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RAF Sharjah

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Old 25th Mar 2013, 12:01
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Autocrat in RAF Sharjah

I have photos of the Auster Autocrat at the museum but I'm not being able to post attachments here. Can anyone please help me on that?
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Old 25th Mar 2013, 12:14
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Savio: An easy way to post photos is to use Photobucket. Do you have it?

Brakedwell: the magnetic heading may have drifted a bit since your days!

Laurence
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Old 25th Mar 2013, 13:08
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Edge lighting might be problematic

But to be honest if the right bod in Museum asked the right bod in the Palace, I can guarantee that a suitable open space would be available.
Given the strong winds, even a hover approach would be fine.
glf
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Old 25th Mar 2013, 15:24
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Brakedwell: the magnetic heading may have drifted a bit since your days!
If it did Laurence it must have drifted back.

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Old 25th Mar 2013, 17:39
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Got on photobucket to get the photos here. It's at Auster Autocrat which landed here on Oct 5th 2012 (reg G-AJRE) which was piloted by Captain Martin Slater who is possibly a former RAF pilot.
The Autocrat at the museum hangar now:



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Old 25th Mar 2013, 18:40
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Salvio,
Martin Slater is a close friend - he owned the Auster prior to selling it to the Museum. The aircraft was based at Wellesbourne and incidently, was the first aircraft that Martin flew in .He is not ex-RAF. The passenger who flew with Martin took a number of photographs. Is there anyone who could post them on the forum if I were to e-mail them?
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Old 25th Mar 2013, 18:44
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That looks nice, pity it doesn't fly as well as it looks
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Old 25th Mar 2013, 19:23
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Thanks for that bit of info Mr. Brownie. The Autocrat will be in very shape here as the museum is very unpopular in Sharjah and very few people visit nowadays. Unforunate for them; fortunate for us

The door of the Autocrat is actually opened (without a lock) and I managed to get inside. It seems very nostalgic.
I so wish we had an RAF Spitfire at this museum. Was a Spitfire ever flown here when the airfield was active?

That's the airport yard few days ago: #memories

Last edited by Savio Lodh; 25th Mar 2013 at 19:25.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 01:49
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Same place when it was a little more ....ahem....."untidy"

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Old 26th Mar 2013, 05:53
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Box brownie: Send me the photos and I can post them.
l.garey at sunrise.ch (with usual changes to an email address).

Laurence
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 10:53
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Here are Box Brownie's photographs taken from the Auster after its delivery to SHJ, during the 15 or so hours it did in the UAE before going to the Al Mahatta museum.



5 October 2012: flying around the Sharjah lagoon



Sharjah 28 September 2012

Lucky fellows! Now where is the runway again? Ah yes, just behind the big mosque left of centre in the first picture.

Laurence

Last edited by l.garey; 26th Mar 2013 at 11:01.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 11:06
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Who would have ever thought Sharjah would look like that - bloody amazing!
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 11:08
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And it's not finished yet!

Laurence
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 11:49
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To all the guys on this forum, which of you were actually RAF personal in Sharjah when this airport operated?
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 15:29
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I was on 152 Squadron based in Bahrain from August 1959 to Sept !961 and spent half that time flying Twin Pioneers out of Sharjah.

Last edited by brakedwell; 26th Mar 2013 at 15:32.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 16:21
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I've got awesome respect for you Mr. 'brakedwell'. I do imagine flying Twin Pioneers in the Gulf in 1960 was much more exciting that B767's in Europe....
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 16:45
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78 Sqn Wessex, Dec '67 to May '68. The reason for the short spell is that it was the remains of a Khormaksar tour. Yes, much more fun than flogging an "aluminum toob" around the holiday spots of Europe.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 17:05
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105 Sqn Aden & Bahrain/Ardet Bahrain (Argosy) from May 1966 to October 1971. Did a lot of flying to and from Sharjah.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 18:01
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84 Sqn at Sharjah flying Andover C1 from Nov 67 to Dec 68.
Awesome changes since then.
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Old 26th Mar 2013, 20:23
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84 Squadron at Sharjah as an Air Communications Mechanic, October 1969 to November 1970. Sadly I have no photographs and I now realise how sketchy my memory is of the area! What a change over the years. I do remember many things about life in general while I was there.

Friendlypelican 2 - thank you for putting up the photo in your post #456. That made my day! That's exactly as I remember the place and I do believe that chap examining the propeller blade is nicknamed Twig or Twiggy.

Sisemen's first picture at post #465 also brought back memories, thank you too. I'm so glad I never had to work in the hangar except once or twice, only briefly. It was a cooker! The second picture in that post has me a bit disorientated. Was that hangar in the background 78s? If it was, we didn't usually park the Andover aircraft in that direction. Beyond the Argosy when I was there, would've been 8 Squadron (Hunters) or the Shackleton Detachment.

Reflecting while writing this, it was a wonderful posting made very tolerable by the folk I worked and lived with. Oh! And Pop's tea that he used to bring round the billets (nobody seems to use that word any more) in a big can with a burner underneath.
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