Sharjah. OLD airport
 

I have seen the closed thread on this airport, and would appreciate some input, as to the exact loaction.

Nothing seen on google earth, and I would hope that perhaps reference to current location, in the expanded and developed area.

There is an open area nearer to Ajman, that looks like it was an airport, even ahs a windsock, but GE shows nothing.

I often drive from RAK to Dubai, on the coast road, and would like to visit, to see the site, and perhaps more up to date pics.

Regards all,

glf

Try this - http://l.garey.googlepages.com/rafsh...lmahattamuseum

Your probably looking too far out of town, the tower is still easily visible as you drive past the immigration offices right in the centre of town, thats all thats left.
25°20'44.78"N
55°23'42.74"E

PS. Gulfstream. Don't ignore the old office buildings. There's a movie the staff will run for you on the old Imperial Airways operations. A must see. :ok:

Flew the 'Friendly Fokkers' into there for Gulf in the early 70's. Any pics old and/or new out there?

FW

We used to take a BAC1-11 in there in the early/mid seventies for GF, arrive late at night having just done half of what was known as the "Gulf Air Easy Six",
(BAH-DOH-AUH-SHJ and return), day off in Dubai then early start back to Bahrain next morning. Shared the tarmac with an Air Ceylon Trident!
Most of the original airport has been built on now. If you can find a copy of "Beyond The Blue Horizon" by Alexander Frater I think you will find some pictures in there, including the fort.

Sharjah 1970, 208 Sqn (with the Boss in the piccy too):

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...harjah1970.jpg

Landed there in the `60s with Ace. Will never forget the airman sweeping the tyre marks off the sand as we were driven to ATC!

Presumably all that's left of the 'old' Sharjah is the International Aeradio tower. I note the CONCRETE in that 1970 photo - not what was used in the 50s!! Then, it was oil soaked sand, lovingly tended by a dedicated chap with a steam roller!! He was unamused by our arrivals and departures 'cos we broke up his nice smooth runways and parking areas.
A 208 Sqn member, IIRC, made an unofficial (and unfortunate) record at Sharjah at the time of Suez as making the lowest, attempted, flypast. The airfield boundary was a series of 50 gallon oil drums half buried in the sand - he hit one, with predictable results.:=
I was stuck there for 10 days once - the airfield was FLOODED!!!
During the French war in Indo-China, (reputedly) a Connie with a full load of 'ladies' destined for the official 'troop comfort' establishments lost an engine and had to divert into Sharjah. The passengers were accommodated in the Sgt's Mess and (it was rumoured) a good time was had by all:ok:
Memories?? Air conditioning (unheard of in Aden!), weevil bread and 'somebody's' Readymeal - a sort of thick tinned stew which was necessary for survival. Life was definitely different then:hmm:

And a door marked 'TV Room' in the Officers Mess, which led to the desert!

TM I seem to remember that was Masirah.

Landed at Sharjah many times and even spent time there at the Gulf War that never happened in 1961. Found the old fort from Imperial Airways fascinating seem to remember that International Air Radio were using it.

Was it Sharjah or Eastleigh where a big bell was rung to warn the local population who were wandering about that there was an aircraft movement? Old age DOES weary you!!

IIRC that is/was the case.

Memories of crayfish at MI!

FW

Don't remember a TV Room in Sharjah but I have seen many a visitor go through the door in Masirah!

I could have sworn it was Sharjah, but probably you are right and it was Masirah. Memory going; anyway great days!

Sharjah Anson
 

Forget...The Anson G-AKVW is a Mk19 and I spent 17 years putting it together, working most Sundays in the village of Friockheim, near Arbroath. In addition to your very informative narrative, I'd like to point out that this is a twin stick machine. It also has the wire bracing tags on the finpost in anticipation of being fitted with a wooden tailplane per the original build contract. I have plenty of photographs of the build throughout the years and maybe some day I'll get round to forming:O a website to show them off. TX183 belonged to the late Michael Fraser, ex Swissair. He also owned WD413 which is now at Coventry.

Not mine. I can't take credit for that :) It's all from Laurence Garey's Site http://l.garey.googlepages.com/home

Al Mahatta Museum, ex RAF Sharjah
 

I was very interested to read the piece by Sandy Hutton about the Anson at Al Mahatta Museum, Sharjah on which he worked. Although the Anson is not in its original markings, like the other 3 aircraft in the museum, it is great to see these planes preserved in such good condition.
http://l.garey.googlepages.com/rafsharjah,almahattamuseum

Another aspect of RAF Sharjah is its involvement in the Jebel Akhdar conflict in the late 1950s:
On 20 July 1957 four Venoms of 8 Squadron flew from Aden to RAF Sharjah to take part in the campaign against “rebels” in the Jebel Akhdar mountains of Oman. The day after their arrival, the Venom pilots were flying in Shackletons to see the area in which they would be operating. The next two days were spent flying the Venoms, accompanied by Shackletons, to drop leaflets to warn the population about impending attacks. Dropping leaflets from the Shackleton was not too difficult, but for the Venoms they had to be stored in the flaps from where they would fall out when the flaps were lowered. On 27 July 1957 the Venoms attacked enemy towns. The same day 6 Venoms of 249 Squadron arrived at Sharjah from Nairobi. 8 Squadron returned to Aden a month later, only to fly back to Sharjah from October to November 1957. The squadron was back again for various detachments throughout 1958, finally leaving Sharjah on 3 October 1958. The pilots found life difficult. The runway was hard sand, which blew up clouds of stinging dust as aircraft took off. The accommodation and other facilities were bad. It is still possible to see parts of RAF Sharjah to this day. Some of the buildings of the old fort are used as the Al Mahatta Museum, and the control tower still exists, though rebuilt. The runway is now covered by King Abdul Aziz Road in the centre of the town! For whatever reason the Venom squadrons suffered many accidents, and stories abound of the number of wrecked aircraft that could be seen around the airfield in the late 1950s. Altogether 8 Squadron Venoms flew 1315 sorties, and 249 Squadron flew 163 sorties. They fired 3718 rockets and 271,060 20mm shells.
On 30 August 1958 a Venom failed to return to its base at Sharjah. It was reported that the aircraft had crashed and that the pilot had died. In October 2003 I visited Jebel Akhdar to find the site. We searched the area around the main village of the plateau, Saiq. Villagers still tell stories of the bombing by the “Americans”. In one village we came across a basin shaped piece of heavy steel casing with a tight screw-thread at one end, which I interpreted as being a piece of a 1000 pounder. We found the Venom, by the roadside at GPS coordinates N23 04’33.4, E57 39’36.4 Only the engine, the central parts of the wings (with the main wheels still retracted in them), and part of the fuselage remain. Records mention that Venom FB4 WR552 of 8 Squadron went down on 30/8/1958, and Colin Richardson, author of the excellent book Masirah, Tales from a DesertIsland confirmed that this was the Venom in a letter to me in December 2003. He was a former Venom pilot on 8 Squadron himself, and a friend of Flight Lieutenant Owen Watkinson, the pilot, flying from Sharjah. It is said that he was strafing goats, and that he was not shot down, but misjudged the pull out from his attacking dive. Alongside the wreck is a small stone cairn, marking the grave of Owen Watkinson.
A fuller text and illustrations can be found on
http://l.garey2.googlepages.com/home
or by a link to The Jebel Akhdar War from
http://l.garey.googlepages.com/home

Sharjah Anson
 

Further to my comment about Sandy's Anson, I wonder if he can solve the mystery of the id plates. I quote from my site http://l.garey.googlepages.com/rafsharjah,almahattamuseum

The Anson "G-AKVW" is ex TX183, built at Yeadon in 1946. With Bomber Command Communications Flight at Booker (from where I used to fly), then Abingdon (where I lived) Station Flight, before moving on to No.1 ANS at Hullavington. Later to Shawbury, and A&AEE Boscombe Down where its service career finished in 1968. It was then sold to the Shuttleworth Trust, who were planning on a restoration programme, but that never came to fruition. Registered as G-BSMF. The flaps are half lowered, so you can see id plates on both sides. It is quite clearly marked as "Type no 652A" and Mk XXI on one side and Mk 21 on the other! The flaps carry the dates 22/10/48 on one side and 9/1/51 on the other! To find that it is a Mk21 is a surprise as that serial batch is usually quoted as C19s. Maybe the flaps were taken from a Mk 21, and fitted to a C19 airframe.

I wonder if Sandy can confirm that the data I quote are correct, and can he explain the plates saying this is a Mk 21!?

l.garey's corrected his bad link on the The Jebel Akhdar War, see his Aviation history and photos: http://l.garey.googlepages.com/home

............ just in case you missed the correction. :ok:

A cracking good read as they say. :D

TX183
 

Garey, The aircraft is a Mk19 and I can confirm this many times over. The answer to the flaps is that these parts are interchangeable so could easily have been swapped at some time over the years in service. believe me, I know this aeroplane inside out, having crawled through, in, out, over and under it for all those 17 years.(I wouldn't like to try getting into the nose bay through the cone now though) The Constructors plate is under the fabric on the starboard cockpit and although I don't have the number to hand, 4363 rings a bell with me. It had flown 5031 hours at the point of retiral and you will perhaps note some 50 skin repairs on the centre section top and bottom, none by me I hasten to add. I only set fire to the fabric on the tail...fresh dope, hot iron, whoosh!! Oh, and I have a copy of the F700T from Boscombe Down, dated 6/67. The final travelling log entry is 28/2/68.

Please feel free to PM me if you need any more. Nice to see it's looking so good though.
Sandy:O

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!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...natSharjah.jpg

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?

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).

Just a minute, just a minute.

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

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.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ureimifort.jpg

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.

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.

"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.

"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.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...eerBuraimi.jpg

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:eek: I had to disappoint them and the culprit quickly returned to his seat. Not at my best with blood at that time of day:ooh:

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?

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!


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...e11-custom.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ebelAkhdar.jpg

Jebel Akhdar
 

Amazing. Not changed much, has it?

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?


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...mes/JebelA.jpg

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.

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.

You beat me to it fantom!:ok:

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

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.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../Saiqstrip.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...aiqstrip-1.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...nPinLocals.jpg

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?

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.