ST ELMO’S FIRE

Way back in the 1950s I was the captain of a Shackleton on 220 SQN based at RAF St Eval in Cornwall. During exercise ‘Mainbrace’ we were detached to RAF Kinloss in Scotland.

Whilst on an anti-submarine sortie in the early hours and in vile weather, we started to pick up St Elmo’s fire on the airscrews and the windscreens. The very heavy rain causing this had also leaked around my windscreen and my flying suit and gloves were quite damp. I found that I could get long and impressive sparks off my fingertips onto the aileron control spectacle. In the dark confines of the flight deck we had the curtains pulled back behind us and this display was most impressive. Not having a leaky windscreen on his side, the co-pilot was unable to join in the fun.

During a lull in the proceedings, one of our radar gunners, a young National Serviceman, poked his head through the curtains to see if we would like coffee. On seeing the windscreen display he asked what on earth it was, or words to that effect! I replied that that was nothing compared to THIS – and proceeded to give him a display of finger sparks at which he fled down the back! We did get our coffee however; one of the other crew members brought it to us later.

GEOFF MANNINGS