WL790
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After the recent retirement of WL 790 Mr McHenry in the US I posted the following on the RAF Forum. Thought it may interest you
VW
WL790
Back in 1967 205 Sdn re-equiped with Mk2 Ph3s and the squadron strength was increased from 8 to 12 aircraft.This involved having 4 aircraft issued initially and then a process of returning each one and fetching a replacement.
I scored a trip back to St Mawgan to act as ground crew on the delivery flight for WL790.The crew was a Check and Training crew to show 205's crews the ropes and owing to the Arab / Israeli conflict we went via Africa. First stop was Malta where we had to stay an extra unplanned night because of a stuff up in our clearance to cross the Congo.Then we headed south over the Sahara following the road until it turned left and we went right to head for Kano in Nigeria.Just after that we hit a pretty horrendous sand storm which woke everyone up.I was sitting in the Sig's seat near the rear door and could not see the wingtips and the noise nearly drowned out the "growl". After landing at Kano a quick walk round A/F revealed that the new paint job was looking pretty ordinary and there was sand in most orifices.However next day we pushed on for Nairobi and on reaching the Congolese border were refused permission to cross along with all other aircraft trying to do the same. Our captain pleaded insufficient fuel for a return so they allowed us to cross within a certain time frame[ not sure how long] and we flew over a pretty scary looking River Congo with jungle and then the Entebbe Mountains when we all went on to oxygen which was something I had not expected to do in a Shack.Two days in Nairobi gave us time to do a 50 hrly and remove most of the sand and also an afternoon in the Nairobi National Park.Then it was on to Mauritius where we stayed in a RN holiday camp right on the beach beside a lagoon with a huge reef 200yds out.We were all hoping for a major snag to occur there but by now we were behind schedule and the captain wanted to push on so off we went for the long haul to Changi with a night at Gan.
After 9 days of being close and personal I formed something of an attachment for "Mr McHenry", as she became known later, so I was very disappointed that she has now been laid to rest.I had hoped that CAA would have allowed her to fly on as I'm sure there were a few hours left in her and the new spar was not an immediate requirement.
VW
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1958 Halton 1961 Cottesmore 1964 32M.U. 1965 Changi[205 sqdn] 1968 32 M.U. 1972 Demob