I was an engine fitter on 115 sqn 1968-9 working on both Argosies and Varsities. I am pretty certain that XP413 was one of our aircraft and was noticeable because it suffered from endless electrical problems - most likely caused by being under water.
I spent two 3-month detachments in Singapore, on my own most of the time as I could not, as a J/T fly out with the aircraft. I got there and back by VC10. To do flight checking at Gan we had to fly via Katanyake (Colombo) because of the limited range of the aircraft. Kat was the only possible diversion.
The IRIS III aircraft was the last RAF Hastings. That gave us 3 different types of aircraft to maintain and the Hastings was a pain in that the engines were similar to the Hercules in the Varsity, they were not the same. And, being a tail dragger it was easy to fall off the wing when refuelling on a wet wing. And if any of you know RAF Cottesmore, it had the highest rainfall of any RAF station and was also very windy.
Overall, I liked the Argosy. The Darts were very reliable - I only ever changed one and that was a mistake. The Rotol props had rubber protectors stuck the the leading edge of the blades that used to fall off all the time. Eventually we cheated by painting the leading edges black.
