The Adventures, or Trials and Tribulations,
of Alan England Airframe Fitter
Part 4
On being presented with my navigators brevet on graduation
in 1966 at RAF Stradishall I felt I had really arrived in the RAF, now
I was real "steely eyed" aircrew. However I soon came down to
earth when being informed that I had been posted to RAF Sharjah."
Where's that?" I asked myself. On consulting a map I discovered it
was part of MEAF in the Persian Gulf.
Then I discovered I was to fly on Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneers!"
What type of aircraft is this?" Research revealed that this was a
STOL aircraft used for communications. It had two Alvis Leonidese engines
with slots and flaps operated by chains and sprockets just like a bike
[but not as reliable]!
Performance was mind boggling, cruising speed was supposed to be 98 Knots;
in reality we managed 95 knots. Our maximum range was 600 nm, Maximum
payload was fourteen passengers. We were also supposed to drop parachutists,
not that I was ever subjected to such an arduous task!
They were also equipped with state of the art navigation equipment, drift
sight Radio Direction Finder, which on reaching the Gulf , I found had
few stations ,of very limited range.We also had the " The Mark One
Eyeball" to use with charts which was sparse with information as
they dated back to before WW2, not that it made much difference as little
had changed since then. I believe the Twin Pioneer was designed for WW2,
but was rejected due to its lack of performance!
I arrived at RAF Odiham, my crew conversion course, in the middle of winter. Our crew hut was in WW2 prefab, with a coke fire. No doubt this was all part of making us feel at home with our high performance vintage aircraft.
We were teamed up with our pilots and mine was WO Bimbo Ward, and the
first time I flew with I thought God he is so over weight he is bound
to have heart attack! I am pleased to say he didn't and proceeded to lose
a considerable amount of weight during our tour together. Training consisted
of theory, low level flying at "low speed"[ in fact it was not
unusual to be passed by the odd car as we flew over Hampshire]. We flew
so low we even had to gain height to clear the electricity pylon. We also
did STOL take offs and landings. I still remember during one sortie, my
pilot wished to visit the loo, which was a bit inconvenient with only
one pilot! However, the problem was overcome when he selected one of our
STOL landing fields, did a low level beat up to chase the sheep down to
one end of the field. We landed; my pilot got out, went behind the bushes
and on completion of his vital task re-boarded the aircraft with a relieved
expression on his face! We then took off, much to the pleasure of the
disturbed sheep and completed our sortie.
Our three months conversion course had stretched into six months due to the a bad winter of 1966.It was now February 1967 ,one of the mildest experienced in years!
Next stop RAF Lyneham and flight by "Crab Air" in a VC10 to RAF Muharraq, Bahrain.
To be continued
