In addition to all the official work, the Flight accumulated a 
fascinating collection of photographs ranging from Windsor Castle, the Forth Bridge to south coast beaches – but unfortunately this was before the advent of topless beauties! One ‘home’ detail consisted of a series of shots taken of a formation of two Meteors, one Vampire and one target-tug Mosquito posing carefully for a study to be used on the Station Christmas Card.
The Flight did incur the wrath of the local agricultural community, albeit innocently. After sorties it was practice to drain the fuel from the ventral tanks straight onto the concrete form where it found its way int
o the natural water courses. This did not go down very well with the grazing population several of which turned their legs skywards! The problem was solved by prudent use of buckets and other containers.
The FR Flight provided high quality training for an increasingly important requirement of the military in the Cold War Period and certainly laid the foundations for the work of even faster aircraft in the future. It was another example of a small Stradishall-based unit playing a vital role.
John Pascoe-Watson’s own account of his time at 226 OCU is contained in
Chapter VI of his book: ‘On Laugher-Silvered Wings’, a review of which may be found in the Naval Eight / 208 Squadron Association Website Bibliography by clicking on the book cover to the right:
A short online history of 226 OCU may be found at this link:
