I guess I was lucky re going down the Central Corridor to Gatow. The first time was on my conversion to nice red and white Andover Mk2s from Benson in 1969. The trg capt was friends with OC Ops at Gatow (I think they had been on Comet 2s in the past). We did lots of (radar) circuits to give the PAR controllers some practice. There were quite a few other training occasions during my 3 years as a copilot. Later in my career (1974) I stood in for the CinC RAFG's Andover Mk2 (60 Sqn Wildenrath) captain and made a few trips up and down the corridor with the CinC (Sir Nigel Maynard, I think). Did a Jetstream refresher at Leeming in 1985 which also involved a trip to Gatow and a night downtown with the ubiquitous WRAF Officer who was keen to visit the odd nightclub!! Also took an HS125 (32 Sqn) to a couple of Berlin Air shows, one at Gatow and one at Templehof. The Berliners loved it because I guess there wasn't too much call for airshows in the Berlin area!
I must have been lucky; never saw an unfriendly aircraft and always managed to get back to Gatow unscathed after a night downtown although the headaches were similar to those gained after a night downtown Limassol!!
Boy were we lucky in having those experiences.
mcdhu