Op Fabulous / QRA / Battle Flight 1950s - 1960s
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Oxon
Age: 92
Posts: 259
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34 Squadron was deployed to Nicosia for the Suez fiasco in 1956 and with 1 Squadron on alternate days we operated Battle Fights in our Hunter F 5s from dawn to dusk. The long runway, if I remember correctly, was 16/34.The ORP was at the south end of the runway at right angles and there we sat on cockpit readiness either looking along the approach to r/w 34 or facing the other way, along the runway towards to control tower. No telebrief so scramble was initiated by a Very flare from the tower with initial vectors from local. We always scrambled from 34 no matter what the wind and normally were airborne in about 90 secs. Sitting in the sunshine for an hour was very fatiguing. On one occasion I was in a vehicle waiting to cross the runway at the 16 end with three Canberras lined up ready to go, when the scramble flare fired and a pair of Hunters appeared over the rise in the runway rushing toward the Canberras. No problem but for the fact No 2 was too enthusiastic in getting his gear up so the bombers were faced with an aircraft scraping over their heads with the remains of his droptanks tumbling towards them. The Hunter's nosewheel was jammed up and the only usable fuel was in the centre tank i.e. about five minutes worth. All this excitement quite made our day !
