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Old 30th Mar 2007, 05:01
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Worf
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: USA
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Jackonicko,

The IAF Canberra's are not retired yet - May is supposed to be the official date.

The pilot I have found with the most number of hours in the Canberra has about 4500 hrs. Most early IAF Canberra pilots came to the type from either a fighter (usually Vampire/Ouragan/Hunter) tour or a multi tour (Dakota/C-119 Packet). First tourists were only taken on in the late 70s (direct from Hunter OCU/Iskra/Kiran). Some of IAF pilot had many hours on other types before the Canberra and didn't have as many Canberra hours as they could have if they had been first tourists. My father's FIS (equivalent to CFS in the RAF) instructor was operational in the Spitfire, Tempest, Vampire and then Canberra. Interestingly a large part of the early cadre came from B-24 Liberators.

The other factor is that the IAF doesn't have the RAF's equivalent of a "flying" cadre. Its up or out - you can't be a senior (in years) officer and be a line pilot on a flying squadron. Most people's flying was done by the time they are Squadron Leaders (rank inflation has now raised that to Wing Cdr) which was about 16-18 years in service. You continued to fly after that only if you were CO/OC Flying/Station Commander but that meant that you did a lot of ground postings in between.

The pilot with the most hours was a first tourist on the Canberra - did his entire career on Canberras as a line pilot/flight commander/unit commander and retired as Wg Cdr after 30 years service. In between he did a tour as an instructor on Kirans. But that career profile is unusual - he was also lucky/unlucky enough to be caught in the rank inflation where the COs of multi squadrons are now Gp Capts! He was acting Gp Capt when he retired.

Trying to figure out who the navigator with most hours was - but I would think that would be about the same number of hours too.

Worf
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