I remained at Cranwell for two years. During this time, apart from ceremonial duties (I was one of the thousands of soldiers who participated in the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, among other things) I I hired in engineering of one kind or another with the squirrels in school work. Apart from day to day services and marshaling, more in-depth services was carried out at regular intervals of flight hours. We also had rectification work to be carried for any defect which might occur. At the end of my two years, I found that I was sent foreign, Middle East.
I was sent to the RAF in Aden Khormaksar and found was used in the wing strike, working on the Hawker Hunter. When I arrived in Aden, in August 1965, there were 2 squadrons filled, not 8 and 43 and a flight, no 1417. These were all operating Hawker hunters of one brand or another. There were 3 brands in use in Aden. These were mainly T7, FGA9 and FR10. I was not involved in the daily aircraft ration as I was registered on the flight that provide scheduled services.
The SSF task was to carry out all servicings were more complicated journals, such as primary, Star main and secondary servicings. We were also involved in any major rectification work and the work which incorporate changes to the aircraft. At this time I was thin and lightly built, usually was in charge of jobs where they are needed, small hands such as the modification on the part of Hydro-rocket spoiler blocking program. This was very demanding work, carried out by working through a very small group at the bottom of the wing. Work had to be carried out on all aircraft and I seem to remember doing a large number of them (but that may be only my aging memory play tricks).
A memorable rectification was when one of the hunters had a strike of birds, which came by intake port engine and landing gear Bay wing structure. Apart from the actual damages, which seemed quite extensive, disorder and the smell of the bird remains were very dominant. Everything must be eliminated before it failed to complete a proper assessment of damages. I seem to remember that at the end was decided to replace flat main port (wing), rather than trying to fix it on the plane. All Khormaksar work was carried out in an open hangar and therefore most of the time was very hot. I suspect that this was the main reason I stayed slim, as, like my colleagues, I me perspiring a large quantity of each day's work! Learn more about the Khormaksar in another article.
