Dubai 67
 

An airborne shot of Dubai creek where Sheikh "Robbie" used to ply his trade in gold Khunjas. If I had married his daughter as he suggested I would have been a millionaire today!


http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...psexkzl37s.jpg

Cornish Jack:

The photo at #101; L-R Dave Rix, Colin Probert, Doug M, Wally Makepeace.
Behind: Neil Carnegie.

Lordflasheart
 

You are right, it was a long long time ago. I see the hangers show up well on Google Earth.


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pslcu8ogjb.png

What a bloody marvellous thread
 

Thanks to everyone for giving me a very interesting and entertaining thread :D

Dougie,
you may equally as well have become a counter tenor !

Never was there, but:

"A little bit of 'mutti' fell down from the sky one day
- and it landed in the desert not so very far away .
- and when the Air Force saw it, it looked so bare and grim
- They said 'that's what we're looking for, we'll put our Station there' ".

(Aplologies to "The Shaibah Blues")

Better a tenner counter;)

fr
 

When did Sharjah get fresh water showers? In 1959 - 61 we washed, shaved and showered with brackish water and seawater soap, then washed off the salty residue with the daily bucket of fresh water. Quelle luxury.

Like Khormaksar, Sharjah was not officially an "air conditioned" station, which was why I spent so much time there with a Twin Pioneer. As the only single pilot on 152 for a high proportion of my two year tour I did most of the Twin Pin flying out of Sharjah as my LOA only dropped from three shillings to one and sixpence, whereas married crew members dropped from seven pounds fifteen shillings to one and sixpence as they and their families were entitled to a much higher LOA due to air conditioning costs, but only when they were present in Bahrain!

Also in and out Sharjah 59-61 on 37 Det. I remember we bought large
plastic bottles of cheap Indian shampoo to use in the shower. Better than nothing with salt water showers.

Thank you Brakedwell. I knew I'd seen that memorable photo somewhere before – I just tracked it down to your own "which aerodrome" challenge from 2009 ;) .

I gather Habbaniya is back in the wars again as an assembly area for the glorious re-taking of Ramadi etc.

LFH

For the last 2 days, a group of pilots from 78 Squadron in Khormaksar have been holding their first reunion since those memorable (in many different ways) days. We managed nine of us; not bad after some forty-eight years.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/KN452.jpg

Well, it's taken me a long time but I now have a new slide converter and I have been making some inroads into my collection. There was some mention of the RAF Dakota at Khormaksar on this (or a similar thread) many moons ago and I have just found a shot of 21 Squadron's KN452.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XM940.jpg

Staying with 21 Squadron, here is Twin Pin XM940. I think this shot was taken on an open day.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XS793.jpg

And here is their famous leaking Andover CC.2 XS793. It was plagued with fuel leaks and as often as not we had to back up its VIP departures with a 105 Sqn Argosy (in semi-VIP fit).

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XF456.jpg

To keep the FJ lobby happy, here is 8/43 Squadron Hunter FGA.9 XF456.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XM103.jpg

And finally for today, 84 Squadron Beverley XM103.

Khormaksar
 

233 Sqn Dinghy Drill pic taken 1963. Sycamore SAR

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ac64aeb80.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cfd34af5d.jpeg


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b27ebd332.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....663445b72.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....00a2943e5.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....633fa03db.jpeg

Khormaksar
 

233 Sqn Valettas South of Crater and Little Aden. Pics taken 1963. Loads of formation practice prior to disbandment.



https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....44141d840.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1b2e143f4.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2e740ec71.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d01ca6ef6.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....0088f3041.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cdf12d49d.jpeg

Khormaksar
 

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b1ba3c2cc.jpeg
View towards Crater from Officers' Mess non air-conditioned accommodation

JW411
 

Keep them coming, please.

+1. The more the merrier.

K/Sar
 

Wot ! no Argosies ?

Or humble Valettas?

233 Sqn was disbanded in January 1964.

21 Sqn.
 

JW411. Brilliant, brings back memories, flew in XM940 a lot and KN452 on CT although I was not the regular Nav. May have been pax on the Andover on a day out to Eastleigh, but we had two so could have been the other one.

I note from log book that we ferried XM940 to Muharraq arriving 13.09.67, after steady transit via night stops Salalah and Masirah, when 21 Sqn disbanded.We parked it up by the tower with one other and they were still there when I returned on Argosy detachment in 1969.

Keep them coming.

105 Sqn took over the Mombasa leave run contract from Aden Airways in July 1965, when security on the civil side of Khormaksar was deemed to be unsafe. Five hours each way and two hours on the ground was a long day, but (Aden Airways) crew lunches in the terminal restaurant where very good.

This photo shows the passenger baggage on the rear sill 30 minutes before departure.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...on/Mombasa.jpg

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/21LC2.jpg

One Friday lunchtime we were visited by three French Air Force Douglas AD-4N Skyraiders from Esc.21 based across the water at Djibouti. Their arrival caused a bit of a stir since they had failed to tell ATC that they were going to do a run-in and break! They duly taxied in and parked outside 105 Squadron. Apart from the pilot upstairs they had managed to shoe-horn five or six passengers into each of the navigator's compartments downstairs. The object of the visit was to have a weekend's R & R and to collect some cheap booze.

Yes, indeed, I remember having a look at those Skyraiders - and comparing their downstairs accommodation rather unfavourably with my upstairs desk in the Argosy. (Of course, I was quite unaware of the luxury that awaited some years later on the Belfast!)

233 Sqn Khormaksar
 

Engine problem at Mogadishu en route to Eastleigh, Nairobi from Khormaksar. Photos taken May 1962.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....17f23333a.jpeg
U/S in Mogadishu May 1962
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c6ecd6a56.jpeg
Air Guitar by the Wing Pilot with Air Sig 'Tannoy' Brown, Sqn Ldr Ken Denham and F/L John Williams enjoying the performance! Tannoy called for spares with his morse key, one engine running
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....588e861f8.jpeg
Rescue airframe brought spares. Somali Air Force DC3 in background
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....016d0e7a7.jpeg
Could be the fire truck or the ration wagon or maybe they have just emptied the Elsan. Whole place was run down.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7437583bb.jpeg
Waiting to become serviceable
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8e5a8a293.jpeg

233 Sqn Valetta Khormaksar
 

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....adfeeaeb1.jpeg
Low level over Sheikh Othman ( 2miles NW Khormaksar) Taken 1963

233 Sqn Crew Room Khormaksar
 

Game of 'Kirky'. 105 Sqn Copilot Fg Off facing camera. Not very salubrious but air-conditioned! Taken 1963. The paper cups were thrown out of the aircraft after use and used as navigation aids on subsequent trips - well there wasn't much else to go on over the desert!!!
Door on the right was to the TV room but you have heard that one before.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8e29a547d.jpeg
Another view of the crew room. ( Found this photo on the net). Boss Sqn Ldr Barnard on left, M.Plt. Ward facing the camera and F/L Thomas on right

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a3a105498.jpeg

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XP411KAM.jpg

Argosy XP411 at Kamaran Island. This aircraft is now in the RAF Museum at Cosford.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XP411KAM2.JPG

Flight Engineer "Bav" Baverstock in the foreground.

During my Twin Pioneer conversion with 78sqn in August 1959 we lost an engine on the way into Kamaran and had to night stop. HM's reprepresentitive was a real Peter Sellers type who put us up in a disused bungalow next the beach. Dimitri, the Greek owner of the only shop on the island, kept us supplied with copious amounts of beer and a good night was had by all. We were rescued the next day and the engine change was completed the following week.

His name was Archie Wilson and he was indeed a bit of a character. I took the C-in-C, Admiral Sir Michael Le Fanu (who was a wonderful chap) plus FOME and their two ladies up there to stay for the weekend. I have some photographs somewhere of Archie's residence. He asked me if I could post some mail for him when I got back to Aden. One piece had to go by registered post (it apparently contained his son's school fees for the coming year). Of course, I was happy to do this.

He asked me how many men I had on my crew? I told him five whereupon he summoned his major-domo and told him to fetch five crabs! I thought this was definitely eccentric but kept my peace. He duly came back with a cool box and Archie asked me to send it back to him with Richard Willey who was due to pick up his guests on the Monday morning.

I gave the cool box to that most wonderful of all Loadmasters, Tony Hughes, to look after. Shortly after take-off, Tony came upstairs and asked me if I had actually seen the crabs. Every single one was the size of a huge dinner plate and would have fed an army. Archie wasn't as eccentric as I thought!

Happy Days.

Awesome pictures.:ok:

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/...psyunl2zbt.jpg

Khormaksar from the north-east in 1950.

Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful pictures of Khormaksar. I had the 'pleasure' of visiting several times in the 1950s, including accompanying a party from 'Flight' magazine in 1952 who were touring the RAF in MEAF for a feature on 'The Queen's Air Forces', which appeared in the issue for 29th May 1953.