AA62
Beat me to it! Yes I recall HAEC doing the majors and also helping out with urgent work such as an engine change.
On one trip we had night stopped on the Thursday and on the following morning shortly after departure the skipper, Dave Carter ( what a great bloke and a lifelong friend until his too early death in 2008 ) on doing a quick gander out of his side window spotted oil streaming out of No1. Back to Kai Tak, await new engine to be sent up from Changi and a wonderful weekend in HK enjoyed by all! Except for the Flt Eng, who had to help out with the engine change - wish I could remember his name.
On the Tuesday morning I wandered into the squadron to be greeted by the Stash, Grp Capt Merriman with " Enjoy your weekend in HK? ". Crikey, I thought, how does he know what a lowly Fg Off nav has been doing?
Re 203 - as stated before, at first we had a block of 12 Ks, 198-209 inclusive , I can recall 307 being the only replacement sent out in my time, not sure which kite went back to Colerne.
What amazes me about the much more recent stories here is that , the several wars aside i.e. GW1, the Herc was still doing fantastic routes. Back in 71 following the withdrawal from 'East of Suez', the word was that the Herc's new principal role would be to support the Army, particularly in Europe. As we still had a large 'shiny fleet' ( 5 Comets, 14 VC10s, 22 Brits and 10 Belfasts ) it looked to many of us that route flying was going to be very limited. It was certainly on my list of reasons to exercise my 8 year option and I know a lot of my mates felt the same.
Last edited by Brian 48nav; 13th Nov 2015 at 20:41.
Reason: My maths