Cottesmore & Newark Air Museum

One of the strangest Argosy flights I had was when Benson sent me up to Cottesmore to help out 115, or was it ? I think they were formed at the time but they were a bit short of F/E’s. There was a line-up of about 6 mixed-bag Argosies there which hadn’t flown for some time after being flown in. Some were ex-RAF Middle East and there were one or two I hadn’t seen for some time. The Ground Crew for this line-up were all new as well, most hadn’t worked on Argosies before. I went through a few of the line-up to get the pick of the litter. Some had fuel leaks, some leaked Water Meth when the system was pressurised (briefly). After picking the beast, the boffins arrived and started fitting gear into racks held into the seat rails.

Didn’t know what it was all about, two Pilots and a Nav I had never seen before arrived and both the Pilots had not flown the Argosy for some time and quite frankly, I believe they were feeling their way ! Anyway, we lit the fires after a bit of prompting and headed out to the West out over the Atlantic, nobody saying anything about what we were doing. At some point the Nav said, “This is it and this is where we let down”. Down through the cloud layer we went and broke out at about 2000 feet. The order was then given for the rear doors to be opened. Ahead of us lay this large fishing fleet, dozens of boats as far as you could see in the Atlantic haze.

The Boffins told me later that they had dropped aluminium foil parachute things out the back doors so somebody somewhere was looking for these on radar, I guess. Very strange trip of over five hours that one. I am guessing when I say it could have been the Russian fishing fleet.

I visited the Newark Air Museum in 1988 and was surprised to see the cockpit trainer in there. I saw the word “Argosy” on a placard and peered into the darkness through the small window in the door. The door was locked but after asking, a key was produced and the power switched on. Back into memory came the checks and very soon all four were turning and burning to the amazement of the Museum Curator who was with me. If he reads this maybe he’ll remember !

Somebody on the other “Argosy Pictures” thread was asking about the round door at the front. That door is the reason why just about everybody who worked or flew on the Argosy and used that door… has a bad back. The bending down in order to throw your Documents Bag and Tool Bag and oft-times your night-stop suitcase up into the Freight Bay and then bend down and get in yourself is the bad back biter. The propeller and turbine combination was also bad for your health and people who were on the beast are deaf in some pitch ranges. I have a dicky back and am deaf… a legacy of the Argosy.

Worst of all the things that happened to you on Argosies was the ARDET Detachment…3 Months in Beautiful Bahrein, Muharraq to be exact. I once did three shuttles to Sharjah in one day..enough to last a lifetime. There was also Magic Masirah and Sunny Sallalah, Muscat with its’ cranked runway, Firq and Saiq and other god-forsaken strips in the Land of Sand… We were held off Sallalah for about thirty minutes one day while the SAS on the jebel located the rocket launching site and pulverised it. Then we had to wait while they picked up the fragments off the runway and taxiway. Nice…. Only good thing about Bahrein was The Gulf Hotel, where a brilliant steak could be had, then back to the hut where you lived.

The SWO at Muharraq hated ARDET with a vengeance because he couldn’t get us onto the Orderly Sergeant register so he was always on the lookout for “crimes” committed by ARDET. One day his WO’s swagger stick suddenly disappeared from the Sgt’d Mess and he didn’t get it back until he began to be “nice” to us. It was well hidden !!!

The detachment was good for serviceability, I’ll say that, all six were usually fully serviceable and ready to go every day. The guys had very little else to do so tore into them every cease flying. They did a good job there.

RPM, Fuel Flow, TGT
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