PN

Silly post - some of us were on the ground

As an undesirable Gulf nightstop in the '60s I think Salalah was only bested by Firq/Saiq -Firq being the landing strip at the bottom of the Hill and Saiq being the very, very short landing strip and "accomodation" 2/3rds of the way up the 3500'(?) Hill.

Beit el Falaj was "interesting" !!

A bit out on yer measurements there Cazatou - Saiq is at 6300 ft amsl (should know, was part of the SOAF March-and-Shoot team that climbed it from the bottom of the main wadi). Don't seem to remember the Skyvans having any probs, and our 205s could still lift more than a Wessex at that altitude on our way up to the hill villages at 8500 ft. Jebel Shams - the top of Jebel Akhdar - is plus/minus a very few feet of 10,000.

As for the war zone only going up to FL100, that was before SAM7b appeared on the scene - I believe (teeteringhead will be able to confirm) that forced things up to around 12000 feet agl.

Height Levels
 

Don't know anything about height levels but my old chum John "Hector" Heathcote got shot down by a SAM and so it a chap called Peter Davis (unusual in that he had an MC from the Gurkhas, a DFC from the RAF and another gallantry medal from the Sultan).

O-D

Got any good ones about ships and lighthouses?

Considering that NI wasn't a combat zone for the US and those two 'this is no-****' stories sound so much alike I think we can throw the bull**** flag on them.

T & B

Thanks for the correction - it was (after all) 42 years ago and I did put a question mark; memories blur a bit with age.

I never got sent to a Country whose name began with the letter "X" because there isn't one - Xanadu exists only in the realm of a popular song. I managed, however, to get a "tick" against every other letter of the alphabet. I would not recommend Greenland in February - it was minus 47C.

Xanadu exists only in the realm of a popular song

For Heaven's sake please don't tell Mr S T Coleridge!:)

Jack

Ta for that Kreuger - my bad, as my son tells me they say on t'internet these days.

I should've checked, of course. I keep a framed 1:100,000 map of the area from the "new" (well, it was in 1982) survey as it's such a beautiful example of the cartographer's art. Sure 'nuff, the runway at Saiq is labelled as 6508' - I was using the figure we derived from the old photo-survey-based charts which only had spot-heights in odd places.

There was something in the Leicester Mercury about the imposter selling the medals on Ebay for around £350-400 quid, hopefully he sent the proceeds to H4H or RAF Ben fund.

SAS imposter Roger Day, medals bogus, Earl Shilton, leicestershire

Some positive news from this side of the pond: Congress passes ‘Stolen Valor Act’ to criminalize lying about military medals

I/C

Apologies for thread drift and being late on parade, but for some reason I've only just seen the last few posts here, despite them being 3 years old! But here goes.

More like 14 000 IIRC, (which may have included a few extra feet for Mum) but a better option was to fly around the threat or to go ULL :eek:

FL 140 was of course without oxygen, and possibly (probably!) with a curry, chappati and chai precariously balanced on the centre console!

The 7B arrived unexpectedly fairly late in the day, not long after that we were able to access the Western Jebel either from the sea or over friendly land. The Hunters could (allegedly) outturn the SAM, we just pickled the load, banged off the flares (only Schermulies, not proper "Lionels") wound off the throttle and spiralled down - it then went past us........ inshallah (I think "220"'s Strikie was lost to a 7A)

"Hector" was indeed a victim of the 7B along with Roger Boyce in the same 205 (Huey).

Peter Davis was not "SAMmed", but shot down by small arms (or maybe a 12.7) in a 206 (Jet Ranger) in the central area IIRC (the area that is - deffo not a SAM).

Better late than never.

Another 1st class Walt.
 

This one is a classic, about 5 mins of video is a must see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXNjE-aNFLU

Oh, my. Why do they do it? :ugh:

Anymore info on who, where and what?

For some reason, I only feel sorry and embarrassed for them. Not sure why they do it though?

In the 80's the Skyvans would do a resupply shuttle from Firq to Saiq, consisting of four return flights - thus was born the 4 Firq Saiq tie ... honestly :ok:

Regarding the Walts, I think they must be a few sandwiches short of a picnic to think they can pull that off! To not understand how easy it is to discredit a Walt suggests to me an IQ failure.
The only blue sash I've seen is the R.Sigs and none of them ever went to church! ;)

Not quite. Pre-dates the 'Vans certainly and goes back to RAF in the Gulf days - I got mine (tie) in 1970 and they weren't new then - so late 60s at the latest.

IIRC - which I might not! - it was Argosy to Firq, and then Andover (in Winter) or Wessex (in the Summer) between bottom and top. Not enough bernoullis for the Andover in the Summer - 6300 ft amsl and +50 C at Saiq didn't leave the Wessex with much performance.

Something like a max speed of 65 kts and a minimum of 30-35 kts made for interesting handling ....... :eek:

Last went back a coupla years ago - and drove to Saiq!!

I pretended to be a pilot once :)

I know of a guy who was commissioned from the ranks and started pilot training, only to fail. Looking at the other branch options available, decided he would rather go back to his old job and resigned his commission. This would have been in the early to late 80s.

All this time I've missed my chance. Back in 1959 I was on Bradbury Lines, only snag I was 11 years old.
The lines backed onto a field at the back of our house, just walked through the wire (non barbed) and watched the goings on, no one bothered us. Different times.

Half a wannabe….

Here in Cape Town, recently I went to a Western Cape Canopy Club meeting. It's a monthly get together for all jump certified ex and current soldiers. There are many ex-soldiers from all over - Bats, Recce's, Americans, UK & Rhodesians. I wasn't in the Bats or jumped but did my time at 101Bn. I was invited because I let some of my buddies, who know that my Dad and a fellow soldier close friend of his, were going to be in Cape Town.

My father was a career soldier for 22 years and at one time the OC C-Squadron, Rhodesian SAS. He lives in the UK and was visiting.

As we walk in, he sees a guy with a beautifully embroidered gold and red SAS badge on his blazer. He's intrigued and walks straight over and good naturedly, with a bit of envy, points to the badge saying, "Hell, where'd you get that?" In less than a minute, the guy is blown out the water with a few questions. I was standing watching this. It was embarrassing.

Subsequently, it turns out the guy is a long-time member of the club and no-one had questioned his credentials. The reason he wasn't caught was that he did serve with the Rhodesian forces and then was a Parabat with the South African Defence Force. During his Rhodesian stint, he must have applied for SAS selection but didn’t pass and now chose to wander around with that badge on. He didn't need to, he'd got his spurs and served his time. Later, once he was outed, some guys said his story always got a bit vague at the SAS bit, but as he was legit and vouched for, for the rest, they let it lie.

Of all the places in the world where you’d think twice about doing this kind of stunt, this particular club would be the last place to rather not?

The Club Chair was given a quiet word. I don’t think he’ll be wearing that badge again soon.