MEALS ON WHEELS

When the Shackleton came into service it not only had ashtrays but also a little kitchen, with an oven and a sink. After the Lancaster this was luxury indeed on long sorties. 12, 15 and 18 hours were not unknown and we could smoke and eat like kings. On short sorties we could have only sandwiches and coffee.

In 1952 on a beautiful summer’s day we were detailed for a short sortie over lunchtime, to include a number of circuits – pilots’ ‘play time’ as was known. We had the airfield at RAF St Eval in Cornwall to ourselves. The main runway, 26, was not in use and we were testing a short runway, roughly north-south. The approach to this runway meant crossing over a public road to touch down about 50 yards fro the road. After a short while sightseers started collecting near the holding point for the runway, eventually about a dozen or so. We were downwind at 1000ft to do a full stop landing when one of the lookouts said that a fish and chip van had just pulled up near the spectators. I decided to land, taxi around fastish, stop to do our pre-take off checks, put out the ladder and have Jim scramble out, climb the fence and order 10 lots of ‘you-know-what’! The sightseers were flabbergasted to see our lad jump the fence and join the queue. Off we went and following another roller landing did another full stop and taxied round to the holding point. Our lad was assisted over the fence, and clutching the precious order, climbed back up the ladder. With the door shut and our pre-flight checks completed we took off. Climbing over the sea to 1000ft and with the auto-pilot engaged we proceeded to devour our fish and chips!

That though is not the end of the story. Many years later, whilst doing trials with a different type of aircraft, we night-stopped at RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall (near St Eval). A couple of us decided to pay Wally, the well-known landlord of the Traveller’s Rest in Mawgan Porth, a visit.  We had a lift there and decided to take a taxi back to the field. During the journey I was telling the other chap about our fish and chip lunch over the Atlantic when the taxi driver turned round and said, ‘I can vouch for that – it was my van!’ Apparently, a short while afterwards the van had caught fire and he had to take up driving a taxi.