Canberra Medical Trip

I want to tell the story of a Canberra Medical trip I took part in sometime early in 1958, my Canberra logbook has sadly been lost so I can’t give the actual date. My first squadron after training was No 32 Sqn stationed at Akrotiri in Cyprus. Wonderful except that the local EOKA kept shooting at us!

We were on a squadron trip to El Adem in Libya. It was the weekend, all the other crews were enjoying the swimming club in Tobruk (most of the town was out of bounds because of all the wartime live ammunition that was around) My crew was on duty, not sure what for, but the Boss called me up and said that there was the need to fly a couple of casualties to Malta. He asked me if I had been there before and my answer that I had, as a passenger on the DC4, when I joined the squadron. That seemed to satisfy him, so we planned the trip and went out to the aircraft.

The ambulance arrived with the two victims and then it got remarkably interesting. The doctor said that there was a Royal Marine Colonel, who had a broken leg because he jumped out of a helicopter somewhat before it landed. We gave him the nav radars ejection seat, after a longish briefing, that left the other passenger, a corporal who had acute appendicitis and had to go on the bomb aimers couch, with no means of strapping him in. You can imagine what pain he suffered as he had to be pushed in by his feet.

Luckily the weather was good, and we arrived with no bother, the passengers were off loaded, the corporal was in very obvious pain when he was carefully put in the ambulance, even though we had flown at a low level to avoid him suffering from the pressurisation. I don’t think that would be allowed to happen nowadays!

As for the Vulcan, I was the squadron QFI and IRE on 12 Sqn at Coningsby and then at Cottesmore. In 1966 we were chosen to fly the AOC 1 Group AVM Stapleton round the world via Ohakea, in New Zealand, from where I was to fly the Vulcan display at the opening of the airport at Auckland.

We left on 19 January, staging at Akrotiri, night stopping in Muharraq. In 1975, after I retired, I spent 13 years there flying F27 and Tristars with Gulf Air who operated from the old RAF headquarters. From Bahrain, we went to Gan and on to Tengah. A nice stop there, my godfather was the manager of a local bank, it was Chinese New Year, we went to dinner and then celebrated in the mess where we discovered that the Japanese guns outside the mess would fire an empty beer can very well when loaded with a Chinese Cracker. By closing time, the bar ceiling was about 4ft from all the smoke.

We left Tengah late at night and cruised at high level, the Indonesians were being a bit awkward at the time. The AEO did report that he was getting radar returns from a MIG, but they disappeared before we had to use any countermeasures. We arrived at Darwin just as the sun rose at the far end of the runway with the result being quite a bumpy landing. After breakfast for the AOC with the Station Commander and turnround for the crew we left for Canberra.

During the cruise, my windscreen started to get bubbles in it starting to delaminate, during the AOCs landing at Canberra it developed several cracks. The landing was a bit bouncy, on the short runway I said “go around “and had to apply power to make another attempt. Once parked the reception party threw an airliner size fly spray in and closed the door, I had to put the crew on oxygen while it almost choked us. When we finally got out, great squadrons of flies came at us from every direction.

After a replaced windscreen, and 2 nights in Canberra, we left for Ohakea in New Zealand. We were asked by ATC to overfly a local flying club enroute to Ohakea, then we settled down to a great few days in NZ.

During the rehearsal for the display, we were being followed by a DC3 full of paratroops, I was flying towards them to position and turn round for a fast run in at 390kts, with the throttles closed, so that I could start a steep climb with full power to depart. I had to call the DC3 and tell him that I would go behind him and come up on his starboard wing and to watch out for our turbulance. He was delayed by 2 minutes during the debrief after the display.

The briefing officer then said I have had a complaint from a local town, all the pilots sank in their chairs expecting some problem, I don’t recall the name of the town, and that it was in the hills some distance from Auckland, the mayor complained that none of the display aircraft had flown over his town, we were asked to do so after we had done the display. That was fun, down the main street at 150 knots with the gear down and the bomb doors opened, round a cricket match and a fast run back before heading to Ohakea.

The display seemed to work a bit better for the paratroops and again we enjoyed it. The display and the rehearsal were the only flying my co-pilot got during the whole trip, he spent the rest of it with the backup Brittania with our ground crew. Among the many events we enjoyed at Ohakea was a trip to a lake for a picnic lunch and some fishing, the best part was that we went there by Sunderland flying boat! As soon as we had left the water a white jacketed steward appeared with a tray of beer, we cruised over the country at an extremely comfortable speed enjoying the view. During our lunch, sitting on the wing, Wg Cdr Digman dived into the water and tried to swim under the aircraft, the loud bang as he hit the keel caused much merriment all round.

We left Ohakea after 6 days there and headed home via Pago Pago in American Samoa and the next day went on to Hickam in Hawaii. We stayed two days in Hawaii, then left for Travis, the USAF had an early computer flight planning system, I remember the US navigator showing Dave the system was amazed at the Vulcans rate of climb and cruising speed, I believe our time from Hickam to Travis was a record for some time.

The next stop was the HQ SAC at Offutt, Nebraska. By now it was getting a bit formal, we were given a wonderful demonstration of SACs communication ability by a humourless Colonel who, after a very impressive display, was asked by the AOC if he was now going to rewind the tape for the next set of visitors.

While we were at Offutt the two Vulcan crews, mine, and Bill Downes, who had followed us all the trip in the spare Vulcan, organised a party for the engineers travelling behind us in a Brittania, to thank them, who had looked after the aircraft so well all the way round the world. As I was carrying my navigator to bed at about 0330, I saw the AOC sat in a corner with a corporal on each side giving him a full going over about 1 Group and how it was run. When he was asked about it the next day he said, “what with your crew, and those chaps last night, I have learned a lot about my command and there are going to be some changes made.” The last sector of the trip but one was to Goose Bay.

While planning the final leg back to Cottesmore, it was obvious that the weather there was forecast to be below that which would have allowed us to leave. I told this to the AOC, but then said, since you signed the orders we cannot go, but there are good diversions, so if you are happy, I am happy to go, so we went. At Cottesmore the weather was down to limits in falling snow. I said to the AOC you fly the instrument approach but he said no, you do it and I’ll call lights in sight. We saw the lights right on minimums and landed easily.

A wonderful trip from 19 of January to 9 February, 65hrs and 35 minutes including 5hrs 30 display time.

I was promoted in June and went on to 139(J) on Victor 2, then the B52 at Castle AFB California, followed by Staff College and CTTO at High Wycome, retired in 1974 to fly F27, Dash8, Tristar, 757, A320, 767, 5yrs A320 Simulator Instructor.

I never thought that, as I went to RAF College Cranwell at 17 ¾ that, at 87, I’d still be glad to be ex-RAF, so my much younger Ex Gulf Air Pakistani Stewardess wife would, after 40 years of marriage, get the benefit of being able to live in Erskine Veterans home when dementia claimed her in her 60s.

Per Ardua 20106hrs

Sqn Ldr R P Kharegat