Flew a number of times with George Luckins in Aden on Valettas. He was, indeed, an ex-Flt Eng. The Hastings co-pilot episode doesn't surprise me. Memories of being in a Cu Nim near Kirkuk with airspeed going from Vne to 70 kts and icicles in the astrodome, to a seatbelt testing approach to Salalah and a mutual IF detail with him and Don Huard which displaced every loose item in the aircraft.