More likely to have been a Wessex surely
TTN? The Whirlwind was a non-tactical bright yellow and couldn't lift much in those Density Altitudes - probably not a "stick of Rocks"
According to Halley (The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force), 78 Sqn re-equipped with Wessex in June '65, and left for Sharjah (via Fearless or Intrepid?) in October '67.
There
were Whirlwinds there for SAR duty - from '64 when they replaced the Sycamores (who'd been there since '55) - haven't quite been able to find out when they left. Not being a Sqn but an (apparently unnumbered) Independant Flight, their history is trickier to track down!
Watch this space.
Found it!
Sycamores were replaced by Whirlwind Mk 10s over the period January to July '64. They provided SAR until June '67 when the flight was disbanded. SAR was taken over by 78 Sqn, but some Wessex (2? 3? 4?) went to Muharraq to become part of the ComSAR Flight there. The (originally 4) late tranche Wessex buy for SAR were XT 601-604; yellow painted, they arrived in Khormaksar in boxes and were assembled there. XT 603 was one of the frames sold to Uruguayan (sp?) Navy in 1998. Currently believed to be "in storage", but not operational! (for the Eagle-eyed, yes I know that's XR 505 in the picture! - a much earlier frame, the 9th one delivered in 1963. That said, 505 was still operating in 2010
, believed to be the last operational Wessex in the world
)
