Page 97 - Demo

93when we had a small radar contact at night and I lit up the search light. Whichever pilot was in the right-hand seat operated this. It was 70 million candle power and you moved it around with a joystick. We didn%u2019t see anything and moved on but the radar reported it again later so we dropped some sonar buoys on it. Nothing came up on the sonics and so we eventually left it alone. In those days there was a certain amount of illicit traffic between the Philippines and Malaysia, and I often wondered if we dropped our buoys on or very near someone in a tiny boat. We also did a night sortie operating with fast patrol boats which was something we could never do at home. I think we dropped parachute flares and then dived back down to see what was there. We had quite a good time in Singapore including water skiing in the straights which was fun, but you had to keep your mouth shut if you fell off. Generally, whoever was driving the boat would not cause you to have to turn if there was a patch of rubbish floating in the water. It could easily be sewage and on at least one occasion a dead pig went by. We could also go down Orchard Road in the evening. There the daytime car park was full of food stalls in the evening, and you just wandered round selecting whatever you wanted to eat, then found a table and got a beer. The stall holders would then come and find you with the food and you had a lovely long meal as each dish came separately, spaced out in time. The only thing we were not allowed was fresh fruit from the markets. There was cholera in Singapore although not very virulent at that time. Stall holders were known to inject water into fruit to increase the weight. This water could come from any convenientsource such as a ditch. The officer%u2019s mess was on 2 stories with the bar at the top. You could sit up there and watch over the airfield. I think the Singapore Air Force had Skyhawks and when they landed, they kept their nose high to increase drag to help slow down. In fact, they kept the nose so high that the tail hit the runway with a great shower of sparks which was quite a sight at night.