Nice to see the ‘Observer’s’ brevet (hope that’s the correct title) being worn.
My father was ‘full time RAF’ when WW2 started, having joined in 1930. He was very proud that he wore that ‘Observers’ badge and not just a more ‘modern’ ‘Navigators’ one when he flew Whitleys. I still have it.
He also had a fantastic scrap book of photos from his earlier RAF years. There
were pics of the Comet racers, the KLM DC2 and others in the MacRobertson Air Race of 1934 and some wonderful ones of his Hawker Horsley sqdn at Seletar in the 30’s. He gave them all to the RAF Museum…I’d have loved to still have them.
David Taylor.

Glad they’ve kept a SeaHawk.

I remember this one got stuck at Changi mid 1963 with engine trouble. Eventually it was towed through the camp to the yacht club and loaded onto a lighter to take it back to it’s home carrier ‘Vikrant’.

I thought it a bit embarrasing for an aircraft to be bobbing about on a little pontoon. However a few weeks later I visited the Singapore Naval Base and some of Ark Royal’s ‘finest jets’ were just littering the dockside having been just craned ‘out of the way’. Such things obviously happen in a Navy aviator’s world.

David Taylor.

209 Sqn aircraft wore no identifiable markings but were all silver when I was in Singapore early 60’s.

I can’t find any reference to a crashed ‘single’ Pioneer in the Borneo Confrontation, just the Twin XN318. Perhaps therefore a machine lost on the Malay Peninsula.

David Taylor.

I’ve been running a Shackleton thread over on the PPRuNe ‘Aviation History’ forum. I was trying to get some aircrew input with any stories about 205 Sqn Shackleton’s in the 60’s, but without much luck. However I’ve posted a few of my Shackleton pictures which some have found interesting.

Here’s a shot of dear old WL790 when with 205 Sqdn at Changi in 1962, still an MR2c. She’s been adorned with a kiwi so has obviously been over on a recent jaunt to NZ.
You can compare her with the MR1A VP267 ‘L’ in the background.

Another 205 Mk2c WL745, still without sqn markings. One of the first 2C’s to arrive, the crew are doing practice ‘engine out’ landings in their new aircraft.
Shackleton’s continually changed because of the continual updating of equipment and the Phase 1-III mods.
It’s a plane that certainly served the RAF well over all those years and perhaps that’s been repeated with it’s successor the Nimrod.
David Taylor.

I’ve done some ‘Googling’ and see that WZ706, the AOP9 in my earlier photo has also survived as G-BURR.
WZ706 survived an ’emergency landing’ in Thailand 1956, the details below are from a 656 Sq newsletter:
24th May 1956
At first light several Austers of 1907 Flight took off from Taiping, WZ706 being on of them.
Captain P. K. Myers Glider Pilot Regiment was the pilot and I was his observer.
Early afternoon whilst we were refuelling at Biddor one of the flight’s RAF technicians asked if he could accompany us on the next flight. At the time WZ706 had a third seat fitted rather than the usual long-range fuel tank.
We had been flying some time when suddenly there was a loud bang. The propeller slowly became visible and then stopped. In the silence that followed Captain Myers sent out a mayday signal. Another aircraft in our flight, which also had visual contact with us, immediately acknowledged this.
We made a ‘leisurely’ decent towards Tin Dredgings, near the Bidor Tapah Road. I waited for the ‘flop’, but it never came.., the engine suddenly started! Captain Myers swung WZ706 starboard towards a piece of hard ground that had become visible, landing at what seemed a great speed..
The piece of land was only short with a high bank at the end. Captain Myers had to swing WZ706 round sharply to avoid the bank. We had made it to solid ground.
We had landed at Grid Reference VJ9613 13. There was a short walk to the nearest road where the local police met us -they had watched our decent. Some of them stayed to guard WZ706, whilst the rest took us to the police station at Biddor.
WZ706 was recovered by the RAF and returned to the flight after rebuilding. Faulty fuel injectors where found to be the cause of the engine failure.

That makes two of the Austers still ‘around’, as WZ679 is being renovated.
It’s so pleasing to find that a few of the planes I photographed 46 odd years ago are still with us.
The internet enables research that would have been so difficult even a few years ago.
Here’s the pic of WZ679.

I got quite a few shots of the first US Army Caribou to go to Vietnam. It’s the second US Army YAC-1A evaluation machine, as it passed through Changi in 1962.
This Caribou 73080 had an amazing history. Firstly by proving what a totally brilliant machine it was for the Army in Vietnam. It was used as the Vietnamese Presidents aircraft at one time and was the first to be converted to having ‘reverse thrust’ props after becoming an ‘ARPA’ aircraft.
That was the outfit set up to expidite ‘new and advance technology’ into operational use.
Back in the US, the plane was used for awhile as a transport for the Army’s Silver Eagle Helicopter Display team and has ended up on display at Fort Rucker Museum.
There are a couple of shots the ‘loading bay’ as well.