In SVN it used USAF callsign "Bookie", so was generally known as a "Bookiebird">

We didn't have a pole on 152 Sqn, just a looped piece of rope plus a couple of "senior" army officers to do the manual work! I used this system about half a dozen times and we started the engine successfully every time.

A lot of DC3s/C47s/Dakotas, call them what you will, had inertia starters on the R1830s, which were basically electrically-operated motors winding up a heavy flywheel. When they sounded like the time was right, you'd move the switch from Energise to Mesh and the flywheel gear would engage the crankshaft via a clutch and the prop would turn a few blades as the crew fiddled with the booster pump, primer, mags and mixture to induce combustion noise and clouds of smoke. There was a back-up option of using a detachable low-geared manual-start handle assembly if the electric motor failed, which involved unfastening a cowling panel, mounting the thing in its position, winding the flywheel up and pulling a 'mesh' cable on command from the cockpit. Usually the %#@£?* thing wouldn't start and you'd have to repeat the process, which certainly warmed you up on a cold day. The inertia starters were gradually replaced by direct drive units from the mid-80s, which saved all that palaver but were less pleasing to the ear. :)
Had the same inertia starter system on the An2 (the engine was a direct copy of the Wright Cyclone) and a hand-starter on a Stearman PT17, One Dak pilot told me they'd used the prop-dome rope trick using a Mini instead of humans to pull start an engine!

Yes, I was aware. Just as well that the AOC was on board, but i don’t know if he physically signed it off or not because having tried to get the fourth engine started for some time they never taxied back in. ;)

On another occasion I was verbally authorised by the AOC to depart on one engine in a twin engined helicopter, but that’s a story best not told in public.

I think it's the Khormaksar thread which contains accounts of a Land-Rover and rope around the spinner being used to start a TwinPin which played up while delivering stuff up-country. Worked very well and seems to have been (unofficial) procedure if no trolley-acc available.

Just finished Flying through Midnight. A cracking story, very revealing regarding methods of dealing with stress. The descriptions of Desktop and others ring true, you would like to think that your superiors would have provided top cover but not so sure now. The REMFs all there, collecting flying pay and no doubt medals, flying on safe sorties. I thought the final story about the arrival at Long Tien was a bit supernatural and wondered if the book was fictional. The story of Wiley's limousine is classic.

The C123s used in Laos were just one type in the most 'mixed bag' of aircraft types I have ever come across in one organisation's inventory. Vientiane was a hive of activity with constant re-supply flights using C46s, 123s, Helio Courers, PilatusPorters, Dornier 27 and 28s(?), a civilianised Hudson, Beech !8s with Air America, plus helicopters and other types involved in local 'businesses'. The reference to 'interesting' approaches to Laos airfields could have included a local Ex-French Marine (self-taught pilot !) who provided 'unusual cargo' transport to remote strips in a Beech 18, the approach being made from a known mountain peak above cloud descending on a timed heading and descent rate to a valley cloud break !! It was most certainly 'cowboy country' including one ex Zantop (?) Airways captain who wore the essential low slung belt with a pair of pearl-handled revolvers. We made one of our regular visits using a 'borrowed' Twin-Pin instead of the Devon and gave a demo to the Air America people - who seemed impressed.
John le Carre's "The Honourable Schoolboy" mentions at least one character from the time - the manager of the Constellation 'hotel' Maurice Cavallieri (sp?)

I believe Boeing 307 Stratoliners were still operating in Laos into the early 1970s.

You have missed the DC2 and a 1/2 off your list. ;)

Read the story, it's a fascinating tale of strapping a DC3 wing under another DC2 then flying it to the site and bolting it onto the DC2 to form the DC2 1/2 as the wing was considerably longer, then flying it out. Link at the bottom.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....65737c5313.png

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4fd5287c74.png

https://cnac.org/aircraft02.htm

Arrived in Tan Son Nhut airport Saigon September 1970 to see a pristine polished metal 307 on the tarmac, a number of them operated in the area apparently, one is noted as ditching in the Mekong River in March 1975 while on a flight from Hong Kong to Vientiane.

Megan and Treadders - the 307 was operatring out of Tan Son Nhut in 61 - 64. I only ever saw that one in the Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam area.