In 1927, 4 Supermarine Southampton flying boats of the Far East Flight left the U.K. They flew in stages to Singapore, on around Australia and the South China Sea and back to Singapore. The aircraft did the whole trip as a foursome, and to a pre-planned schedule, and on only about 2 occasions did they slip from that schedule.
On arrival at Singapore the second time, in 1929, the Far East Flight disbanded and became No 205 Squadron. Group Captain Cave-Brown-Cave, who had been in command, returned home, and his deputy, Sqn. Ldr. Livock became the Squadron commander. 205 was the first R.A.F. Squadron in the Far East, and its motto "Pertama di Malaya" means first in Malaya. The Sqn was in Singapore from 1929 - 1941 (Southamptons/ Short Singapores/ Catalinas) and 1946- 1971 (Sunderlands/ Shackletons)
Livock wrote a book "To the Ends of the Air", telling his story from joining the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914 at the age of 17. It covers the story of the Far East Flight, but does not go into great detail about 205's early days in Singapore
However, in the Sqn Museum at Changi in the late '60s there was a typed copy of what I believe was to be a second book, covering that period. I can find no trace of it ever having been published, or what happened to that typed copy, so what follows is what I recall from reading it nearly 50 years ago.
The Squadron was much involved in surveying and anti piracy in Borneo. Fuel dumps would be positioned with planters beside the rivers. The boat would fly up river until a tennis court was spotted next to the river. That was the favoured sport of the time, and provided a good navigation aid. The boat would land, anchor, refuel, and the crew would stay the night with the planter
The planters were ex-officio local post masters, so they would send their letters home with the aircraft, and affix home made stamps, produced by carving lumps of rubber to print with. Many of them later presented the Sqn. with pieces of silver - apparently the Sqn silver was subsequently thrown off the end of a jetty at Seletar when the Japanese arrived, and never recovered.
As regards the straight stretch of river for take-off, apparently it was possible to make quite sharp turns during the take-off, once the boat was on the step. (This was the Southampton ) He recounted one incident where things were a bit tight, and he had to start the take off run while his co-pilot was still stowing the anchor. The co-pilot stuck his head out of the forward hatch "whereupon his solar topee blew off and went into one of the propellors. I told him the next time he stuck his topee into one of my propellors he could do it whilst wearing it."
He also told of ferrying troops to a spot on a river as part of an operation against pirates. On their return the troops were carrying a box containing two heads, They refused to leave them behind, as without the heads they could not claim the head money.
I wish I could recall more of his writings, but it is a long time since I read it all. Does anyone know what became of it after the Squadron dis-banded?