Does anyone know why the aircraft number is that way round? It seems rather strange to me.....

It was along the leading edge on one side, along the trailing edge on the other.

Laurence

Sure Laurence, give me a couple of days to get to a scanner..... its a long weekend here.

Navstar: the photo of a TwinPin landing with airport fort at the back in post 100 is one of John's. The others are not.

Sharjah
 

Very many thanks. I did very many flights with him during 1966 if it is the same JD. A very smooth cool operator which was good as I was a very young navigator:ok:

Kalba.
 

Thanks for that 'navstar.' I had alook on GE and see it is quite a distance from Dibba or Masafi. I see I have the flying time, Dibba - Sharjah as 45min, so I think this would have ruled out a flyover of the strip and of course I didn't see any coast after leaving Dibba. Perhaps I misheard the chatter on the intercom. If you want a full size copy of XM291 at Dibba please PM me. I have "Flt/Lt Davies" down as the pilot for the flight to Al Khatt below! I assume that is the 'JD' who you are talking about?

'brakedwell,' here is my photo of XM 959 at Al Khatt - 6 years later than yours on 11.3.66 - Can't beat B & W for capturing the atmosphere, eh.
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/...psf906233b.jpg
Also a photo of what I believe to be the vegetable farm seen on approach to the strip. It was the only bit of greenery for miles around!
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/...psa6150b1e.jpg

Finally, did 'capot' mean that the serial appeared to be upside down on brakedwell's photo of XM959. Officially of course it's only readable on the stbd wing as it's approaching and the port wing when flying away......but I have known them to get it wrong on occasions!!

I did mean that.......we live and learn about reading the number coming and going. But in this case it seems to me that it doesn't work in either direction, unless you're lying on the ground!

Al Khatt
 

That morning vegetable run was a delight! They used to pick the veg at first light and bring it to the strip before the sun got too hot. I've never tasted better tomatoes.........

Al Khatt
 

Agreed they were the best:ok:

Fresh food was always scarce at RAF Sharjah in my day. I used to buy a hundred or so fresh eggs in Nizwa and donate them to the Officers Mess in return for at least two nights of free beer for the Tin Pin crew! The local eggs were small but they tasted so much better than the standard issue cellulose coated horrors from Australia.

Al Khatt
 

The food was very much improved in 1966 mainly due to the efforts of the farm at Al Khatt. I seem to remember excellent fresh salads. Cannot remember the eggs!

You most surely would if you had tasted them navstar! They had the flavour of model aircraft dope crossed with sulphur. The alternative was powdered egg, which wasn't too bad when doused in tabasco sauce!

Eggs
 

Sounds delicious! The only way to start the day:eek:

They've named water after the area now.....

http://supermart.ae/product_images/u...44514_zoom.jpg

There is also Tanuf water....just a bit further along by Jebel Shams.

And this is what the old village of Tanuf looks like now, after the 1958 Jebel Akhdar "war", much of it conducted from Sharjah.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps91413667.jpg

Laurence

There are still some very large fragments to be found around Tanuf. Big ones!

We (1970) decided the eggs were injected with ether to improve their shelf-life.

Several forts in that area were badly damaged during the conflict in 1958. We flew over one of them in this video taken during the course of several Firq - Saiq lifts between 1959 and 1961.

YouTube

Marvellous videos, brakedwell.

Just showed them to the local lads here in Muscat. Mesmorized!

Most here under the age of 30 has no idea what the place was like before Sultan Qaboos began to sort things out for them.

Been doing a clear out.......here's part of a map of Abu Dhabi/NW Oman dated 1962....the uncompleted word in the SEcorner is "Airstrips".

No particular reason; I thought one or two might be interested. I've also got a bedsheet of a 1:250,000 map of the whole Trucial States, now the UAE, but that's relatively modern, 1970 or so. And another of the Liwa Hollows, hand-drawn black and white with every single hollow and dune crest meticulously drawn; many are named. There are several 100 hollows, I think, I haven't counted. It's dated 1963 and is 1:100,000 scale.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...psa05d47b8.jpg