Sunderland
I enjoyed reading Old Hairy's account of his experience on Sunderlands in FEAF.
I was fortunate to be a part of the same operations from 1950 to 1953, but on a different squadron and therefor my recollections differ slightly.
I moved in reverse to Old Hairy, passing through Calshot as a trainee Flight Engineer, two and a half years in FEAF before training as a pilot then through the Lancs at St. Mawgan to all different marks of Shackleton. I did not enjoy navigating a Lanc, but found the experience most useful in later life when doing my ATPL exams. I seem to remember that in the fifties navigators were going to take over the RAF. They certainly took over Coastal Command. By the way what ever happened to navigators.
My outstanding memories were delivering Britains first atomic device for testing to the Montebello Islands off the north west coast of Australia. Three trips from Seletar in August 1952. Another memory was taking a Sunderland back to the UK for overhaul and collect a "factory reconditioned" one and return flying the old Imperial Airways route to Singapore. The "old" one flew like a bird, no problems. The new "reconditioned" one from Shorts was a dog. Unscheduled stops and lengthy delays. The P&W engines that were overhauled not a million miles from Stranraer required much work.
I would not have missed it for all the................