Army Air Corps

In 1962 Derek Palmer was serving with the Army Air Corps in Aden at 653 Light Aircraft Squadron's Falaise airfield, Little Aden. At that time the squadron was equipped with Auster AOP.9's which were used to support the Federal Regular Army (FRA)

 
XN436 Auster AOP.9

His Auster had suffered a series of oil pressure problems which were eventually solved by shipping the fuselage away in a Beverley for an engine change at the R.A.F.'s M.U. at Khormaksar. When the Auster arrived back Derek was about to do an air test but was told that it had been involved in a collision with a taxiing Hunter and had been returned to the Maintenance Unit.

Army Air Corps (AAC) Airfield at Falaise Camp, Little Aden 1963. Photo Roland Pickering

2005 satellite image of Little Aden shows AAC airstrip (arrowed) still in existence.

"By the end of the Auster's second repair one of the early Belvederes from the RAF's No.26 Squadron had arrived in Aden on 'hot and high' trials and this provoked some bright spark to suggest that the Auster's fuselage be taken back to Falaise slung on the hook beneath the Belvedere. Not only would this enable its return but also provide a useful hot weather task for the Belvedere. Up to that time there had been no helicopters serving in Aden, so the distinct noise of one, flying close by, drew almost all of 653 squadron personnel out to the airfield to watch the proceedings".

"The pilot made one approach to familiarise himself with the ‘field’. On the second approach the Belvedere hovered in front of the audience before starting to descend. I do recall some wag in the crowd saying, 'What’s the betting they drop it?'. When the Auster fuselage was still approximately ten feet above the runway, descent stopped and, to the consternation of all, it was released. Its tailplane flapped dramatically down ending with the tips almost touching the ground. The undercarriage was squeezed rapidly upwards for it had never been designed to take such a short landing, not even from trainee Army Air Corps pilots! And one can only imagine the shock loading to the new engine!"

"I believe an Air Loadmaster had positioned himself at the window halfway down the pencil shaped Belvedere where he gave instructions to the pilot as to position, descent, load touch down and hook release. The story goes, and I cannot vouch for its veracity, that at around ten feet the Air Loadmaster had coughed. The pilot thought he heard ‘Drop’, went into the hover and released the hook!"

"Needless to say the Auster went back to the M.U. for the third time, and I never saw it again for by then I was flying the Immortal Beaver." Derek Palmer

This photo was taken in August 1964 and is of an Army Air Corps Auster at the Monk's Field airstrip in the Wadi Taym, in the centre of the Radfan.