Then, on the third rotation, much to the amusement of the gathering, they got a Fiat 500. However, it illustrated how the two Squadrons worked together.


Night flying was very interesting. Everyone hated night flying - 208 was, after all, a day fighter ground-attack squadron. The President recalled one night in the crewroom, when the Wing was night flying, standing having a coffee with the late George Ord, the Boss of 208, and Glyn Davies, all waiting to go out on a little 30-minute trip, which was basically rush out, get airborne, do an instrument approach, do one circuit and land, just as the sun had gone below the horizon, resulting in the requisite 30 minutes of 'night flying' in the log book. He remembered that, on this particular occasion, Glyn looked at his watch and rushed off because he was missing his slot. George and the President carried on chatting and then, 35 minutes later, Glyn came back into the crewroom and picked up his still-warm cup of coffee. The Boss said to him: "So, what's the problem, what's wrong with your aeroplane?" He said: "No, nothing."  Twenty minutes in his log book and that was him night flying qualified for the next 3 months. It was like that.


On the subject of night flying, he also remembered Pat Kidgell flying his night routines down in Sharjah. He did six circuits, checking in with Sharjah air traffic every time, and eventually landed, at which point Sharjah air traffic said "Are you down?" He said "Yes." "Well, where are you?" and he was at Dubai Airport, which was ten miles down the road. No-one knew a thing. It wasn't a big international airport in those days, in fact Dubai was a fishing village. But it reflects really the Squadron spirit of that time, and the mistakes that were occasionally made.


Returning to the stories in the 2021 Magazine, the President concluded his recollections of the Hunter era by referring to an incident involving the late Dave Clough. It was a very amusing story, but quite a serious one in many ways: he was ambushed by four Irish Rangers on Bahrain, who decided they wanted to pick on someone and beat him up, not realising he was an officer. However, at the end of that 'scuffle' it was 4-1 to Dave, and the four Irish Rangers were all taken to hospital. It was quite a legacy, the message being: 'Don't mess with 208!' Dave was court-martialled subsequently, accused of beating up these four Irish Rangers but, the President was pleased to say, he was acquitted.

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