Shackleton tales

Pagen

John Mepham the Flight Engineer at Culloden worked on WR963 at Coventry for some years whilst Promotions Officer for the Shackleton Association.

Mo

John still visits WR963, his last trip up was just before Christmas last year.

Regards

Rich

I think that was him, cheers Mo!:) I won’t ask who the wise old sage was!;)

Imisbtn, that sounds very likely, seem to remember reading that Blackbushe was the drop off point for some of these trooping flights.
Like the Manchester and Lancaster before it the Shackleton did have a secondary trooping role written into the spec, I bet they didn’t ever think they would have to use it as such!
Worth noting that British transports such as Hastings, Beverley, and Argosy were designed to have a light bomber role aswel.

Pagen

John Mepham the Flight Engineer at Culloden worked on WR963 at Coventry for some years whilst Promotions Officer for the Shackleton Association.

Mo

As a wise old man once said (recently):

Shackleton crews did not think parachutes made any significant addition to flight safety and were instead a pain in the backside because of their bulk in an already crowded fuselage.

Mo

parachutes

As groundcrew I recall being issued with a chute for going on exersise to Sri Lanka (1961),these were immediatley consigned to panniers and put in the bomb bay!!

During the Cyprus problem Shacks were turned into transports They left at hourly intervals from Abingdon. Reducing the crew from 10 to 6, they ferried soldiers – 33 per trip! – Abingdon to Malta then on to Nicosia.

My Dad recalls, being thusly transported back from Suez to (he thinks) Blackbushe, via Tripoli. I don’t think he was overly impressed with the arrangment.

That’s great news Rich, were the missing parts ever traced and returned?

Apart from the control wheel on ebay shortly before it was discovered to have been done I don’t think so.

TwinOtter, I’ll have a look in my collection when I get home. I could be mistaken as to when it was printed as I have a few of the magazines lying about.

Rich

Good news about VP293! 🙂

Cannot find the article in the Growler although for some reason I’m missing issue 89 from last year – so it might be in there! :confused:

That’s great news Rich, were the missing parts ever traced and returned?

The breadth of knowledge within the Association in phenomenal and the stories that appear in the Growler are brilliant; likewise Mo’s website also holds a wealth of Shackleton information – 🙁 if you can get past the terrible story about how VP293’s cockpit was stripped http://www.avroshackleton.com/

VP293 is getting a lot of care and attention, in a hangar at Coventry. A couple of the volunteer’s from WR963’s team have taken on returning her to her former glory. I’ll try and get an update for you this weekend, but when I last looked there was new glass and various instruments showing up.

The story of XF710 coming down at Culloden Moor was featured in “The Growler” some time last year I think?

Regards,

Rich

861? Sadly, yes!! My only entry is ‘Cat 4 Provisional’

It eventually ended up as ‘Cat 5 Componants’, MR.1s probably more valuable as spares than repair at that stage.
I hope the tower was thankful to you for informing them that their runway was black!

Thanks for the Shack tales. Pagen, do you know the location for the Culloden moor crash site? I recall a photo but that had no background being an air to ground view. I fly in the area often and would like to locate the site.
There was a WW2 airfield in the area, grass dispersal site, based on Capt Fressons pre war airfield.

As far as I remember Scotavia, the crash site was over one of the roads just on the edge of the village of Smithon, possibly the B9006. The tree that the aircraft hit is supposed to be still there, bearing the scars. However, as Inverness expands, there has been a lot of house building in Smithton, so I do not know if the site survives still.

Hopefully this helps a little.

Kind Regards,
Scotty

‘Chutes? Don’t quote me, but I don’t recall them.

861? Sadly, yes!! My only entry is ‘Cat 4 Provisional’.

= Tim

Thanks for that Tim, so no ‘chutes from quite early on then.
Was the belly landing in WB861 with 240sqn?

Paracutes?? Funny – can’t recall any!!

Troops? Oh, yes – had to contain one’s bladder to avoid trampling on 33 bodies spread all over the floor!!

Look at this wonderful sunrise (over the Med), I called. SNORE!!

Belly laniding? Only one I recall was at night at Ballykelly. NOT to be repeated. We had to walk over to the Tower to warn them that there was something blocking the runway!!

= Tim

To be honest that wasn’t the real intention this time – I just wanted to ensure that people didn’t turn up expecting to be able to get such details from our regular openers like Brian or Mal.

The breadth of knowledge within the Association in phenomenal and the stories that appear in the Growler are brilliant; likewise Mo’s website also holds a wealth of Shackleton information – 🙁 if you can get past the terrible story about how VP293’s cockpit was stripped http://www.avroshackleton.com/

Yes sorry met him at the ‘fest, your Brian would be very useful though? another excuse for a mention eh!:D

pagen, I’m not sure if it’s one of NAM’s regulars as it’s not something I’ve heard of before and I’ve published interviews with most of them.

If you spoke to the person during last year’s Cockpit-Fest it’s likely to have been someone from the Shackleton Association and they tend to only help out at Cockpit-Fest or any special Shackleton events. That said I believe they may be back ‘on duty’ at this year’s Cockpit-Fest on 18th & 19th June. 🙂

That’s what I was trying to say in my usual long winded way, I can’t think of a Mk.3 accident where the crew have, or could have, parachuted out.
Personally I can’t say that I have heard of anyone parachuting out of any Shackleton operationaly.
The drill was to idealy ditch or belly land if there was still some control, if there wasn’t then there was little chance of escape anyway, and the vast majority of the fatal accidents were no notice impacts with the sea/land.
The Lancaster was a different proposition as its operating area was at altitude straight and level, while the Shack MR was predominantly low-level and manouvering.

Re parachutes, I really don’t know if they were worn in latter years or not, from pictures I’ve seen it seems early crews did, but later crews didn’t.
Mo Botwood here would know alot more about this whole subject.

Edit, this is worth a read, http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?field=typecode&var=AV-SHC%&cat=%1&sorteer=datekey&page=1

Scotavia, I think I had a link somewhere to the crash site, but I will have to dig it out, TwinOtter’s post has reminded me that there is an ex crew member that works on the Newark Shack that was actually on the Colluden Moor aircraft, I remember him telling me how incredibly frightning (especially the runaway prop just feet from his head) the whole experience was – understandably!
I thought it was on this link, http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland.htm, its not but two others are, very sombre reading especially when you look at the huge scar left by XF702, at least memorial plaques to the crews that were all lost have been put up.

A great resource contact for all things Shackleton can be found here http://www.thegrowler.org.uk/ 🙂