probably some great stories came out of it.
I guess you guys would rather hear about operational stories.
As I said before our wet lease was the first Western aircraft to operate in Vietnam and the only Western Crews too, not counting the War of course.
ATC in Saigon was not too bad, they had dealt for years with Western Military aircraft and Crews, however Hanoi not so much, it was primarily there for the Vietnamese Air Force and the local Vietnam Airlines Crews in their Russian lead sleds as we called them. They were okay but you never really knew what they thought or whether you could rely on them.
Anyway we were returning to Hanoi one day from Moscow, very long flight of some 12 hours, just wanted to get down safely ASAP, overcast day with limited visibility and Hanoi ATC were keen to talk us down.
When they asked us to report ''field in sight'' the Crew did so, Hanoi asked for confirmation and it was given, we could see some fields at the time, mainly rice fields.
Anyway a normal uneventful approach and landing followed without ATC assistance.
When we turned off the runway there was a ''follow me'' car waiting for us, had never seen them use one before that day or after it.
As we were taxiing in behind this car ATC said please confirm you can see the follow me car (with laughter too), just letting us know that he knew we were not really visual when we said we were, and proving he did actually have a sense of humour.
