1961

23rd January saw me sent to Coventry, not because I'd upset everybody, but to attend a course at Bagington and Bitteswell on the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy, the latest of Transport Command's new toys. 3 weeks there, followed by 2 weeks at Normalair at Yeovilton covering the Argosy air-conditioning systems and it was back to Lyneham, but not for long. It was at this time that I was sent to Odiham for a few weeks to help with Twin Pioneer servicing.

Late April saw me off on another exercise with Brits to Nicosia, followed by another sortie with Brits, Exercise Pond Jump, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, a pleasant couple of weeks. Back to the UK, then back to Canada to bring the troops home.

It was at this time that I first experienced the North American attitude to distance. After knocking back numerous Moose Head Ales in the base wet canteen (New Brunswick was a dry State) a Canadian airman suggested we go for a hamburger, this sometime after midnight. Several of us piled into his Chevy and he took off for St John, some 60 miles away!

On arriving at Gander before the final leg to Lyneham we had a most unfortunate accident. When taxiing in to our parking slot our port wingtip caught a set of motorised steps that were parked too close to the taxiway, tipping the rig onto the driver and killing him. After being held on board for an hour or so we were finally allowed to deplane and headed straight for the bar for a stiff drink, having had to pass the crushed body of the poor victim en route.
Sgt Jim McNeil and I removed the damaged wingtip and took it to a maintenance hangar, where we removed the damaged area with borrowed tools, scrounged materials and crudely patched it up and doped fabric over the area to seal it for the rest of the journey. We were expecting a hostile reception, but these fears proved groundless. Incidentally, our Captain was cleared of any blame, the fault being placed with the victim for his extremely careless positioning of his vehicle.

One final thing that stands out in my mind is that on the return trip, at about 25000 feet above the Atlantic, the AQM caught a Pongo casually scratching his initials in the window! I reckon you could have heard his screams from the UK or Canada! In the words of a popular newspaper cartoon character of the time "The mind boggles".

The year was rounded off by another Comet 2 cont. training week in Nicosia in September and a 2-3 week exercise with Brits in Malta towards the end of November, between which I squeezed in a few weeks at Northolt to help with a Minor Servicing on a Devon. An overnight stop at St Mawgan in mid-December due to Lyneham being fogbound, but only after 2 really hairy attempts at landing (those hangars definitely looked too close and in the wrong place). Home in time for Xmas and a short breather, wondering what 1962 would bring.

1962

I didn't know it at the time, but this was to be the most memorable of my Lyneham years.
It started inauspiciously enough with a Hastings flight to Kano, Northern Nigeria, for an engine change on another "Haystack" at the end of January, a week memorable only because the ramp collapsed while we were loading the dead engine, our ultimately successful efforts to get the damned thing aboard with a crane, forklift and the aircraft's winch, causing much frustration.

With the formation of 38 Group, Transport Command also had some Fighter Squadrons within its area of responsibility, so Muggins was packed off to 54 Sqdn at Waterbeach in early February to go on a month-long detachment with their Hunter F6s to El Adem. Fortunately we weren't under canvas this time and the mess food had improved since my first sojourn there 2 years previously. 2 things stand out in my memory from this experience. Firstly I was horrified to be handed a length of chain and an asbestos glove to do starter crew, to beat the flames out from the belly on start up they told me. Secondly that to change an inline seal in the cockpit air conditioning system meant the engine had to come out because the joint in question wasn't directly behind the access panel in the spine where it was supposed to be. So much for high tech combat aircraft!
A fortnight later it was off on another Britannia exercise, this time to Idris, where I was introduced to the fantastic John Collins as produced by Marcel in the transit bar, whose expertise in this field I was to discover, many years later, was legendary throughout the Transport Command crews staging through that ex Italian airbase near Tripoli.

Next on the agenda was one of the best trips I ever went on. On 3rd April we left Lyneham for Le Bourget to pick up members of the NATO Staff Defence College for a tour of Southern Europe. After an overnight stay in Paris, which crew chief Ron King called "Manchester with statues", due to the weather there that evening, we set off on our travels. 2 days in Lisbon, an overnight stay in Malta, then on to Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Athens, Naples (where the rush hour traffic scared the living daylights out of me despite being in a substantially built USAF bus at the time), Rome, Turin and back to Paris, all in 2 weeks.

What should have been the highlight of the trip was spoilt for us because a prop oil leak when we landed at Ankara meant a replacement was needed. We got XN398 to Athens, where we were to be for 3 days, a replacement being ready when we arrived. Unfortunately a lack of chocks after a very tight turn at the terminal caused the stbd brake units to weld up solid, hammer and GS screwdriver needed to get the aircraft, sans brakes, moving. This procedure had to be hurried up somewhat when we realised that the airport's tarmac was unable to support the weight of the Brit on a 1 square foot base jack. We just managed to deal with one pair of wheels, and then scouted around for something to spread the load before dealing with the other pair.

A chunk of ½" thick steel plate was acquired and we successfully completed our task, said steel plate being more than slightly bowed when we'd finished. The ensuing 3 days were spent sorting things out, which we just managed within the original schedule, which meant any intended sightseeing was out of the question.

Unfortunately an escorted visit to the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Shangri La arranged for the crew by US Navy Capt. Rufus T. Brynn (a NATO Staff Defence College passenger) had to be aborted, and to his credit, the Skipper held back the aircrew as well to assist and give moral support. I actually had the 2 AQMs stripping, cleaning and repacking the wheel bearings with grease while I replaced a frayed cable in the nose wheel steering linkage, which I thought was looking a bit dodgy. There was a final sting in the tail on this trip as we approached Le Bourget. We somehow had an indicated 1500-psi showing in the wheel brakes and I soon confirmed that there was nowt we could do about it, but, after consulting the Vol 1, which we always carried on these trips, I considered it to be a spurious warning. None the less the Skipper insisted that we all strap in. We landed safely, accompanied by more fire trucks than you could shake a stick at. Electrician Clive leapt out and down to the u/c radius rod bay with a rubber hammer clenched firmly in his fist. A few well judged blows dislodged the ice in the gauge relay, gauges returned to zero and we were off home after a really enjoyable fortnight, even considering the Athens debacle, but at least I was able to explore the other cities we visited, and I did get a good look at the Acropolis as we climbed out on our way to Naples.

To be continued