Photographs of Egyptian troops and vehicle concentrations were required for which a pair of aircraft flew daily tactical reconnaissance flights. In July 1952 the Squadron was recalled from an APC in Nicosia because all forces in the Canal Zone had been alerted due to the coup d’etat of the Egyptian Army. The situation quietened however and the Squadron continued with its training at Abu Sueir.
In January 1953, Flying Officer Prosser was posted to 77 Squadron RAAF in Korea to join the few RAF pilots who flew in this war. The following month, during a combat with one of the Deversoir Vampires, Flying Officer Greensmith’s aircraft went out of control and he was compelled to eject over Sinai approximately 100 miles east of the Canal. He broke several bones in his foot on landing but was picked up by Bedouins who looked after him until the Desert Rescue Column arrived. A party went to the scene of the crash ten days later taking with them presents of sandals, blankets, beans and flour for the Bedouins and handed over the £25 promised to anyone who aided the pilots of a crashed aircraft. Such was the value of a jet pilot at the time!
By June and July of 1951 the Squadron was making its first attempts at firing both air-to-ground and air-to-air. The results, as expected, left much to be desired but then little was known about the harmonisation of the gyro gunsight for this type of aircraft and few pilots on the Squadron had fired air-to-air on a drogue anyway. As the armament practice camps at Nicosia progressed through the year the results began to improve as pilots became familiar with the problems involved. In October the Egyptian Government commenced its programme of non- co-operation in the Canal Zone and so the Squadron was requested to carry out reconnaissances of the Canal Zone and the Erskine line from its new base at Abu Sueir.
