4 Firq Saiq

[farefield]

Shaky alluded to the Firq-Saiq run in Oman in a previous thread. My Nav in a former life told me that when you'd done 4 of those runs you got a 4FirqSaiq tie.

Is that true? Anyone still got theirs?

[oldbeefer]

Definitely true - saw one being worn in the Mess at Aldergrove years ago.

[Herod]

Try History and Nostalgia from a couple of years ago. There's a picture on there somewhere

[JW411]

farefield:

I've still got mine. The Firq Saiq saga has been done to death many times before. Put "Firq Saiq" into the search function above and start reading.

[JW411]

farefield:

I thought about it and came to the conclusion that you would have to do a lot of reading to find the photograph of the Firq-Saiq tie so I decided it would be quicker and kinder to take a photo of my own old dog-eared version. You will note that the Arabic number 4 is enclosed within the yellow circle halfway up the palm tree.

Now 50 years have elapsed since we left Aden and 105 Squadron (Argosy) moved up to Bahrain. I seem to remember that we took over the administration of the Firq-Saiq Society from 30 Squadron (Beverley). 105 disbanded in January 1968 and was replaced by ARDET (Argosy Detachment) which carried on until the end of 1971.

I got back from my last ARDET on 01.10.71 (I did five of them) and I'm fairly sure that it had been arranged for SOAF at Bait al Falaj to take over the Firq-Saiq Society and all the unsold ties etc.

[Herod]

JW411. With the yellow circle, doesn't that translate (I believe) into "Oh, 4 Firq Saiq"

50 years since leaving Aden? Tha was lucky! We'll be celebrating that 30th Nov, as the last to leave. 78 Sqn Wessex.

[JW411]

Thanks for that; I had forgotten that nuance. None of us are getting any younger.

By the way, do you know if Alec Sneddon is still above ground?

[Herod]

JW. Check your PMs

[brakedwell]

I flew well over 200,000 pounds of building material for the new fort into the original 600 yard Saiq strip during my two year tour on 152sqn Twin Pioneers in 1959/61. I was unaware of the tie until I learnt about it in pprune History in Nostalgia.

[farefield]

Thanks for the posts guys, I did a search, that's how I found Shaky's ref to Firq- Saiq. Clearly I didn't search far enough.

[JW411]

JENKINS:

Yes, Saiq was too short for an Argosy. We normally delivered the goods by parachute there (1-ton containers). After the drop was complete, a low slow pass with the gear down could accidentally lead to a brief touch and go!

[brakedwell]

You couldn't do a touch and go on the old strip, not unless you wanted to destroy the (one) Officer Mess!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/152%20Squadron%20Bahrain/Saiqrunway_zps674c4d56.jpg

[JW411]

Yes John; it was a little bit bigger by the time I got there.

[brakedwell]

I only ever saw the new strip, which was up behind the white fort on higher ground, as I passed over it at FL370 in a Lauda B767.

[teeteringhead]

Changed a bit now ......... (it's the Sahab Hotel)


..... and you can drive there.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7166/6501133959_09fec90ff2_b.jpg

..and I think the ties are optional (but I've still got mine - a green one!)

[brakedwell]

Very posh TH!
It was a bit rougher in the old days (1959/61), but still a great place to enjoy a few beers and watch the sun go down in the cooling evening.

This was taken a little farther right at Sureijah, near the threshold of the original Saiq strip ca 1960

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/152%20Squadron%20Bahrain/J.AkdharOman_zpszvz9zpk8.jpg

[teeteringhead]

Shame, since I assume it left the gate open for 78. 'Twas a climatic thing JENKS mon brave.

In the Summer, which was a little warmish as you will recall, there weren't enough Bernoullis/Lift Fairies for the plank jobs of 84.

Since helis don't rely on aerodynamics, using a combination of their natural repellent nature and the ability to turn centrifugal (or do I mean centripetal??) force through 90 degrees, they could do it.

So 78 could find a (very small) corner of their flight envelope to get into/out of Saiq - but not at midday!! (I recall 50+C and 6500 ft amsl! :eek::eek:)

ISTR something like max speed of 60 kts and min speed (yes! for a heli!) of 35 kts - interesting times.....


....... an' if yer tell that to t' young folk of terday - they'll not believe yer.

[brakedwell]

Turbulence was the stopper for the Tin Pin. Six or seven round trips were usually possible before the up and down drafts on the cliff approach made it too dangerous to operate, usually by early afternoon. According to RAFPG we were not allowed to shut down the engines at Saiq due to the unreliable six shot cartridge starters. However the powers that be in their air conditioned offices didn't have to suffer four or five days operating in that heat, so night stopping on the Jebel rather than Nizwa was a no brainer, besides Major John Cooper in charge of the Northern Frontier Regiment at Saiq was always pleased to have our company. Happy days.

[JW411]

In ARDET days when it was time to rotate the Sultan's regiments, we used to position three Argosys to Firq to do the shuttle down to Salalah. 78 Sqn got the troops off (or on to) the top of the hill at Saiq with their wonderful Wessex helicopters.

One day, I needed to get to the top of the hill to talk to our customers. 78 Sqn duly obliged and so I found myself in the left seat of a Wessex headed for Saiq. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery on the way up.

Business done, on the way down the hill it was decided that I should travel in the cabin of the Wessex. The winchman persuaded me to sit in the open door beside him and I have to say that the next ten minutes or so was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my flying career.

The cliff face was very close and it was vanishing upwards at an astonishing rate. The fact that I could not see forward made it all the more exciting. I have never forgotten the experience.

Pure Magic.

[brakedwell]

Casevac by 152 Pembroke most likey. 140knots compared with TP 90 all the way to Bahrain. Mining strips and tracks was common in those days, one of the reasons for night stopping at Saiq as it negated the need for a dangerous landrover trip from Firq to the NFR mess in Nizwa. i took the TP into Nizwas strip a few times for a night stop, but it was very challenging, only 400 yards long with a bloody great hill at one end. Prior to the SAS assault on the Jebel Akdhar in 1958 a 152 Pembroke with loud speakers under the wings was dispatched to Firq to warn Jebel tribesmen to surrender or be bombed by Shackletons and Venons. It was hit by ground fire on the Jebel, lost all the from one engine, which seized, and the tape recorder in the cabin was destroyed by a bullet. The Polish Master Pilot flying it made a forced landing on Firq and reported being hit by point five machine gun bullets. This was poo hooed by the powers that be. He was insistent it was a point five, which he was familiar with from WW2 and was proved right when a bullet was recovered from the mangles tape recorder. As a matter of interest there was a wrecked Valletta, which had hit a mine on one of the Firq strips, when I was flying stuff up to Saiq

[brakedwell]

[QUOTE=JENKINS;9755423]Photographed. A tyre burst perhaps rather than a mine.

Good parties at Nizwa.[/QUOTE

You are right, it was a tyre burst followed by a swing.

[JW411]

Teeteringhead:

Thank you for that amazing photograph of the Sahab Hotel and thank you to Brakedwell for his contrasting photograph which is more like I remember it.

Quite frankly, if you had shown me that shot of the Sahab Hotel 50 years ago I would probably have had you locked up!

Funnily enough, one of my old 105 Squadron colleagues went on to do a couple of stints with SOAF and he and his wife go back to Oman for a holiday from time to time. He has been trying to get me to do a similar thing.

I am in two minds; I can remember going back to Dubai in 1985 after a gap of 20 years or so and I found it difficult to get my head round the changes that had taken place since I used to borrow a Land Rover and go across the bundu in a straight line from Sharjah to Dubai Creek. I don't think I could cope with modern Dubai (or Sharjah for that matter).

However, your photograph of the Sahab Hotel and the stunning background has got me thinking!

[Herod]

He had been blown up on Firq by a mine intended for an inbound Blackburn machine.

An inbound Blackburn machine. Habilayn '67

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/AdenBeverleywreck_zpsbe1c54a3.jpg

[JW411]

Actually, he was outbound back to Khormaksar empty. I spoke to Pat Manley in the Jungle Bar that night. It was a mine with a shell alongside. He missed it by a few feet when he turned round after landing which was just as well as his Beverley was full of 44 gallon drums of civgas and lots of other nasty things at the time.

The explosion removed the starboard gear. I can vividly remember him telling us that he was still trying to use the nose wheel tiller as the old girl settled down on to her right wingtip.

[teeteringhead]

JW411 Definitely go back - to Oman!

Don't judge that part of the world by Dubai - Oman saw what happened there and determined not to let it happen to them. No high rises, limits on foreign ownership etc etc.

I did SOAF after 78 Wessex (via 72!) and have been back a few times, both with and without Milady Teeters. Hoping to go back again next year (with!).

Unlike many, the Omanis are still grateful for the help the Brits gave them all that time ago.......

[Herod]

Staying slightly off topic, another pic of the Habilayn Beverley. Not as dramatic as it looks. The sand runway was kept useable by regular oil spraying. A large oil tanker with a spray-bay, towed by a 3-tonner. Here, the oiler itself went over a mine. The Beverley is purely for dramatic effect.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/HabilaynOilerfire.jpg

[Lordflasheart]

The explosion removed the starboard gear. (The recently late) Pat Manley used to tell us that their Loadmaster (or Crew Chief) was in the habit of taking post at the open starboard (paratroop) side door whenever their aircraft was manoeuvring on the ground.

On this unique occasion, for some inexplicable reason ‘known only to god’ he 'decided' to join the chaps on the flight deck, thus saving himself from a face full of landmine and probably saving his life too.

I wonder if that Loadie (or Crew Chief) is around still ?

[JW411]

teeteringhead:

Many thanks for that. I shall give it some serious thought. By the way, I used to live in 1 Baker Close.