Sharjah. OLD airport

[brakedwell]

Venom FB4 WR552

During a tour flying Twin Pioneers on 152 Sqn in Bahrain in 1959/61, I regularly flew into Saiq, which is 6000ft up on the Jebel Akdhar. I recall one trip in 1960 with an RAF Padre from HQRAFPG, Bahrain. The plan was to recover the remains of the Venom pilot, Flight Lieutenant Owen Watkinson, and fly him down to Muscat (Bait al Falaj) from where he would be interred in consecrated ground on a small island off the Oman coast. Local tribesmen guided us to a small cave which had been blocked off with stones/boulders for two years. It had been opened up that morning for the padre's visit and he was inside for about fifteen minutes. When he came out he said the body must remain were it had been laid to rest with obvious care and respect. To the locals, he was an honourable foe who had died bravely.

This photo of 8 Sqn Hunters was taken during the great Sharjah flood in February 1961 when the airfield was 100% sand surfaced and beer was cheap!

[l.garey]

Sharjah Anson

Thanks Sandy. I am pleased to have you confirm that it is a C19. From the serial batch it just had to be anyway! Pity they call it a Mark 1 in the museum. I have taken them to task for that!
Did you work on any of the other planes in the museum? Do you know anything about the Auster tail, the Dragaon Rapide control column, and the Twin Pioneer fin that are there, purportedly from the collaboration the Sharjah people had with the Wales Museum?

[l.garey]

Thanks "brakedwell" for this information. May Owen rest in peace in that beautiful place.
As you obviously flew Twinpins around that area, maybe you can help me with a search I have on for a mystery airfield. See:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288741
I wonder if you ever dropped into Sumaini or the old Al Ain (see the same Post).

[fantom]

Just a minute, just a minute.

"8 Sqn"? That looks like the Sphinx of Mighty 208 to me not the curly dagger of 8.

[brakedwell]

Fantom, the old brain ain't what it was. You are right they are 208 Hunters, taken at the start of what was going to be the biggest air/sea excercise ever in he Gulf. 8 sqn were meant to be involved, but I think they got stuck in Masirah due to the sand runway at SHJ was waterlogged. I had a twin pin with flaps and slats locked in. It wouldn't accelerate to 64 kts in the slushy sand so we were grounded for a few days too.
I.garey, I looked at your strip and don't recognise it. I will look through my log book and see if anything stirs the memory. As I said on that thread some oil company strips had numbers, others names and often they were only used for a month or so. The name Al Ain was unheard of in 59/61. We called the area Buraimi and there one was strip heading approx 30/12 about 1100 yds long and the rock behind it Moby Dick. There were no tarmacadam roads in what was called the Trucial States at that ime so outlying settlements were small, primitive and interesting.

Here is a photo of Buraimi Fort which was less than half a mile from the strip.

[l.garey]

Buraimi

Thanks for the reply. Yes, Al Ain was just one part of the Buraimi oasis then. The strip you are referring to is the one near Buraimi Fort. It appears on various maps of the time.
The old Al Ain airport can be seen on Google Earth, further south and near the present Hilton Hotel.
I have seen a photo of a Twin Pioneer that landed there (or nearby - I am not sure) on a medical mission. It was shown to me by a very famous lady, Gertrude Dyck, named locally "Dr Latifa". I wonder if you ever came across her. She was one of Al Ain's first medics. Unfortunately I do not have a copy of it.

[brakedwell]

I'm sure she wasn't there during my time, because I was called out one night to collect a snake bite victim at Buraimi Fort even though my Twin Pioneer was unserviceable awaiting a new magneto from Bahrain. (Snag found during a mag check after a flight that morning). The RAF Sharjah Doctor was convinced the casualty would die without a serum injection and as he was coming with us we agreed the low risk of the second magneto failing on a 50 minute flight was justified. The doc was carrying a mixed Russell's Viper, Rock Cobra and Sand Crite serum. The casualty turned out to be a Trucial Oman Scouts' Sergeant Major who had been bitten on a finger by a Rock Cobra while hanging up an oil lamp. It was a very dark night and I would have preferred to have waited until daylight before returning to Sharjah, but the mixed serum was not working, so a decision was made to fly the casualty back ASAP for treatment at the Americam Hospital in Dubai. We climbed to the standard 5000 feet, but as I reduced power number two engine started rough running and died. We were almost half way into the seventy mile flight and the only option was to start a slow descent towards Sharjah with the remaining engine running at max power without overheating. We only just made it, landing on the sand about 100 yds short of the runway threshold, collecting a length of barbed wire in the process. The casualty was rushed to Dubai and subsequently made a full recovery, but I still got a bollocking by the Station Commander (a navigator) for flying an unserviceable aeroplane! Happy times.

[l.garey]

"Dr Latifa" and HB-HOX

That is a great story. Gertrude Dyck arrived in Al Ain in 1962, so perhaps just after your adventures. She was a Canadian nurse, who was one of the first white women in Al Ain. She worked at the local "Oasis" Hospital until 1988. As there were few doctors around, she often had to do more than nursing and was always called "Dr Latifa" by the local people. I last saw her in Al Ain in 2004, when she showed me the photo of the Twin Pioneer on a medical mission.
The nearest Twin Pioneer to me here is the one that has sat dismantled at Sion airfield for a number of years (at least until 2005 - I have not been there since). It has no engines or tail and is still marked "Mensuration Cadastrale Suisse" (Swiss Land Survey). Its wings are alongside and pencilled on the root of one is: SAL/TP/00469. Although no registration is visible it was HB-HOX.

[brakedwell]

"Dr Latifa" and HB-HOX

I returned to the UK in August 1961, so I just missed her. The snake bite case happened on the 8th October 1960. This photo of a Twin Pioneer (in one piece) was taken at Buraimi. It was one of the flattest and longest strips we used.

[Cornish Jack]

A lot of nostalgia going on here!!
Buraimi Oasis in the mid 50s was believed to be in the process of being taken over by the Saudis. We were diverted off our weekly Riyan-Salalah-Sharjah-Bahrain from Sharjah to take a 'cash convoy' down to Buraimi. We also took instructions for the T O Scouts to take control of the situation - which they duly did. Next morning, at dawn we returned to pick up the prisoners - a bit bruised and not very happy!! I was deputed to oversee the guarding on the flight back to Sharjah with a pair of T O Scouts, with 'pig stickers' at the ready, either side of me. One of the prisoners made to step over the wing spar - BIG ERROR!! the two either side of me had their spikes an inch from his throat in a micro-second and turned to me for permission to proceed I had to disappoint them and the culprit quickly returned to his seat. Not at my best with blood at that time of day

[l.garey]

Buraimi 1950s

Thanks Jack. Did you see the background I gave to the Buraimi crisis in:
http://l.garey2.googlepages.com/home
and the relationship to Sharjah?
You add a bit more to that.
What aircraft were you in at that time?

[brakedwell]

Shureija

Lawrence
I was fascinated by your colour photo of Sureija. I took one from almost exactly the same position in 1959! BTW, the CO of Saiq was a NFR Major by the name of John Cooper, ex SAS and LRDG from the start with David Stirling in North Aftrica, he was on the SAS assault of Jebel Akdhar in 58 prior to leaving the British Army and was a great host during nightstops!

[l.garey]

Jebel Akhdar

Amazing. Not changed much, has it?

[brakedwell]

Here is another photo almost identical to one of your's taken from Sureija. At the end of one long day, still in flying gear, I wandered from the Saiq strip to take some photos. I met an old chap outside Sureija who insisted I go home with him for coffee (and a very sweet sickly sort of vermicelli) because I was a respected Tiara Sahib. From what I could gather from my limited Arabic, he had been involved in the laying to rest of the Venom pilot. Did you know there was a well sunk from an ancient ruin on top of that pointed peak?

[l.garey]

On the jebel

Another beautiful picture. We obviously have the same feeling for spots to take good photos.
In general the people of Oman are still very friendly and hospitable. We often used to go into the desert near Buraimi at weekends, and we were always welcome at the house of one old Omani (in fact he looked about 90, but when he died last year he was only about 60 it seems) and his sister who always had coffee to offer. You could not refuse, until you had had 3 cups. And of course dates galore.
I wonder if the Saiq strip you used is the one I mention in my article that is now an army camp and on which there is a wrecked Huey. It is about a km from the Venom.
http://l.garey2.googlepages.com/home

I did not know about the well. We have done quite a bit of walking along the top of the Jebel. There are still remote abandoned villages up there, but it needs a bit a head for heights.

Maybe I forgot to ask you: The photo you showed of a Twinpin at Buraimi: was it your photo? Also the famous one on its nose at Sir Abu Nair (XM939), and another I have seen taken at Ibri (XM959 "B") (the one at Buraimi is also "B", so maybe XM959 too): were they yours? I think they were on airliners.net also.

[fantom]

Did you ever see the Firq-Saiq tie?

Designed by a certain CCIB on 208, it reqd the wearer to visit (?) or drop something (?) four times at both.

The design was the arabic '4' (looks like a backwards three) in a palm tree and undearneath 'Firq-Saiq'.

...four Firq Saiq...

True.

[Fokkerwokker]

You beat me to it fantom!

RAF mate of mine (Andover nav) wore one and told me it was the 'ferks sake' tie. I was living in the UK at the time and never swallowed his story............until I ended up flying Skyvans for GF out of Seeb. Sure enough there was Firq and Saiq on the PDO maps we were issued with!

IIRC they were monochrome maps and we used to colour them in ourselves, with crayons, as the desert would look different at various times of the day. Talk about DIY maps. Mine was a work of art at the end but unfortunately it disappeared in one of my various housemoves.

Apols for thread drift!

FW

[brakedwell]

fantom - The S-F tie was after my time.
L - Yes those are mine. XM 959 features a lot as it was always the most serviceable! We had 4 TP's and 4 Pembrokes on 152 based in Bahrain. We only had 6 pilots for most of the time I was there and being the only batchelor for most of the tour I spent a lot of time at Sharjah with a TP, flying around the Trucial States and Oman as far south as Salalah. The SOAF had 3 or 4 Single Pioneers and these were soon written off in landing incidents, so the Twin Pin was much in demand.
These photos of the 600 yd Saiq strip might give you an idea of it's position. Due to the slope and rising ground virtually all landing were made over the steep gorge with Sureijah passing under the right wing. The turbulence could be very challenging by 11 AM.

The TP is visible in the first (looking NW) and third photo (looking S SW.

[l.garey]

Oman

Wonderful stuff. I just looked you up on airliners.net too.
Was it you who bent the TP that you photographed on its nose?
Did you ever take a TP into Sumaini airfield, north of Buraimi?

[brakedwell]

Sumaini

Again, the name Sumaini doesn't ring a bell. The Sir Abu Nuair accident was a result of the Sharjah Stn Cdr insisting on seeing signals from Bahrain concerning the tasking of the detached 152 sqn Twin Pioneer/s before the pilots. That morning I flew down to Muscat (Bait al falaj) and when I got back he met the aircraft and told me the other TP had been involved in an accident and that I was to land on Sir Abu Nuair and pick up the the crew. The other pilot, who had not meant to be flying that day, had been fast asleep after a heavy night when the stn cdr knocked on his door and belatedly gave him the signal tasking one TP to take aerial photos of a RN/Army amphibious landing excercise on the island. The aircraft with two crew, stn photographer and half a dozen joy riders arrived overhead too late to photograph the landing. Everything was already ashore. As usual none of the comms worked so the pilot decided to land and check if there was anything further he could do. On the landing run a protruding rock severed a brake pipe, the brakes on that side seized and while trying to correct the ensuing swing the aircraft nosed over. It was recovered by the RN on a floating platform called a Hippo, which was towed back to Dubai by a frigate a few days later.