4 Firq Saiq

[brakedwell]

[QUOTE=JENKINS;9755423]Photographed. A tyre burst perhaps rather than a mine.

Good parties at Nizwa.[/QUOTE

You are right, it was a tyre burst followed by a swing.

[JW411]

Teeteringhead:

Thank you for that amazing photograph of the Sahab Hotel and thank you to Brakedwell for his contrasting photograph which is more like I remember it.

Quite frankly, if you had shown me that shot of the Sahab Hotel 50 years ago I would probably have had you locked up!

Funnily enough, one of my old 105 Squadron colleagues went on to do a couple of stints with SOAF and he and his wife go back to Oman for a holiday from time to time. He has been trying to get me to do a similar thing.

I am in two minds; I can remember going back to Dubai in 1985 after a gap of 20 years or so and I found it difficult to get my head round the changes that had taken place since I used to borrow a Land Rover and go across the bundu in a straight line from Sharjah to Dubai Creek. I don't think I could cope with modern Dubai (or Sharjah for that matter).

However, your photograph of the Sahab Hotel and the stunning background has got me thinking!

[Herod]

He had been blown up on Firq by a mine intended for an inbound Blackburn machine.

An inbound Blackburn machine. Habilayn '67

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...psbe1c54a3.jpg

[JW411]

Actually, he was outbound back to Khormaksar empty. I spoke to Pat Manley in the Jungle Bar that night. It was a mine with a shell alongside. He missed it by a few feet when he turned round after landing which was just as well as his Beverley was full of 44 gallon drums of civgas and lots of other nasty things at the time.

The explosion removed the starboard gear. I can vividly remember him telling us that he was still trying to use the nose wheel tiller as the old girl settled down on to her right wingtip.

[teeteringhead]

JW411 Definitely go back - to Oman!

Don't judge that part of the world by Dubai - Oman saw what happened there and determined not to let it happen to them. No high rises, limits on foreign ownership etc etc.

I did SOAF after 78 Wessex (via 72!) and have been back a few times, both with and without Milady Teeters. Hoping to go back again next year (with!).

Unlike many, the Omanis are still grateful for the help the Brits gave them all that time ago.......

[Herod]

Staying slightly off topic, another pic of the Habilayn Beverley. Not as dramatic as it looks. The sand runway was kept useable by regular oil spraying. A large oil tanker with a spray-bay, towed by a 3-tonner. Here, the oiler itself went over a mine. The Beverley is purely for dramatic effect.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...nOilerfire.jpg

[Lordflasheart]

XM 106 Habilayn 1967

The explosion removed the starboard gear.

(The recently late) Pat Manley used to tell us that their Loadmaster (or Crew Chief) was in the habit of taking post at the open starboard (paratroop) side door whenever their aircraft was manoeuvring on the ground.

On this unique occasion, for some inexplicable reason ‘known only to god’ he 'decided' to join the chaps on the flight deck, thus saving himself from a face full of landmine and probably saving his life too.

I wonder if that Loadie (or Crew Chief) is around still ?

[JW411]

teeteringhead:

Many thanks for that. I shall give it some serious thought. By the way, I used to live in 1 Baker Close.