LIWA OASIS - There was a small landing strip called Humar south of the Liwa Oasis. It was a flat area of grey sand inside a bowl of high sand dunes and was very tricky to find! I landed at Humar, which was very near the Saudi border, about ten times. We usually flew from Sharjah via the IPC airfield at Tarif where we picked up additional TOS passengers. Somehow a distance of 144 n.m from Tarif sticks in my mind. I can't remember the heading, but it must have around 200 degrees. Humar does not appear in my log book after December 1959, so I assume the TOS must have withdrawn to Liwa, which did not have a strip at that time. I always remained with the aircraft while the Signaller or Navigator went off with the passengers for a few hours at their camp. After the engines cooled down and stopped crackling the silence was magic! I first experienced the "desert bells" at Humar, when it was almost dark and you felt you could reach up and touch the stars. Being alone in the desert surrounded by those high dunes was an experience I will never forget.
Last edited by brakedwell; 5th Apr 2009 at 13:02.