Originally Posted by
rotorfossil
I was in the Khormaksar SAR Flight in that period and he wasn’t in the flight. Digger Barrell was the flight commander. The only other resident helicopter outfit was 26 Sqn Belvederes, but they had so many serviceability problems that they didn’t do much flying.
The script actually records that he was posted to Aden as an ATC. He only resumed flying rotors when he finished that tour and returned to the UK.
Jan's flying career ended for the time being in August 1960 - shortly after his 40th birthday - and he completed an Air Traffic Controller Course at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire and was subsequently posted to RAF Linton-On-Ouse to continue his "ground tour". In January 1964 Jan was posted overseas to RAF Khormaksar, Aden. This was the time of 'operations' in the Radfan, when the station was the busiest in the RAF with nine squadrons based there. He moved back to the UK in 1966 for helicopter refresher training. In April he was posted to 202 Squadron, RAF Leuchars as C Flight Commander. He was still flying Whirlwinds, but this time the HAR10 version. In 'C' flight Jan completed 360 flying hours consisting of 68 operational hours and 22 incident 'scrambles'.