Masirah in the hot....
.....in 1970 during the build up to Ex Bersatu Padu ISTR. The Lightnings were being ferried out and needed a fair amount of refuelling. (Our Shacks were doing the SAR cover in mid Indian Ocean and had been gone hours before.)
There were "no go" marker posts on the runway edge to trigger an abort.
We watched as the first Victor roared off down strip at max chat, past the no go markers and appeared to fly into a huge whirling cloud of sand and appeared several minutes later and several miles out to sea desparately looking for height. There might have been a sweaty palm or two in the second one as he too used every bit of concrete and (maybe some sand) for a repeat performance.
I didn't envy them one bit.
The Ancient Mariner