Tartan Giant:
I have Captain Arthur Larkman's book "Chance Encounters" and what a pleasure it has been to read. It contains nostalgic memories galore for me and I must sincerely thank you for telling me about it. I missed meeting Arthur by a small margin as he left as I joined, however most of the characters he talks of were still there and the photographs seem to me to be as of last week!!! Once again, thanks a million.
WHBM:
Thanks for putting up the Malayan Airways DC3 schedules and the Borneo Airways DH 89a Rapide schedules. They have allowed me to blow away a few cobwebs which are starting to form, actually I am annoyed with myself for not keeping more items like those schedules but of course at the time one thinks the years will go on forever and everything can be retained in the memory. It doesn't work like that. I owe you one.
Prospector:
I knew Jack Clegg very well as we were both friend and colleague. Jack resigned from Malayan Airways about 1962 to join Air New Zealand and he was promoted to captain on their DC8. Rudy Frey was also a friend as he administered the Royal Singapore Flying Club very efficiently and kept an eye on the flying instructors (like me). He also ran the engineering side of things and kept the aircraft in good condition. Rudy was responsible for allocating the rubber plantation "pay drops" in which tough canvaas bags of bank notes were dropped into the plantations to pay the tappers. (This was to avoid confronting the terrorists who were along the roads during the Emergency).
Dropping from the Tiger Moth was really good fun and something I looked forward to on the days I was not flying with Malayan Airways. Peter Owens also resigned from Malayan Airways about 1963 and went back to England to fly for a small domestic operator and I lost contact with him. Great days as I am sure you will agree.
westerman:
You are correct , it was a Percival Prince and it was operated by Shell. They mainly operated to the oil fields along the Northern Coast of Borneo ie Brunei, Anduki, Miri, Sibu, etc. Occasionally the aircraft was to be seen in Singapore but I think that was for annual maintenance. It's just possible that I may have flown you from Labuan to Singapore in that Malayan Airways DC3 back in 1957. The route and stops were just as you described and the Malayan crews did it regularly. The flight originated in Sandakan and it was a long day by the time Singapore was reached but really no hardship. If you remember the long yellow stripe then you must remember the Tiger head with the whiskers and it goes without saying that you remember the nice things about the hostess. Thanks for sharing the memories you reminded me of a few things I almost ( but not quite) have forgotten.
It's a pity you never had a ride on Borneo Airways DH 89a Rapides as I am sure you would have enjoyed it. I've only recently been thinking about all the security rubbish one has to endure these days and can't help but to compare it to those Rapides days. A regular passenger on the Rapides was the Sultan of Brunei (the present Sultan's father) who always travelled alone. He would be given two seats side by side and after sitting down would unholster his revolver and placed it on the empty seat next to him. The other passengers took no notice of him or his revolver. I can see him now just sitting there with the gun in plain view for all to see. Boy how things have changed.
LeXs:
I can't recall any Malayan Airways DC3 services from Malacca to Pekanbaru as the only scheduled DC3 flights I ever did went to Medan and Palembang. I remember the Caltex DC3 as it was frequently seen in Singapore and it seemed to operate only to destinations in Indonesia. I think it was based in Djakarta (note the "D"). Shell also operated a DC3 based in Indonesia.
Regards to all
828a