Hi to everyone who might still be following this Thread
A little while back I offered to help our good friend Staff Cadet post an image. That image is now to hand ... so in just trying to help I've re-posted his original contribution along with the pic ... I'm sure SC will pop by at some point to add a bit more colour
I'm a bit late joining this thread but I thought that the photo above may be of interest. It was taken by a local newspaper snapper who accompanied an ATC squadron from the Bexley area on their AEF trip, It was taken in 1967 with stalwart WP837 as it's centrepiece. Yours truly is doing the staff cadet job, the pilot is a guy called Tim Fear who was filling time between Hunter postings - I believe he'd just returned from Aden. I was the only staff cadet at the time and I seem to recall that I may have been the first, or certainly among the first, of these lucky lads who took some of the load from the ASF guys.
Our CO at the time was Ron Chapman who had recently replaced John Weeks. The Deputy Flight Commander was Arthur Standen. He hailed from Welling so we used to travel down together most weekends. The other pilots were usually from Les Zapp, Brian Lockwood, Derby Allen, Bill Downing, Ken Fluck, John Miles and Fred Insole from among others. Happy days!
A fantastic and very important historic picture you have there Staff Cadet. I remember those old "Wire Frame Headsets" and dangly "Mic" ... By the early 70's we had the blue "Cloth Electric Hats" ... which then became green ... then by the late 70's cadets were issued with Mk1 Bonedomes minus the Visor.
Best regards ...
Coff.