Sheer nostalgia...
Aaahh, memories of R.A.F. Changi and Singapore 1959-1962 (with a six month detachment to Labuan thrown in).
What a fine thread ! Even a picture of a Changi Rattler... memories there of catching the Saturday night Changi flyer which left the Capitol terminus at midnight... flying through the then Changi Hills at a zillion miles an hour was somewhat terrifying with the transmission screaming away ! Changi Hills no longer there, all used for land reclamation before they started importing fill from Batam Island. Sections of Tampines Road are still there but most of the old road is gone. The old Telok Paku Road now a dead end and the new road skirts around onto reclaimed land all the way around the airport.
Back then, on occasional visits to 205, my Norton Dominator liked the taste of green fuel straight from a Shack's nipple, when visiting for modification work ! I was in the ASF at Changi and doing mods. for a year, working on all the transport types in the Far East fleet, then posted to Labuan which was a delightful place to be stuck in for six-months. Then back to Changi and Inspections and Rectifications on Hastings, Valettas and Shacks. We even had a Beverley there once which became a Christmas Tree until eventually all the spares arrived on a Queen Mary including three out of storage engines. The test flight was something else. The three "out of storage engines" all failed due to moisture in their bearings and the last of the three was shut down on short finals. She had to be towed in.
Then there were the Dan Air Avro Yorks doing the Australia run with rockets and rocket fuel. They were always heavily laden outbound and sometimes the tractor would follow and drag the tailwheel back onto the grass at the Tanah Merah Besar end of the runway as they always took off to the N-E and needed every bit of runway. We always stood outside to watch the take-off and all eyes were on the wing as it flexed upwards taking the load as it lifted off just clear of the Telok Paku Road and over the mangroves and out to sea. On their way back to the U.K. the F/E's used to sort through our scrap tyres and take a few back as it was either the Hastings or Shack tyres which were the same size. One York crumpled a wingtip against our hangar and of all things, Seletar had a Lancaster wingtip still in store and we fitted that !
I recall the Meteor TT Flight being there while I was in ASF before I left in '62. There was a Beaufighter Mk.10 there to do the job when I first arrived but I can't recall seeing it flying.
The old Changi Village is no more, they had a fire there and now the buildings are all brick and concrete. The only remaining buildings I recall being there in 59-62 were the AMWD labourers terrace houses at the back on the western side which are now fully refurbished and rented out to expats. The old RAF Changi Creek Transit Hotel is now beautifully restored as a Sports Club and the old stained wooden doors and interior still preserved. The old rain trees in the village are the same, just bigger. Remnants of the old camp are still there but gradually disappearing. I last went to Block 151 about ten years ago and the WWII wall paintings were still there but the three floors have been partitioned off. The RAF "Stores" building with the "saw-tooth" roof is still there next to the village.
Even a photo from the cockpit of an Argosy ! Nostalgia indeed....
DB
Last edited by David Billings; 2nd Jul 2010 at 00:17.