J (G) Cooper
Re. the descent (unintentional) from the tailboom hatch - it happened more than once and the 'fix' was to put metal pins interconnected with the hatch doors which prevented the toilet doors being opened when the boom hatch was open.
Unfortunately, we had the only unmodified aircraft for an intended trip from Aden to Bahrein - we were out from Dishforth, filling in for 84 Sqn. It was a pre-dawn departure and our 'co-' was up in the tail behind the toilets checking the boosters as part of his pre-flight. While he was there, 'Movements' opened the hatch and left the boom loading ladder beneath it. 'Co-' came out of the toilet, backwards, and fell through the hatch onto the ladder, with obvious and, ultimately, fatal results. The somewhat distasteful reactions of the local hierarchy to this incident will stay with me for ever, as will the response of our Skipper - good on you. Andy!!

YWIW senior flew these strange things in the far East. He always wondered where the cargo doors went - there didn't seem to be any, anywhere.

YWIW uncle - was in Aden and having spent a weekend being mortared and generally pi**ed upon their recall was a Beverley which had an engine which failed to start, it was duly started with a large hammer - the patrol decided to wait until a more reliable transport could be provided...

Speechless, Beverley XL 150 belonged to 34 Sqn at Seletar, and crashed in Johore, 90 miles north of Seletar 15th December 1967.

Funnily enough, I used to bludge rides in anything that flew, and quite enjoyed circuits and bumps in the boom on 30 Sqn aircraft at Eastleigh, and later with 34 who provided the support capabilty for Tengah sqn detachments, in 1966. I think I might have flown with you Speechless if you were one of 103's pilots!

YWIW
Re. cargo doors, that was another of the Bev's peculiarities. For air freight drops the normal cargo doors were removed and 'elephant's ears' attached. These weren't necessary for the freight drop but WERE necessary if you were dropping troops from the boom as well. This was discovered on the initial trials when the trial dummies were dropped through the boom hatch and DISAPPEARED!!:eek: Following the direction of the static lines showed that the dummies were now resident in the freight bay! This was considered to be 'not a good thing', so the 'elephant's ears' were designed to (successfully) change the aerodynamics.

Let's not forget the use made of the Beverley for the heavy drop of cargo and vehicles by parachute, and also by paratroops. As a member of 16th Parachute Brigade in the early 1960s I made a number of jumps from them, either from the main cargo bay or, if heavy drop was also carried (and dropped first), from the tail boom. And yes, stories about exiting unexpectedly from the loo via the tail boom floor hatch existed then, too!

Speechless and Samuel, see:

http://www.beverley-association.org....es/150/150.htm

Well done Newswatcher, it's amazing what people know on this site!

Well thanks guys, but credit where credit's due. It was John (Gary) Cooper who posted the site reference, I just sort of homed in!

I must say, the start to this thread is one of the funniest things I have ever seen about flying. Many thanks for that, brightened my day a lot.

May I add a favourite old Bev story ? It concerns the first time it visited Aden, for trials. It departed with the rear doors off for the first trip and the ATCO, who had not seen this beast of burden before, called the pilot urgently “You’ve taken off and you forgot to close the rear doors”.

The cool reply : “Yes, thanks, I know, I can’t get the b****y gear up either.

The nav could go to sleep on his nav table, bit different to the V Force.

E

Re. the Bev's 'hot and high' trials in Aden; One of the 'up-country' strips used was Dhala which had the peculiarity of a 'bent' runway. The original sand strip was a bit on the short side but could not be extended straight ahead. It was, therefore, extended on a slightly different heading, requiring a turn during the take-off run. The Bev accomplished this OK but in doing so generated a twist in the rear section which couldn't subsequently be removed. That particular aircraft came into squadron use later, still with the twist, and used to fly rather oddly to compensate. Given its normal 'barn door' aerodynamics, perhaps its not surprising that it seemed to have a couple of knots better performance than its 'unmodified' sisters. :confused:

Rather large PS
When I recovered my original Bev tech notes, I was teaching 744 tech and used the Bev APU start procedure to illustrate the difference between old and new technology - follows herewith ...
BEVERLEY C. MK~. I
AUXILIARY POWER UNIT - OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
1. The unit can be started electrically by pressing a starter button or by hand using a starter handle.
2. Procedure when engine is cold..
(a) Turn by hand. until free movement is obtained and oil pressure shows on the gauge.
(b) Open the fuel cock lever which is interconnected. with the exhaust and intake shutters.
(c) At power panel ‘D’ on the flight deck, place the Flight and A.P.U. switch to the ‘ON’ position.
(d) Press START button on MASTER switch on the A.P.U. panel and allow time for fuel to fill the Carburettor float chambers.
(e) Press STOP button on MASTER switch.
(f) Pull out Carburettor choke knob and turn engine by hand 10 — 12 times..
(g) Return Carburettor choke knob - press START button on MASTER switch set magnetos to retard position -~ pull out throttle knob (starting position).
(h) Start by:
(i) Pressing the push button marked start (releasing when engine runs) or
(ii) Turning starter handle quickly.
(j) When running, return magnetos to advanced position (to prevent engine overheating). Ensure that oil pressure is built up and maintained..
(k) Push in throttle after engine has warmed up.
3. Procedure when engine is warm
Carry out instructions indicated in (b) (c) (g) (h) (j) and (k) above.
4. To Stop A.P.U.
(a) Press button marked Stop on MASTER switch.
(b) Close fuel cock/shutter lever.
Note:.- The A.P.U. will be stopped under the following conditions:—
(a) If the flight and APU switch is placed to Off.
(b) If the aircraft leaves the ground.(U/C Relays).
(c) If fire occurs in unit..

Things are a little easier nowadays!! ;)

This is an interesting thread. My father lost his brother in a Beverley at Abingdon in the 1950s. Does anybody remember this accident? It was years before I was born.

2500
I mentioned this accident in my first posting. It led to the introduction of Flight Engineers into the crew. The basics were that 'Murphy's Law' was in operation on a non-return valve in one of the fuel lines and caused an engine failure. The crew mis-identified the failed engine and shut down the second one on the same side. The reason for the mis-ident was considered to be down to lack of torque meters and these were subsequently introduced as a 'mod' together with FEs to monitor them. The aircraft crashed into the dog pound at Abingdon, killing all on board - crew plus paratroops (I believe).

Blackburn Beverly
 

This has to be the best site currently on the network!

I was involved with the beast at RAF Nicosia, anyone remember the day one landed with the parking brake ON and a squadron of Hunters airborne and running out of Avtur?

Laterly I had one to myself at the French base at Orange in Provence. It had suffered a nose gear problem on landing. It took Blackburn's so long to get the repair scheme orgainised that I was able to learn French, seduce the waitress in the local cafe, get married ( not to the waitress )and be awarded French citizenship.

Thus fond memories, it was a great machine.
Rgds, FPG

FPG
Yes, anybody who was operating Bevs would have been there and the Hastings as well. It was a big exercise doing paradrops in the North of Cyprus and I recall calling downwind on our return and being given "Number thirteen to finals" :( The Hunter jocks may have been miffed but so was the Cyprus Airways crew operating the inbound from LHR. The 'arrested landing' came to a stop exactly on the intersection of the two runways so no-one could get in or out.
There was also a certain amount of consternation when one of our aircraft was being towed down the taxy track and jumped the tow bar. Guess what? ..... nobody on the flight deck!:eek: Said Bev then proceeded to find one of its companions and bury its nose in the other machine's tail - bit like dogs meeting for the first time. :D One of the ground crew tried to stop it by throwing a chock under the wheels but it just rolled straight over it.
Slightly off topic, that exercise gave me my first view of the effects of wake turbulence and very spectacular it was too.. We were lead ship of the Bevs, following a dozen Hastings. The last Hastings got into the slipstream of the one ahead and rolled to at least 60 degrees of bank before recovering! :eek: This was at drop height of 1000' agl and at drop speed with the paras all standing in the door ready to go. Great need of the brown corduroys. :)
Re. the waitress at Orange, was she the young lady who used to collect the short ends of squadron ties by snipping them off? The short end of my 53 Sqn/Guiness tie went that way.
Fond memories indeed.

My first experience of the Beverley was at RAF Eastleigh, near Nairobi, where 30 Sqn were based at the time.

An interesting feature of the Bev was that it couldn't fit into the standard RAF Hangar due to the height of the tail. So along comes an RAF Engineer who designs a sideways tracking dolly for the undercarriage, the nose was jacked up, lowering the tail, aircraft pushed sideways into the hangar, and strategically placed between roof struts so that the nose could be lowered again!

Ingenious to say the least!:eek:

Samuel

Similar with the mark 3 Shackletons at St Mawgan, the hangars had railway lines extending several dozen feet either end of hangar doors, aircraft placed sideways on to a carrying device and then sideways tracked into hangar, no problem with the tail or nose wheel here though it was just that the wingspan was too wide for the hangar doors.

JC, Samual,

Yes the Napier Lincoln de ice rig ( with a lump of wing sticking vertical on the top of the fuse !!) also used the British Rail method of entry in the hanger at Luton.
The rails in the tarmac survived long after Napier !!:D :D

Re. Bevs and hangars - the main hangar at Abingdon was built to accommodate the Bev without the need for the sideways entrance. The construction method was rather odd, in that the roof was built first and then it was gradually jacked up and the supporting walls built underneath. 'Vertical' thinking perhaps, rather than the over-hyped de Bono 'lateral thinking'. :p

Beverly
 

Cornish jack
We must have been there on the same day. I do remember the interection closure and the Bev's running amuck on the dispersal.
Fred Karno must have been green with envy!
Rgds. FPG

A few pictures taken from the book Blackburn Beverley by Bill Overton, published in 1990 by Midland Counties Pubs.


First Samuel's skates

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.ro...6/Bevskate.jpg

Photo's by R Honeybone.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.robinson16/BevTip.jpg

The Final Erection shop - Not tall enough for the Bev.
Photo: BAe.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.ro.../Dogkennel.jpg

The Dog Kennel
Photo's by Bill Overton


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.ro.../Bevrocket.jpg

RATOG TO at Dusk

Photo: BAe


Now this is what I call a cockpit

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.ro...16/cockpit.jpg

Photo: Bill Overton