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Old 3rd Aug 2021, 16:16
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WHBM
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Originally Posted by treadigraph
Re Indonesian Vanguards, Alexander Frater recounts a trip on a "Super Viscount" during his Beyond the Blue Horizon odyssey - I assumed it was a Mandala Electra from the description, but it's been a while since I read it and no idea where my copy is. Anybody got a firm idea of what he did fly on - I vaguely recall him saying it had radials but I'm sure he or I have got that wrong? Can't even recall the airline...
Always fascinated me too. He didn't actually travel on it, despite the best endeavours of a ticket tout. It was a Merpati Vanguard, his error was mistaking Mandala for Merpati. Alex, Australian, would be very familiar with the Electra, as his father was Chief Medical Officer of Health in Fiji (mentioned in the book), and the Qantas Electra ran there and on to Tahiti all through the 1960s. It doesn't have radials of course, but does have a notably large cowling. Both Mandala and Merpati had Viscounts, then Mandala went for Electras and Merpati for Vanguards. The book trip happened in 1984, 10 years after BA withdrew the Vanguard.

It's one of my favourite books, and he is excused the odd technical lapse .

There was a long Propliner account back in the late 1980s by someone who went to Indonesia and rode on all of the Viscount, Vanguard and Electra, the latter a lengthy all day trip the length of the country via intermediate stops.
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