey West One had to be briefed on the hazards of the area and certified as having seen a movie of the correct fiord penetration.
The spare rudder booster unit arrived on a civil airline flight and was soon fitted. We were then ready to go. But the weather had other ideas. For several days the weather was too bad to launch. Eventually, I could see about a 60 per cent chance of making it into Bluey West so decided to give it a go. Topped up with fuel, I had about 15 hours endurance, enough to get to destination and return to Goose Bay with some reserve.
We were in or over cloud most of the way until reaching the radio beacon on the island off the southern tip of Greenland. I did a DF let down on the beacon and broke through a cloud base of about 4,000 ft. A vast variety of ice bergs and broken ice flows testified to the still cold conditions outside. I soon found the fiord entrance which was about 10 miles across, rapidly narrowing down to a gloomy looking tunnel. Vertical cliffs on each side disappeared up into the cloud. Huge ice bergs abounded and were of amazing colours at the violet end of the spectrum.
After flying up the tunnel for about 20 miles, I became wary lest we be trapped by the occasional snow showers which we encountered. Soon we encountered one of these snow showers completely blocking off the tunnel. I had no option but to turn around and hope that another snow shower had not developed behind us. But none had. I had the Navigator advise me on how much time we could spend in the area before going back to Goose Bay. This worked out to be about one hour.
I decided to climb up through the cloud and if I could top the cloud, home in on the beacon at Bluey West. We climbed into the clear at about 11,000 feet and soon had over the top indications. Very close to overhead, we flew over a hole, through which we could see the fiord and part of the airfield. The hole was about 1/2 mile across and opened out lower down like an inverted cone.
After transiting the hole a few times to get a feel for changing conditions, I could see that a snow storm was over most of the airfield but the approach end of the runway projected about 3,000 ft out of the snow. If I was quick, I knew I could put the Beverley on the visible portion of the runway which ran on up close to a cliff face. There was no going around again on this airfield. Nor was there to be any escape from the hole once I had penetrated into it by more than about 2,000 feet without the high risk of hitting some of the peaks buried in the cloud. It was the daddy of all sucker holes.
I knew I could do it but I had 27 passengers and crew to think about. I ventured a little into the hole, above safety height, for a better look before climbing back out again. The air traffic controllers in the tower couldn't assist as there was nil visibility from the tower through heavy snow.
It was just all too inviting and I announced my intention to land off a rapid descent. I reduced power to idle, reduced speed and dropped full flap. I selected full engine RPM, to get maximum braking from the huge props, and soon had a high rate of descent established. Runway length visible to me was now down to about 2,000 ft and slowly diminishing.
All went well until we reached about 4,000 ft. The aircraft had been cold soaked at the higher altitudes and was now penetrating very moist air. White circles of ice started to grow from the centres of the front windows where the glass must have been coldest. Judging the rate of growth of the ice patches, I could see that, by the time of intended touchdown, I may not be able to see at all. I called for windscreen de-icing. The engineer leaned past my right shoulder to reach and turn on the main switch for the alcohol spray de-icer pump. I waited expectantly for the spray to commence as I lined up on what was left of the runway. Now at about 1,500 ft I was looking through about one inch of glass near the lower frame, with my head bending low over the control column.
The engineer advised having checked the de-icer system circuit breaker and that it did not appear to be serviceable. I yelled for him to grab the fire axe and be prepared to knock out my front window on command. Someone produced a pair of goggles and tried to fit them around my forehead. I was intent on judging our one-shot only approach, peering through my slit of glass now less than 1/2 inch deep.
Speed and approach angle was working out well and as I rounded out over what appeared to be a couple of tennis court lengths of visible runway the glass became completely white. I could feel some ground effect as I called, "Brace yourselves." It was an anti-climax. The touch down was a greaser, only indicated by the slight rumbling of the wheels as we rolled up into the snow covered parts of the runway. I kept straight on instruments and used maximum braking and reverse thrust until airspeed was no longer indicating. Soon after I felt the discontinuity of deceleration as we stopped. No one could see out of the aircraft, until a door was opened to reveal we were still on the runway. Heavy snow continued falling.
The controller in the tower had sounded the crash alarm, fully expecting us to have come to grief and was almost as relieved as were we to be in one piece. I left the aircraft heaters running and closed down the engines. It took about 20 minutes for airfield vehicles to find us in the snow. Soon after the snow shower had subsided enough for me to start a couple of engines and taxy clear of the runway and on to a dispersal.
By now, we had determined why the windscreen de-icer had not worked. I asked the engineer what setting he had selected on the rheostat for the pump motor. He said "What rheostat ?" I said "That one" pointing to a rheostat on the side of the console behind me. It was set to Minimum/off. I had incorrectly assumed that he knew about the rheostat. Sometimes little things like that become incredibly important.
The weather clamped again and the 'tunnel' down the fiord closed off. A couple of amphibians were based here and their task was to recce the fiord whenever the weather was marginal. It was the next day before a recce showed conditions had improved. We were comfortable in the well equipped quarters and Officers' Club. I walked around the base a bit but couldn't go far because of the snow. It never became darker that twilight at this lattitude and time of the year. I decided to launch for Keflavik in Iceland at about 1800 hrs. We took off at about 2100 hrs local time. The flight down the fiord tunnel was absolutely fascinating in the half light.
I had to do a GCA approach at Keflavik at about 0400 hrs. There was a small gale blowing with teaming rain mixed with sleet. We all had a good breakfast while the aircraft was being refuelled. I did not see much of Iceland, except for the airfield in the dark.
Next stop was Prestwick for further refuelling, Customs and another meal. We were getting a bit weary by now but by popular choice decided to press on to the end of the trip. This was to be Blackburn's little narrow strip at their factory near the town of Brough.
I had refrained from using propellor braking during landings after Bluey West One so at Brough on a relatively short runway I selected full-power reverse on all four engines. Taxiing, I soon found, by a rapidly rising engine oil temperature, that No 2 prop had stuck in reverse. I had to stop to close down that engine, before oil temperatures went too high. Another propellor brush housing had failed. Never a dull moment in a Beverley! We were a weary lot who disembarked from Beverley No 262. From Edmonton, Canada to Brough in England involved nearly 28 flying hours.
From the memoirs of an embryo Beverley TP during his time at Boscombe Down.
Early in May 1956 I was assigned to take a crew to Canada to pick up a Beverley from RCAF Base Namao near Edmonton in Alberta where it had been based for cold weather trials over the previous winter.
The trip to Canada to ferry the Blackburn Beverley was quite an adventure. I now had all of 7 hours 15 mins experience in Beverleys. Ray Bray was my co-pilot and he had about two hours experience. The Navigator Flt Lt Ian Penny and two Flight Engineers, Eldridge and Eyre, had a little more time in the monsters. Flying a Beverley was like flying a block of flats from a second floor bedroom!
Somehow we all arrived at an RCAF base in the UK, the night before launching in an RCAF North Star for Ottowa via Prestwick in Scotland and Keflavik in Iceland. The North Star was an unpressurised Skymaster (DC4) fitted with noisy Merlin engines. I managed 2 1/2 hours flying the North Star between Keflavik and Ottawa. It was my first time over the Atlantic.
After an overnight in Ottawa, we boarded a civil Vickers Viscount to travel via Winnipeg and Calgary and then on to Edmonton. It snowed whilst we were on the ground at Calgary and brooms were used to sweep the snow from the wings before we departed.
We stayed a few days in a motel at Edmonton and I enjoyed, for the first time, an automatic electric blanket. There was still plenty of snow around.
Whilst waiting for the Beverley to become serviceable, I became interested in an F86 Sabre variant at Namao. Like all of the Canadian Sabres they had Orenda engines, but this one had three-foot-extensions on its wings to give it an enhanced high altitude capability. I was offered a flight and flew an intriguing 45 minutes.
That afternoon, the Beverley was declared ready for a test flight, so off we went in the general westerly direction of the Rocky Mountains, which looked fairly close. I decided to have a closer look at the Rockies, not appreciating that they were really about an hour's flying away. They looked much closer in the clear crisp atmosphere in the area. That test flight lasted 2 1/2 hours but we saw the Rockies up close.
A cold front went through Edmonton that night but that didn't stop me from launching for Winnipeg the following day. I had on board 27 passengers, a couple of spare Beverley engines, boxes of spares and a torn down Auster aircraft. We had to fly through the weather front to reach Winnipeg, so did not see much of the ground. After an overnight at Winnipeg, during which the front passed us again, we were off next day for Ottowa. We had to penetrate the same front and ran in to heavy icing, losing our HF radio antenna and turned back with a fairly heavy load of ice. The electric de-icers on the props worked overtime but the airframe de-icing wasn't nearly effective enough. Another overnight was spent at Winnipeg whilst our antenna was replaced.
Next day we caught up with the front again and this time went through it above icing levels coming out the other side about an hour out of Ottowa. I wanted to see some of Canada at low level so obtained clearance for flight at 500 ft above ground. During the descent through 2500 ft No 3 engine must have 'felt tired'. Its propeller just auto-feathered and stopped the engine. I couldn't budge the prop out of feather so I cancelled the low level clearance and climbed on three engines to about 5000 ft for the rest of the flight into Ottowa.
The F/Engineers soon found that the electric brush housing for No 3 prop had broken, allowing a short circuit to activate the auto coarsening system. This feathered the prop, effectively stopping the engine.
Next day, we found the weather front again on the way to Goose Bay in Labrador. ATC at Goose called for confirmation of gear down for landing. The reply was "Gear Down and Welded." There we found we had a leaking rudder hydraulic booster unit and no on-board spare. We resigned ourselves to waiting at Goose Bay whilst a spare unit could be flown in from Namao.
The base at Goose Bay is on the southern shore of a large bay which was still partially frozen over. High snow drifts, formed by snow ploughs and blowers, extended down each side of the runways. These were slowly melting. Goose Bay is in the middle of nowhere and only accessible in the winter by air. A USAF squadron of Scorpion fighters based here formed part of the Dewline northern air defences of North America.
Our next stop was to be a WW2 staging airfield called Bluey West One situated on the southern end of Greenland near the small village of Narsarsuak. This airfield could normally only be reached by flying about 35 miles up a fiord which had, at its entrance, a small island on which there was a radio beacon. There was a fork in the fiord about 10 miles in and it was mandatory that one take the right hand fork. To do otherwise and go to the left was most often disastrous as this arm of the fiord came to an abrupt narrow end where an aircraft was unable to turn back. Terrain in the area went up to about 10,000 feet forming huge forbidding cliffs.
All crews departing Goose Bay for Bluey West One had to be briefed on the hazards of the area and certified as having seen a movie of the correct fiord penetration.
The spare rudder booster unit arrived on a civil airline flight and was soon fitted. We were then ready to go. But the weather had other ideas. For several days the weather was too bad to launch. Eventually, I could see about a 60 per cent chance of making it into Bluey West so decided to give it a go. Topped up with fuel, I had about 15 hours endurance, enough to get to destination and return to Goose Bay with some reserve.
We were in or over cloud most of the way until reaching the radio beacon on the island off the southern tip of Greenland. I did a DF let down on the beacon and broke through a cloud base of about 4,000 ft. A vast variety of ice bergs and broken ice flows testified to the still cold conditions outside. I soon found the fiord entrance which was about 10 miles across, rapidly narrowing down to a gloomy looking tunnel. Vertical cliffs on each side disappeared up into the cloud. Huge ice bergs abounded and were of amazing colours at the violet end of the spectrum.
After flying up the tunnel for about 20 miles, I became wary lest we be trapped by the occasional snow showers which we encountered. Soon we encountered one of these snow showers completely blocking off the tunnel. I had no option but to turn around and hope that another snow shower had not developed behind us. But none had. I had the Navigator advise me on how much time we could spend in the area before going back to Goose Bay. This worked out to be about one hour.
I decided to climb up through the cloud and if I could top the cloud, home in on the beacon at Bluey West. We climbed into the clear at about 11,000 feet and soon had over the top indications. Very close to overhead, we flew over a hole, through which we could see the fiord and part of the airfield. The hole was about 1/2 mile across and opened out lower down like an inverted cone.
After transiting the hole a few times to get a feel for changing conditions, I could see that a snow storm was over most of the airfield but the approach end of the runway projected about 3,000 ft out of the snow. If I was quick, I knew I could put the Beverley on the visible portion of the runway which ran on up close to a cliff face. There was no going around again on this airfield. Nor was there to be any escape from the hole once I had penetrated into it by more than about 2,000 feet without the high risk of hitting some of the peaks buried in the cloud. It was the daddy of all sucker holes.
I knew I could do it but I had 27 passengers and crew to think about. I ventured a little into the hole, above safety height, for a better look before climbing back out again. The air traffic controllers in the tower couldn't assist as there was nil visibility from the tower through heavy snow.
It was just all too inviting and I announced my intention to land off a rapid descent. I reduced power to idle, reduced speed and dropped full flap. I selected full engine RPM, to get maximum braking from the huge props, and soon had a high rate of descent established. Runway length visible to me was now down to about 2,000 ft and slowly diminishing.
All went well until we reached about 4,000 ft. The aircraft had been cold soaked at the higher altitudes and was now penetrating very moist air. White circles of ice started to grow from the centres of the front windows where the glass must have been coldest. Judging the rate of growth of the ice patches, I could see that, by the time of intended touchdown, I may not be able to see at all. I called for windscreen de-icing. The engineer leaned past my right shoulder to reach and turn on the main switch for the alcohol spray de-icer pump. I waited expectantly for the spray to commence as I lined up on what was left of the runway. Now at about 1,500 ft I was looking through about one inch of glass near the lower frame, with my head bending low over the control column.
The engineer advised having checked the de-icer system circuit breaker and that it did not appear to be serviceable. I yelled for him to grab the fire axe and be prepared to knock out my front window on command. Someone produced a pair of goggles and tried to fit them around my forehead. I was intent on judging our one-shot only approach, peering through my slit of glass now less than 1/2 inch deep.
Speed and approach angle was working out well and as I rounded out over what appeared to be a couple of tennis court lengths of visible runway the glass became completely white. I could feel some ground effect as I called, "Brace yourselves." It was an anti-climax. The touch down was a greaser, only indicated by the slight rumbling of the wheels as we rolled up into the snow covered parts of the runway. I kept straight on instruments and used maximum braking and reverse thrust until airspeed was no longer indicating. Soon after I felt the discontinuity of deceleration as we stopped. No one could see out of the aircraft, until a door was opened to reveal we were still on the runway. Heavy snow continued falling.
The controller in the tower had sounded the crash alarm, fully expecting us to have come to grief and was almost as relieved as were we to be in one piece. I left the aircraft heaters running and closed down the engines. It took about 20 minutes for airfield vehicles to find us in the snow. Soon after the snow shower had subsided enough for me to start a couple of engines and taxy clear of the runway and on to a dispersal.
By now, we had determined why the windscreen de-icer had not worked. I asked the engineer what setting he had selected on the rheostat for the pump motor. He said "What rheostat ?" I said "That one" pointing to a rheostat on the side of the console behind me. It was set to Minimum/off. I had incorrectly assumed that he knew about the rheostat. Sometimes little things like that become incredibly important.
The weather clamped again and the 'tunnel' down the fiord closed off. A couple of amphibians were based here and their task was to recce the fiord whenever the weather was marginal. It was the next day before a recce showed conditions had improved. We were comfortable in the well equipped quarters and Officers' Club. I walked around the base a bit but couldn't go far because of the snow. It never became darker that twilight at this lattitude and time of the year. I decided to launch for Keflavik in Iceland at about 1800 hrs. We took off at about 2100 hrs local time. The flight down the fiord tunnel was absolutely fascinating in the half light.
I had to do a GCA approach at Keflavik at about 0400 hrs. There was a small gale blowing with teaming rain mixed with sleet. We all had a good breakfast while the aircraft was being refuelled. I did not see much of Iceland, except for the airfield in the dark.
Next stop was Prestwick for further refuelling, Customs and another meal. We were getting a bit weary by now but by popular choice decided to press on to the end of the trip. This was to be Blackburn's little narrow strip at their factory near the town of Brough.
I had refrained from using propellor braking during landings after Bluey West One so at Brough on a relatively short runway I selected full-power reverse on all four engines. Taxiing, I soon found, by a rapidly rising engine oil temperature, that No 2 prop had stuck in reverse. I had to stop to close down that engine, before oil temperatures went too high. Another propellor brush housing had failed. Never a dull moment in a Beverley! We were a weary lot who disembarked from Beverley No 262. From Edmonton, Canada to Brough in England involved nearly 28 flying hours.
Re. the co-pilot fatal.
We were scheduled for a pre-dawn departure for Sharjah/ Bahrain. We had come out from the UK - 30 Sqn at Dishforth - to fill in for the u/s Aden based aircraft. We were pre-flighting and the co was up in the tail, checking the hyd boosters for leaks. To get to the tail, he had to cross the boom floor hatch and go through the rear toilets. The floor hatch was directly outside the rear toilet doors. While the co was in the tail, Movements positioned the boom loading ladder under the tail AND opened the boom floor hatch. It was still dark and the co came back from his check and backed out of the toilet door. Falling through the hatch, he struck his head on the hatch edge and landed across the handrails of the loading ladder. Either injury would likely have been fatal. The skipper was doing his externals and was the first to find him. He shouted to me to help and we called the medics and held and comforted the co as best we could until they arrived. He was taken off to hospital and IIRC declared dead on arrival.
Interesting point - the potential danger had been foreseen already and the Bev boom hatch doors had retrofit pins which prevented the toilet doors opening when the hatch was open .......... except for this one aircraft
Further interesting point. At about 07.30, we were informed by a local senior officer that he was arranging a replacement co from local sources and we could be on our way again very soon !!!!!!!!! Our skipper,( God bless him), a normally mild-mannered gentleman, 'explained' that neither he nor his crew would be going anywhere that day, other than to the nearest bar ... and so it was!!
Not one of the best Bev trips but it will stay in the memory.
We were scheduled for a pre-dawn departure for Sharjah/ Bahrain. We had come out from the UK - 30 Sqn at Dishforth - to fill in for the u/s Aden based aircraft. We were pre-flighting and the co was up in the tail, checking the hyd boosters for leaks. To get to the tail, he had to cross the boom floor hatch and go through the rear toilets. The floor hatch was directly outside the rear toilet doors. While the co was in the tail, Movements positioned the boom loading ladder under the tail AND opened the boom floor hatch. It was still dark and the co came back from his check and backed out of the toilet door. Falling through the hatch, he struck his head on the hatch edge and landed across the handrails of the loading ladder. Either injury would likely have been fatal. The skipper was doing his externals and was the first to find him. He shouted to me to help and we called the medics and held and comforted the co as best we could until they arrived. He was taken off to hospital and IIRC declared dead on arrival.
Interesting point - the potential danger had been foreseen already and the Bev boom hatch doors had retrofit pins which prevented the toilet doors opening when the hatch was open .......... except for this one aircraft
Further interesting point. At about 07.30, we were informed by a local senior officer that he was arranging a replacement co from local sources and we could be on our way again very soon !!!!!!!!!
Our skipper,( God bless him), a normally mild-mannered gentleman, 'explained' that neither he nor his crew would be going anywhere that day, other than to the nearest bar ... and so it was!! Not one of the best Bev trips but it will stay in the memory.
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Beverley in Viet Nam
Tiger Mate,
A very impressive painting, you mention the involvement of the Beverly in Viet Nam and the earlier French conflict.
In March 1954 the French forces were building up the defences for Dien Bien Phu in the High Region inland from Hanoi, prior the the battle and defeat by the Viet Mingh, the main transport in to Dien Bien Phu was C47 Daks, but a heavy transport was needed, so 2 civilian Bristol 170 freighters were requisitioned, these carried in amonst other loads, ten M24 Chaffee tanks, one remaining example can still be seen there.so another British transport saw active service in that region.The main advantage that the 170 had over the other type that could carry the loads( Fairchild C119 Packet) was the ability to use the 1260 yard runway.
Regards,
om15
A very impressive painting, you mention the involvement of the Beverly in Viet Nam and the earlier French conflict.
In March 1954 the French forces were building up the defences for Dien Bien Phu in the High Region inland from Hanoi, prior the the battle and defeat by the Viet Mingh, the main transport in to Dien Bien Phu was C47 Daks, but a heavy transport was needed, so 2 civilian Bristol 170 freighters were requisitioned, these carried in amonst other loads, ten M24 Chaffee tanks, one remaining example can still be seen there.so another British transport saw active service in that region.The main advantage that the 170 had over the other type that could carry the loads( Fairchild C119 Packet) was the ability to use the 1260 yard runway.
Regards,
om15
Last edited by om15; 8th Jan 2007 at 20:15.
Seats from the Bev at Paull airfield, which was subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Army Transport in Beverley and has now found a new home at Paull Fort, were 'donated' (if thats the right word) to the cadet SNCO's room of 152 City of Hull Sqn ATC.
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Fantastic story
MILT
As a current Broughie, and a generation behind, I found your Brough delivery flight a brilliant read, thankyou.
Farmer 1.
Sharjah changed? I should have a look on the Earth mapping sofware (which I cant name) but personally I can find nothing at all recognisable from the 60s
As a current Broughie, and a generation behind, I found your Brough delivery flight a brilliant read, thankyou.
Farmer 1.
Sharjah changed? I should have a look on the Earth mapping sofware (which I cant name) but personally I can find nothing at all recognisable from the 60s
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I had my one and only flight in a Beverly as an air experience flight while with the ATC at summer camp at Dishforth in 1956 or 57. Regarding the bottom hatch in the tailboom, I seem to remember sticking my head out of a hatch on the top of the tailboom, directly between the tail fins which gave one access to the tail surfaces. I remember a wonderful flight, perched in the bottom nose observation panel. Happy days indeed.