RAF Gan 1958 and Later

[rog747]

wonderful stories about Gan, the old Maldives and your RAF staging post

My experience first to the Maldives (where was that i thought? although I did see a nice article in the London Evening Standard in 1979 and thought yes, Mmmm) was in March 1979 or 1980 when I had over a months leave to use up after working on the PIA 707 contract we had in KHI before going home to BMA at LHR where I was a D/O
(BMA British Midland Airways and we had 707 leasing contracts all over the place)

PIA kindly offered us BMA staff free tickets anywhere they went so I thought lets go to Ceylon on an old PIA Boeing 720B!

Landing at katunayake Colombo airport at around 0100 in the morning was a very spooky experience indeed in the pitch black with nothing to see below you knowing that Loftleiðir Icelandic and Martinair had both pranged DC8's on Hadj flights on approach to there in the recent past with total or huge loss

- had a fab 10 days at CMB Mount Lavinia Hotel and down to stay at Hikkadua and Galle and I got to meet the then new Air Lanka SM who said why not go to the Maldives - we have just started a weekly 737 flight - I cannot give you a free standby as its always full but a 50% firm came my way and I duly booked myself on for a week at first.

the 737-200 was not new but the new Air Lanka crew and service was amazing - we landed at Hulule (MLE) which was not much more than a coral strip and was rough for a 737 and the terminal was an open air affair with a tin roof and fans going around with a line up at the jetty of dhoni boats

Hmm what next I thought - no hotels here - but after passport were checked there were a line of resort owners lining up like the Greeks do at ferry ports shouting at you if you need rooms but in the case of Male 'do you need an island'

well yes i do - a charming Ozzie guy called me over said he and his Scottish wife had a new island 2 hours north by dhoni boat called Gasfinolhu (very long and flat with two tall palm trees in the middle) $15 a day full board - Hmm that's quite alot for young lad from London but I thought Hey Ho Ok lets go and off we sailed into the sunset after first a supplies stop at the then very old fashioned crazy and traditional harbour at Male to pick up beers cokes fruit veg etc etc

well there followed an amazing 'no news no shoes' 3 weeks experience of sand floors in delightful thatched huts with a new shared clean ablutions block with water pumped up from the ground which no soap would ever lather and wonderful lazy days eating al fresco with chilled beers and cokes ( they had a generator for the honesty-bar big fridge and a few light bulbs that went off at 11pm then it was lanterns)
grilled fish cooked over the sand and fresh pineapples tiny bananas and coconut juice
I actually stayed 3 weeks and had the most amazing Robinson Crusoe desert island holiday swimming snorkelling and watching baby sharks play in the lagoon

we took dhoni trips to local and to the then few new resort islands but never got to Gan as it was so far down south although I asked about it

my love affair with the Maldive began then and I went back a few years later only to find the airport now with Air Lanka and LTU Tristars, Condor and Balair DC-10's and an Alitalia 747!

How things changed in the few years - One highlight was sitting on the beach at Bandos an LTU Tristar did a low level fly by twice at around 500' over the lagoon - their party trick to show their pax how beautiful the islands were.

I will go back to the Maldives one day but only if i can find a remote island that does not charge 450$ a day and one that has a ''no news no shoes'' ethos - does any still exist?

rog
PS
flew home CMB-KHI on the oldest DC-8 flying (was a Swissair ship HB-IDB) which by now was op'd by Cargolux and leased to PIA - goodness that was quite a flight leaving CMB at 0100
braking was poor or failed on landing at a very dark KHI and the full power thrust reverse saved us from going off into the sand - we taxied in with the FD crew not saying a word but they looked very white or green when they came out of the cockpit on our deplaning !
LX-IDB was retired a month later

then i jumped on a PIA 747-200 ex TAP ''all stations to LHR''
dep KHI at 0700 which then called at DXB(just a pile of sand then) FCO FRA AMS CDG (or was it ORY) then LHR by late evening
what a trip home