Ops GRAPPLE and AROMA

JohnB, Hi,
Mni tks the heads-up on that! It’s filled in a few more bits of the jig-saw. Tks again.
Rgds
Resmoroh

Met Conversions

While reading my website, I found that there is mention of all a/c that partook in Grapple and Antler and including the ones converted for met obs.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/Shackleton/balkela.html

JohnB

Hello All,
Mni tks for all the info, links, and tips. Much appreciated.
Ballykellybrat (and anyone else) – I would much appreciate any details of the BISMUTH A, B, & C tracks out of RAAF Pearce (if you have them!) – and of any other regular Met Recce tracks flown.
Tks again
Resmoroh

I thought it was because the 2s were first to get the relevant equipment upgrades and were used in the early tests, as the older 1s were suitabley modified the 2s went back to the more valuable maritime role where they were really required.

Nice link to the log book Cotteswold, especially with the bomb doodles!

Antler

From my (late) father’s log book: 4 Shackletons (WL739,WL795,WL748 & WL747) from 204. Based at Pearce, Western Australia August/September 1957. I wonder why Mark2s were OK for Antler but only Mark1s at Christmas Island?
Duties from Pearce were Bismuth Tracks A,B & C. I have never flown in a Shack, I was promised a trip in a certain SAAF Mark3 (my company was going to provide support) but it ended up in the Mauretanian desert.

Careless photo but may help??

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/web2/xmasis.jpg

The aerial view is a crib from the net.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/web2/xmasagain.jpg

We just LOVED the Met boys! That bit where you had to hold the a/c down at 200′ directly after a night take-off, on a dodgy Radio Altimeter, in sweaty heat, so that they could calibrate their instruments. We were VERY impatient to get to a decent height ASAP!!

Resmoro has asked me (and I don’t know) if there was a special fit in the Shacks for these tests, or did they just use the Autolycus?

The seat in the front of Mk.1 Shacks must have been a great place to sit in flight, I imagine having an uninterupted view of being on top of the world, only hindered my noise, smells and breeze!

Grapple et al

The mid upper was removed from Mark Ones prior to Grapple but with no connection to the task. Its removal eased the transit from nose to tail and its replacement was a very small table. The bunks were always there and were always full of parachutes and clothing – no rest area resulted.

The provision of Met observation facilities in the Mark One was easily achieved by giving the nose settee to the Met Obs with lots of dials to keep him occupied. Each Met sortie required at least one climb over 20,000 ft. The thickness of the floor of a Shack is in inverse proportion to altitude and at that height becomes the alloy equivalent of tissue paper. Crews took the opportunity to see how high we could go. All efforts were around 22,000 ft. Our Met Obs said the Shackleton had been designed primarily for Met work.

All Grapple aircraft were MkI and when 204 were involved in the tests, they borrowed a MkI from either 240 or 269. 269 was the atomic squadron, having taken part in all tests. WL795, being the first fitted with Autolycus might have probably featured on our initial sniffing expeditions for traces of other countries tests.

A few trips to Gib, John. Including the great weekend away from BK, when we flew down to Gib with great plans and were diverted from the circuit back to – yep, BK.

Forgot to mention dear old WL795 down at St Mawgans’ gate was involved in some of the nuclear tests for air sampling etc. Did stints with 269 and 204. Some of the tests over Marralinga were ‘Operation Antler’.

I remember the mid-upper turret well. It was from there that I did my Met obs (with help from the Navs position for pressure/air-temp, etc). It was, if my memory serves me right, very adjacent to the a/c galley.

It certainly was, when the turret was removed the vacated area became an enlarged crew rest and bunks area.
Thanks for the Interesting insight into your work, a little thought of facet to flying that these days gets overlooked.

As an aside, I wonder what happened to all those turrets?

As an aside,WB847, which I read a while back was involved in Grapple ended its days on Kinloss fire dump. Got a photo of the remains in me old album.

pagen01,
My RAF F1394 records that I served as an NSA SAC Meteorologist from 28 Oct 54 to 17 Nov 56. The last 18 months of which were spent at El Adem. During that time Shacks were detached from either Malta or Gibraltar. They flew long sorties (a) over the Med looking, supposedly, for Gun-Runners into Cyprus (there was the beginnings of Unpleasantness there at the time!), and (b) over the Sahara Desert looking, supposedly, for Gun-Runners from Egypt/Sudan into the French territories of NW Africa (there was the beginnings of Unpleasnatness there at the time)!
I remember the mid-upper turret well. It was from there that I did my Met obs (with help from the Navs position for pressure/air-temp, etc). It was, if my memory serves me right, very adjacent to the a/c galley. Met Assistants make very good Galley Slaves – or so I was told by a very large Flt Sgt Signaller!! The off-duty boredom of a National Service Airman at El Adem had to be experienced to be believed! Going on a 12-hr Shack trip (straight off a 12-hr Met night shift – and coming back to another Met night-shift) was a much better way of spending one’s time. It was brilliant. I learned why I did what I did in the Met Office to be of value to those who had to shepherd the traditional “20,000 rivets flying in loose formation” about the sky! It was early Customer Appreciation – and very valuable.
HTH
Resmoroh

It should all be recorded somewhere, in very good detail. squadron log books are a good source.
I thought Mks 1 & 1As did have mid uppers, I think removed by Grapple period.
Which units did you fly with Resmoroh?

Ballykellybrat, Hi,
Tks also. I have to admit that all of my Shack flying time was on A Real Shack – i.e. one which still had a mid-upper turret!!!!
This project is, at the moment, still at the factual assemblage stage. When we’ve hammered all the bits together (and, maybe, discarded some) then we’ll see if it can be test-flown into an article!
Tks again.
Resmoroh

pagen01,
Tks dat. It’s a start. We can now begin to go down the “nitty-gritty” road as to who flew what, where, and when, and for which purpose! Having established those bits of the jig-saw we can begin to work out how they all fit together! Problem; we don’t have the Box Lid with the picture on it!!
Mni tks yr help
Rgds
Resmoroh

My father was on Shacks with 204 & Grapple Zulu. All Mark IA (WB828,VP289,VP294 & WB851 from his log book).
Bill

204 sqn (Shacks) were involved with Grapple
269, 240 and 204 all had involvement of some kind in nuclear/atomic weapons trials.