We all wished him success and he returned fairly confident having praised some aid to navigation in the Middle East which, by chance, the AOC had been responsible for in the early days.
On Wednesday at 5am the first B'heaverly left to ponder its way Middle-Eastwards with a load of ground equipment and airmen. Nothing very much happened at Tangmere, several aircraft were flown to test the new booster pumps - several had minor snags but it was agreed that if necessary overnight work could be done to get them ready. At four o'clock on Wednesday a big briefing was held with all Wheels and Senior Wheels present - the briefing dealt mainly with detail as far as Luqa and lasted for almost two hours.
Early on Thursday morning the second B'heaverly departed Tangmere with Bill Thomas, Tim Riddihough, the remainder of the airmen as a route servicing party and all the personal luggage. At nine o'clock with most people from the Station to witness the event fifteen aircraft got airborne for Istres - a credit to the work put in by 'C' Flight as this was only one short of the maximum. An eight led by 'Sir', a four led by Pete Botters and a final three (held up for a while by a slight R/T snag) led by John Barwell composed the air party with Dez and Graham in the Vampire accompanied by the Station Commander in a Meteor.
Read the remainder of the Squadron’s adventures in its
first few weeks in Cyprus by clicking on this link:
