I did my three weeks or so at Sepulot and then I flew back to Labuan. A couple of weeks doing Air Test, winching and the occasional tasking for the units in Brunei and then it was off to Tawau. I was going in an RMAF Herald and the first surprise was the captain; one of the RMAF cadets on my initial Provost T1 flying course at Tern Hill. Danny Doong was tiny; he had to have a cushion in the Provost but he had trouble with the Herald. We flew via Sandakan and arrived in Tawau.
Tawau was a city at the east of the country. A river estuary separated it from Indonesia apart from Sebatic Island which was cut in half by the border. The city itself had a good collection of shops and restaurants including one run by an Australian that could punch out superb Zizzling Steaks. I lived in the Officers’ mess on the joint RAF/RMAF base. Very civilised and again I met one of my basic course, Matt Said, who was now flying Alouettes, a smaller five seater helicopter with a far more sprightly performance than a Whirwind. Poker was the game so the evenings were spent bluffing with a stony face around a card table.
We shared a common dispersal with our own technical offices on an airfield as large as Labuan. We had two Whirlwinds and the RMAF had six Alouettes. There was a fairly large Malaysian Army presence around Tawau and the Alouettes looked after them.
The British contingent was up country to the west towards Sepulot. They had a large HQ clearing plus a few on a low ridge which was effectively the border. One of these on the border ridge itself was a ‘fly though’ clearing inasmuch as one could enter or exit both ways. The joke was that we used it Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the Indons used it Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Palau Sebatic was more interesting. There was a large Indonesian military base at Nunakan, just across the water. There was one of our observation posts conveniently on their side of a small ridge which had a gap in the hill close by. They used to observe the goings on and note what equipment they had, including a pair of M1939 anti-aircraft guns. To avoid them thinking about using these one would fly towards the northwest of the island at nosewheel skimming height. A track check would be a Whirlwind rotor head that was what all that remained from a Navy Whirlwind that had come to grief and dissolved in the seawater.( made out of magnesium). Coasting in one would fly below the tree line on our side of the ridge and when the gap came up it was a screaming max rate 180 though it and then a massive flare so that you dropped into the clearing. Clearing the trees and through the gap was almost instantaneous coming out so you were fairly safe.
From about March 1965 the squadron was almost exclusively first tourists who had arrive with no more than basic Jet Provost training and the Sioux/Whirlwind helicopter course. Ian Smith was a well known figure in those days and was the Squadron QHI. He had to teach these totally inexperienced pilots how to fly by themselves in one of the most difficult flying environments going. It is to his credit that during our time in Borneo we did not have one reportable accident. He came out to Tawau to instigate a trial.
To be continued…………..