JW411, thank you for the clarification(?) - as you say, difficult to follow which and what was where
Can't find 817 in my logbook although a couple of the 800 series appear regularly. Valettas being reduced to spare parts in the Protectorate was sufficiently frequent not to warrant much excitement!! One of my contemporaries managed to be involved in no less than six crashes during his two year tour!! His emergency drills were immaculate!!
817's missing wheel is reminescent of a sister aircraft at an E African airfield with Wing Pilot and Flt Cdr sharing the front seats. A Valetta 'arrival' was ever a matter of chance and on this one the bounce was aided by an undulating runway. At the top of the bounce, a round black object was seen preceding them down the runway and the final contact was noisy and slewed. My mate was on board AGAIN and departed the scene, upwind, hotly pursued by the Nav. Some minutes passed and no sign of the pilots, so a CAUTIOUS return was made. Missing pair were, apparently, still ensconced and discussing likely cause of the detached wheel!!
My own one and only was at Beihan in 165 ending up with a missing tail wheel and cracked main spar and a bemused Dutch newsman who had assumed all arrivals were similarly untidy!! The remains were later converted into a combined Mess. That it was considered 'par for the course' is indicated by the logbook entry NOT being annotated - just a different airframe and 'passenger duty' for the return to K'sar.
Apologies for the thread drift.