Juliet Whistky Four One One, you are fantastic sir! You made my day with your ATC clearances, being a Virtual Pilot I get the idea how simple and beautiful the ATC-Pilot communication used to be and Radio-telephony was beginning to take its shape! Being today's virtual pilot it makes me attracted to the old classic aeroplanes with traditional analogue dials with manual cockpits! Today's fly-by-wire and glass cockpits are no fun seriously! Because the plane fly for itself pilot is just merely in command, back then the pilots really had their birds in total command!
Even in flight simulator when I fly the old beauties like DC-3, DC-6, Flying Fortress, Viscount, Goose, Twin Pioneer, B52, L188, 610 Viking, Vickers Vanguard....to name but a few!! What aeroplanes by God! I can imagine how you all must have felt flying these in real life!
I am curious to know what happened in the final years after the UAE federation was formed in the 70s, did the RAF just abandoned Sharjah station or was is still used for small exercises after the federation? What was this area's environment just before RAF exited ?
What I remember from my childhood years is that during the early 90s this area was a complete ruin and abandoned! On weekends the Asian community residing in the neighbouring areas used to play Cricket on the taxiways and parking fields which was fully intact back then! It was only after 2000 when real estate sector started to develop buildings they had to break the fields and parts of taxiway.
I can recall that the control tower glass windows were all shattered and some of them was broken too! gates of old fort were chain-locked! Light poles were still there but no lights in them! Stolen perhaps? Anemometers and Wind socks were still there till the early 90s! Anemometer was removed during the renovation of the control tower. During the early 2000 the new hangar was built to host the fine birds! I wonder how they got the Heron and DC-3 of Gulf Aviation there?
Can anyone shed some light on the final years of RAF Sharjah ?