Surely the RAF were awash with low-hours Hercules from the old Halifax fleets
A different Mark of Hercules and also their availability.
At the end of the war in Europe one of my fathers jobs was ferrying brand new Halifaxs from the factory to Edzell, in Scotland, which was a Stirling and Halifax disposal unit, to be scrapped. This experience was useful at a later date.
In 1947 he was posted to 202 (Met) Sqn, which with 224 in were the only two Halifax Squadrons left in the RAF. Spares, any spares, was a nightmare. To overcome this he would load a Halifax up with assorted fitters, fly to Dyce, near Aberdeen and take a day off whilst his fitters went down to Edzell and robbed all the hulks still lying about.
The Halifaxs were replaced by Hastings in 1951. A few trundled around in either civvy guise or in Sunny Air Forces for a year or so but apart from a few recovered wrecks there is nothing left.
Danny. That hat in the foreground is of the Royal Malayasian Air Force. When the course started we had; 4 Direct Entry Pilots, 2 remustering Engineering Officers, 1 remustering Sergeant Signaller, 1 retreading ex National Service pilot, 2 Lebanese Air Force, 2 Iraqi Air Force, 2 Jordanion Air Force, 4 RMAF and 'B' Flight consisted of the 13 Ghanian Air Force, their nation's entire strength.
Time took its toll and at the end when the photo was taken we were the survivors of 'A' Flight. 'B' flight returned to Ghana and years later when Nkrumah was overthrown the rumour went around that they were lined up on a beach and shot.
In those days with a large number of second world countries coming into existence and forming their own air forces the RAF had a nice little earner training their personnel.