Beverleys, Shackletons and ASV21 - Tony Cunnane's Afterthoughts
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Beverleys, Shackletons and ASV21
Written on 1 September 2011
On this day in 1958 I started a course at the Maritime Operational Training Unit (MOTU) at RAF Kinloss to learn about the new radar that was about to be retro-
Looking back at my flying log book I find that the most remarkable fact was that to get to Kinloss in the north of Scotland from Malta took two flights in a lumbering Beverley transport aircraft, followed by a train to London and then an overnight sleeper train to Forres, that delightful small town a few miles from RAF Kinloss. It was just a small town in 1958, famous I recall for the Red Beastie ale house down a back street just off the main drag and much frequented by RAF personnel.
It was extremely uncomfortable, very noisy, and exceedingly boring flying as a passenger in the Beverley. Cruising height was around 9,000 feet. There was no air conditioning apart from the howling winds that blew into the passenger cabin through various holes in the airframe. My image on the right shows 2 Beverleys at their base, RAF Shawbury, in 1957. Going to the toilet located at the rear of the large boom (resembling a pan handle) was an event to be avoided if at all possible.
The main bulk of the Beverley aircraft was reasonably stable in air turbulence (such as we experienced flying over the Alps), but the entire boom rotated in a circle! It must have been quite difficult for the pilots in those conditions too.
The Beverley flights to UK and back were:
XH116 Luqa to Orange (Marseilles) 4hrs 45 mins (Captain -
XH116 Orange to Abingdon 3hrs 40 mins
XH112 Abingdon to Orange 4hrs 10 mins (Captain -
XH112 Orange to Luqa 4hrs 40 mins
ASV21 was a great improvement on the ASV13. I found the Kinloss course fascinating and when I got back to 38 Squadron I was keen to start training up the crews using my newly-
The image shows me operating the ASV radar in a 38 Squadron taken by a fellow crew member on a sortie from Malta in 1959.
For many months after my return to Malta we didn’t have any Shackletons with ASV21 fitted and I found it was difficult to drum up support for my lessons when I had no equipment to show them, only diagrams. Nevertheless, the Squadron Commander decided that I should give ‘introductory’ lessons to all the crews, one at a time and then repeat them at intervals as the delays continued. The squadron was not anywhere like fully converted by the time I left in January 1960!
38 Squadron had been operational during WW1 but was disbanded when peace broke out. It reformed in September 1935 (coincidentally, just in time for my birthday!) at RAF Mildenhall as a night bomber squadron and was initially equipped with the Handley Page Heyford.
More about my time on 38 Squadron in Malta on my RAF Year website starting here