Background reading, I guess, but may be of some use. I arrived at Tengah in Oct 67, as 64 Sqn were disbanding, and had about 6 months controlling 60 Sqn.
Photos are cr@p, I regret, as I only had a little pocket-sized Minolata running on 8mm film … they're attached for what they are worth (£0.02p?)
So … on disbandment 64's aircraft were towed away to the dispersal in front of the Officers' Mess (Foxtrot?) and 60 kept going. Just. Almost once a week over the ensuing months, one of 2 things happened:
- On landing, one of the main gear down-locks failed, the leg collapsed and the aircraft skated off the runway into the grass or the massive monsoon drain.
- On startup, a blockage in a vent resulted in the Avpin (?) starter blowing the bottom off the aircraft, along with the pair of 200 gallon slipper tanks which duly crashed to the floor.
New controllers were briefed to expect these events, and were very quick on the Crash Alarm in consequence.
A sad tale I do recall was when, having recovered and repaired an aircraft after event 1, on startup for the test flight it suffered event 2. IIRC it was towed over to Foxtrot, and one of the best of 64's aircraft was brought back into use as the replacement.
Eventually, and without much ceremony, in April 1968 all the aircraft ended up in Foxtrot (overlooked by the Mess Bar) where they were then hammered into scrap metal by local civilians using sledgehammers and other crude implements. Not a pretty sight whilst trying to enjoy a beer!
One of them (S - XH908) was towed off to the Crash Crew training area for further indignities.
(Edit. "T" is of course a T. Mk 3 T-Bird and not an F.A.W. 9R)
