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Flying On Rotation

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Flying On Rotation

 

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Well I did over 700 hours during my tour there and I did 230 operations in that period, that would be around 11 months, something like that. What would happen is, you would have the air craft one day and you'd fly your three flights or four, sometimes with weather you couldn't get them all in and the next day another crew would take the same one and fly it from dawn til dusk and the next day you would do it so it was a rotation deal. In the different books that Mountbatten wrote that he had never ever had a group who carried so much in so short a time ever, they surpassed all records on two squadrons, I'm saying 435 and 436, both had similar records. And the ground crew in particular, the aircraft were maintained, we had 25 aircraft and they were maintained at 90% serviceability which was rated very, very high in wartime and often higher than that and an engine change would be done overnight using tripods with pulleys to pull the engine in and out but I think of nowadays and my postwar experience, you know, aircraft would be gone for ten days having an engine change and all the good things and so generally someone would have it air tested for you and you'd be ready to go first thing again in the morning.

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