And some of the volunteers were pretty amazing characters. One of my first trips as a sprog co-pilot was with the dreaded Paddy Wheelan. We all gave Paddy £5 each the day before the trip. I can remember getting to the aircraft next morning to see several metal milk churns and God knows how many crates of eggs being loaded into the back.
It went like this; we got to Gibraltar and Paddy rang the Catering Officer and asked him if he would like some fresh milk and eggs. The answer was always in the affirmative. This lot was exchanged for tins of crab and fresh fish and who knows what because Paddy knew that the Officers Mess at Idris were going to have a dining-in night and then, they had something that the chaps in El Adem hadn't seen in months and so it went on.
By the time we got to Khartoum, we had got our £5 each back and we were eating like kings!
When the QM brevet came along, everything became regulated and such deals were forbidden (except for taking prawns from Bahrain to Masirah and crayfish from Masirah to Bahrain - etc etc)!