Flying On Rotation

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.

Mr. Dungey explains how the flight rotations and maintenance of aircraft was handled.

George Dungey

George Dungey, the youngest of three children, was born in 1924 near Barrie, Ontario. His father, a First World War Veteran, was a laborer, machinist and semi-pro ballplayer. Before they enlisted, Mr. Dungey and his older brother operated a bakery. Following his brother, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was seventeen and a half, at Owen Sound. Mr. Dungey hoped to be bomber crew; following his Canadian training on Tiger Moths at Virden, Manitoba and Ansons at Souris, Manitoba, he received his pilot's wings. In England, he trained in Oxfords and Dakotas. It was as a Dakota pilot that Mr. Dungey was deployed to the Far East, where he joined the newly formed 435 Squadron at Impal, India. His squadron performed a number of valuable roles. It delivered supplies to British land forces in Burma, paradropped assault troops where needed, towed gliders to combat areas, and ferried the sick and wounded to safety. Mr. Dungey remained in the RCAF after the war, most notably serving in 412 Squadron, flying Canadian dignitaries to several different international destinations. After retiring from the RCAF, Mr. Dungey joined Transport Canada as a civil aviation inspector.