Page 114 - Demo

114 As before, the team%u2019s flying was restricted to the training units, although our QWI was permitted to fly with pilots from the Skyhawk and Hunter conversion units. My picture shows a Singaporean SF260 on the ramp at Seletar, the original RAF base in Singapore, which still showed many signs of its origins. It was nice to drive around the old Changi domestic site on my one afternoon off and see that Cranwell Crescent, Upavon Drive and the like were still very much in evidence! My final visit, in 1989, was to Kenya, possibly the most interesting visit of all. In 1982 there was an uprising in Kenya, actively supported by the then named Kenya Air Force. This had been suppressed with considerable force. A number of air force personnel were purged and a new organisation, the %u201882 Air Force%u2019, was formed from the remnants of the Kenya Air Force. This service was strictly under the control of the Kenyan Army, who had remained loyal to the regime during the uprising. Before departing my small team and I were briefed that relations between the UK and Kenya had been strained, that this visit was the first for some time and that it had taken much diplomacy to get approval. It was, therefore, to be conducted more as an exercise in assistance rather than an assessment of capability, as London was keen to see an improvement in relations between the two countries. On arrival our hosts in the 82 Air Force were delighted to see us but it was soon apparent that they were desperately badly off for resources and facilities. Very scrappy blackboards and chalk were the principal briefing aids. It was obvious that they resented the presence of the Army; each Base Commander was an army officer who outranked the senior airman and his small team of army colleagues seemed to be there to ensure that as soon as the airmen started to achieve some success in their activities, they were diverted away to do something else. Pilots complained about being sent off as guard commanders at the presidential palace for months at a stretch. The A Kenyan Hawk at Mombasa Airport.