STR 18
My route to Topcliffe was via an apprenticeship at Cosford. During the airfield phase I looked at the STR 18 on the newly arrived Shackletons with awe and amazement as HF training was done on the Collins 618T (How sad is that remembering numbers!!!). The instructor said, "I shouldn't worry yourself with that lad, you'll never see that again". Little did he or I know that within 18 months I would be struggling to tune those wretched 3 MHz frequencies on the Scottish route. And as for the 'one armed paper hangar' perhaps another time.
I can't say I enjoyed the place, too much pressure, but I certainly enjoyed the subsequent job.
The weather? Foggy drives from Leeds with passenger giving me distance to curb, (she must have done well, she is still making me my tea). No flying for two weeks as the Vale of York fog bank refused to move. And yes cold in the winter.
Our Poles were Sqn Ldr Ignatowski, his nav was Flt Lt Bruno, (may have been a Sqn Ldr I can't remember). Whenever they disagreed they did it in Polish. Learning the job was bad enough, but when you didn't understand the teacher - tricky.
The reunion made the place seem much smaller than I remembered, but life is like that.