Not all aircraft flew out or back from the UK to the Far East, the choppers like Belvederes of 66 Sqdn and the Whirlwinds obviously didn't, coming in packing cases by sea.
Here's a Canberra T4 about to be retired from 75 Sqdn RNZAF, which was disbanding at Tengah:
The Canberras of 75 Sqdn RNZAF ceased operations in January 1962, so this Canberra WD963 was on probably one of the last flights. WD963 joined 45 Sqdn and was also used by the other Canberra squadron at Tengah, No 81.
It was only a few months later that WD963 left the Far East and was ferried back to the UK starting 30th May ‘62 by Flt.Lt. J.Walker with M.Nav. T. Gostelow going Tengah, Dum Dum, Karachi, Tehran, Nicosia, Luqa, Orange to Lyneham. That crew picked up replacement T4 WH706 on 8th June, an aircraft that had already previously had a long spell with 45 Sqdn at Tengah. On this return flight the Canberra provided navigational assistance to a Meteor F8 ferrying to Seletar to become a target-tug.The Meteor however made it a flight that went ‘round the houses’ a bit passing through Marseilles, Pisa, Luqa, El Adem, Nicosia, Diyabikia, Tehran, Sharjah, Karachi, Jodhpur, Delhi, Calcutta, Mingaladon and Butterworth. So the ‘navigator’ did have to work pretty hard. Eventually though WD963 came back to join the PR 81 Sqdn at Tengah on 8th Feb ‘63. It lasted sometime but the crew abandoned her when both engines failed over the sea, two miles south of Tengah on 29 June 1967.
As mentioned the Meteors coming to the Towed Target Flight came with a helping Canberra where possible...good to have a proper navigator on hand.
Meteor TT20 WM230 about to land on runway 20 at Changi in early August 1962. The Meteor pilot was getting some practice in just days before the Flight moved to occupy the area beside the runway and maintenance hangars, and they used the nearest white hut visible in this photo as their unit base. Originally part of the Seletar Station Flight, they had become the Towed Target Flight before their move to Changi in mid-1963 and then sometime later they were renamed 1574 Target Facilities Flight. The ML Aviation G-Type winch fitted carried a 6,000ft towing cable, operated by the rear seat crew member, who was often a co-opted ground crew member.
Regarding the Westerly route, the first I saw doing this was a Britannia on a proving flight:
Britannia XM497 'Schedar' seen at Changi in September 1961 on it's round the world proving flight. Sqdn Ldr Wickes of 511 Sqdn, piloting 'Special Flight 6389' and returned to Lyneham on 9th October 1961 having covered 33,000 miles in 15 days. Landing at Gibraltar, Ascension Island, Waterkloof (Pretoria), Mauritius, Cocos Island, Changi, Guam and Midway, Fairbanks (Alaska), Thule (Greenland) then back to Lyneham. It is parked here beside a visiting USAF C-124 Globemaster.
Ahh...I can still remember the 'paraffin smell' of a starting Britannia, wafting up the hill to the quarters behind where I lived with my folks!
The Royal New Zealand Air Force serviced their Air Force and Army detachments using some olde Hastings but mainly with 3 ex-commercial DC-6's. These also did runs to the UK and after initially trying the normal Transport Command route via Gan, they opted for the Westerly way through the US. This made sense as the yanks could better look after the DC-6's:
DC-6B NZ3632 from 40 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force suffered multiple engine problems in July '62 and is seen here requiring an engine change in the Servicing Bay at Changi. NZ3632 joined the RNZAF in May 1961 and the log book of Squadron Leader Gerrard Brown, of No. 40 Squadron during the period between 1962 and 1963 included the following details:
"On the 5th August ‘62 NZ3632 set out for the UK, the ‘Westerly Route’ via the US. Routing was Nadi in Fiji, Canton Island, Hickham AFB in Honolulu, Travis AFB near San Francisco, McGuire AFB near New York, Harmon AFB in Newfoundland and on the 12th August into the USAF transport base at Mildenhall in the UK. The return from Mildenhall starting 23rd August and went via Keflavik, Harmon, McGuire, Travis, Hickham, Canton Island and Nadi and on the 31st August back to Whenuapai. A different route to Changi started on 29th Nov ‘62 going to Melbourne, Perth, Cocos Island to Changi. Back the usual way though via Darwin and Brisbane arriving Whenuapai 6th Dec." In March 1963 Sqdn.Ldr. Brown again took NZ3632 to Mildenhall, but they tried a different routing to get across the Atlantic. On 14th Mar it left Whenuapai, routing initially as before via Nadi, Canton Island, Hickham AFB to Travis AFB, San Francisco. It then headed further south to Charleston AFB, South Carolina and next Kindley AFB, Bermuda and on 21st Mar over the Atlantic to the Portugese airfield at Lajes in the Azores and then direct to Mildenhall. On 1st April NZ3632 set off the same return route Mildenhall - Lajes, but then to McGuire AFB, New Jersey, Scott AFB, Illinois before Travis AFB, Hickham AFB, Canton Island and on 10th April finally Nadi - Whenuapai."
Many more photos from the Far East at:
david taylor images | closely observed planes - Singapore early 1960's
David