Page 88 - Demo

84were away for about 3 weeks as it was a bit of a trial and Wg Cdr Wild came with us. The Five Power Defence Arrangement had just been signed and although this was a bit loose as an alliance it was decided to detach Nimrods to Tengah in the future and we went to see how it would work. We routed via Akroteri and then flew onto Gan in the Indian Ocean just refuelling at Masera on the way. This was a standard Support Command route flown by VC10s. The transport crews were not well regarded by us. For a start a captain of a VC10 was made a Squadron Leader and they were well looked after by their command staff. If for some reason a VC10 had to night stop in Gan, it was not unknown for a maritime crew to be thrown out of their airconditioned hut into a non-airconditioned one in the middle of the night. We had landed a bit ahead of a VC10 and quickly made our way to the bar. A drink or two in, a waiter appeared with a huge tray of chips and shouted out %u201cVC10 crew?%u201d They had ordered this through Air traffic on their way in. Anyway, it was too good to miss and so someone shouted out %u201cover here%u201d. Very good chips they were but we did get a lot of dirty looks when the real VC10 crew arrived. It was interesting flying out in Singapore. Each afternoon the clouds built up and there was usually a big thunderstorm. We flew around them for the most part but did have a lightning strike on the nose which made a huge bang but did no real damage.We had a bit of leave when we got back and then Pete was made the crew captain. We then took part in Exercise Highwood which I believe was designed to show that we did not need aircraft carriers as the RAF could protect the fleet from air attack. Obviously, the country could not afford everything it wanted but rivalries between the services was foolish. We were told that we had to go and support the fleet whether we were serviceable or not provided it was not a flight safety hazard. So, not having a serviceable radar was no excuse, and if the RN then sent you off to search for something you were not allowed to say you had no radar. Towards the end of the exercise, which lasted several days, any