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Old 5th Jun 2021, 09:13
  #6 (permalink)  
brakedwell
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Under the clouds now
Age: 86
Posts: 2,501
Received 13 Likes on 10 Posts
The Sunderland brings back very good memories. In 1952 it was the first aircraft I flew in, as a member of the school CCF, when I went on a two week summer camp to RAF Pembroke Dock. The Squadron that was based there was 230 and they had Sunderland Mk 5's. We flew almost everyday, mostly out to the southwest on Atlantic patrols. I loved it and became a very good cook with a primus stove, cooking mainly eggs, bacon and fried bread. I even became quite good at flying the damn thing from the left hand seat, even though it felt very heavy! I remember one trip up to Shorts at Belfast to pick up spare parts very well. We landed in the bay outside the harbour then taxied in to Short Brothers and Harland, parking next to the harbour wall. After a brew up of tea, the parts were delivered, we started the engines and "taxied" out to the bay for take off. The next two camps, an East Anglican Canberra base and Plymouth Mountbatten were boring in comparison.
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