Mike Kanze wrote:
Gord,

Your several recent references to the Argus reminded me of a visit by a
number of we NAS Whidbey junior officers to CFB Comox one winter weekend in
1972. The purpose, of course, was some trans-national goodwill and
celebration at the Comox Officers Mess with our hosts and several lovely
ladies. All had the proverbial good time.

(For those unfamiliar with the geography of the Pacific Northwest, CFB Comox
is located on the east (inland) side of Vancouver Island. It's about a 3 - 4
hour drive from Whidbey, depending upon how long you must wait for the
Vancouver - Nanaimo ferry.)

In the course of the evening, one of our folks managed to big-deal a hop in
one of Comox's Argus fleet the following flying day. He suffered a short
rug dance before COMFAIR WHIDBEY upon his return (not s'posed to do such
things unless all the bureaucrats sign off beforehand) but all was forgiven
quickly.

Our guy reported back that the Argus was quite a capable platform, disguised
in a rather homely airframe. Homeliness was not a problem to any of us who
flew the Ugly for our paychecks, though.

Have you any Argus stories to share with us?


As you probably know the Argus was based on the Bristol Britannia
airframe (as the P3 is based on the Electra and the Nimrod on the
Comet). In 1959 my crew from 405 Sqn in Greenwood N.S. was one of 3
crews from the east coast attending a Joint Anti-Submarine School course
in Ireland.

As is usual with these things the course included a fairly realistic
exercise involving aircraft, surface vessels and submarines.

My most vivid memory of the course (other than the heavily armed local
constabulary in Londonderry) was the presentation/explanation at the
exercise debriefing by the skipper of an RN submarine - he had been
performing a periscope sweep when he spotted a 'Bristol Britannia',
which he assumed was an aircraft of British Airways (in those days
BOAC), about to ditch in the ocean. He ordered his vessel to surface.

According to his presentation; he was more than a little upset when he
observed the "Britannia" opening its weapons-bay doors and did not seem
to feel it was 'cricket' to deem his vessel destroyed while he was in
the process of preparing to rescue passengers from a civilian aircraft.

Dave