Down memory lane !

I have very distant memories of once doing a cross-channel hop on Silver Cities Airways who used something similar. It was novel climbing up onto an upper deck positioned over the loading bay. Noisy as hell is my other memory.

There are a few others abandoned where they fell across the globe. I am not surprised they were noisy with two thumping great radial engines banging away to keep them and their freight airborne.

A couple of relations worked for the Bristol Aeroplane Company during and post war. One wartime bomb fell on a shelter there I was told they never attempted to dig out the victims, that upset a few of the family at the time. I believe there is a memorial plaque there now.

I have their long service watch from one of the relations, it is currently my daily wrist watch

Alan Wood wrote:

Yes it does bring back memories. In 1965/7 I was in the RAF posted to RAF Kuching in Sarawak. The Bristol Freighters used by the Kiwi Air Force were daily visitors bringing in supplies from Singapore/Malaysia. I wonder if the photo of the one coming home was one that I worked on in those far off days.

I was there around that time briefly, on detachment to 225 Squadron, from. Do you remember this Alan?

http://tinyurl.com/y74yq26p

I can’t recall the SNCO’s name involved, but I was told that he was treated abominally badly until he was acquitted. A lot of us “Teeny Weeny Airways” brown jobs were rushed in straight from Middle Wallop training school, having worked with the Scout that was also rushed in to give more heli support. Baptism of fire: the Scout fell out of the sky regularly, as its development and testing was rushed too. A large number of airframe & engine mods were carried out in service. After the Indonesians gave up with Sukarno’s exit, we were rushed back to Blighty, in time for Aden. My arms were punctured many times in a couple of years!

EDIT – I built a Bristol Freighter as a kid from (I think) an Airfix or Revell kit. I think it was larger than 1/72nd, as it came with RAF figures and a Land Rover, freight doors opened and the ramp came down. Just emailed the nephew I gave it to, as he was the one who always looked after the stuff I gave him. He might just have it still, as he still has many of my old Dinky toys in prime nick.

Well they may well still be there, but on Google maps I can only see the ones on the A38 end of the runway (they are all intact).

The airfield is now closed and due to be redeveloped into housing. However the shelters I am thinking of may be inside the Airbus site or the scrub around the railway line that is (now) the site boundary at that place. If they get dug up we will hear about it, there’s enough people left (or descendants of) that know of the history, if not the details.

If they were further up the site that has all been heavily redeveloped by the successors to BAC over the years (although you would still recognise the corner of Southmead Rd and Golf Course Lane). If they did anything with them it would have been done properly as generations work there.

My B-I-L has worked for Airbus / GKN (manufacturing outsourced to them) on the site for 15 – 20 years. I will ask him if he knows anything.

Just seen a clip of the local news, the 170 is now in the Brabazon Hanger. I think the wings get moved in the early hours.

Hi Bob

Yes I do remember it very well and I agree that the SNCO was very badly treated. I believe it was because he countersigned in the Form 700 without actually checking it out because the chopper was desperately needed for a mission. Memory may be faulty as it is over 50 years ago and at the time I was on 209 Sqn (the twin and single pioneers) and on a detachment to Sibu up country. Now that does bring back memories but I won’t go into that here.

If I am honest I can say that the nearly two years I spent in Kuching were two the best years of my life (I volunteered for the extra year) and I am still in contact with a local Chinese family with whom I made great friends.

I can’t say that the brief time I spent there was great Alan, but the whole Confrontation was such an emegency for the UK at the time, we were pushed into different roles and I found myself, along with other REME/AAC/Signals/RAOC bods, in Jungle training and out on patrol. That’s the bit I enjoyed, strangely enough. I learned a lot from some of the “Teeth Arms” that we were serving with.

Boris, there were not many of those older machines left when I was serving, none with AAC as I recall, all with RAF. But we did have the worst heli ever: the SR Skeeter, which had an ancient D.H. Gypsy Major engine. If the combined weight of pilot and observer was over 24 stones, the thing would not lift off. It would not fly well in even moderate winds. When I served in Detmold, BAOR, I remember the last 27 of these heli’s, in vics of 3, back to Blighty to be scrapped. They flew over what was 71 Aircraft Workshop and I believe they had to make several refuelling stops en route to the UK. The noise was tremendous, as they flew over at a very low altitude.