Exercises with 75 Squadron in Singapore in the mid 1970s

The first Vanguard exercise that I was involved in was called Vanguard 2.

This was held in Singapore at Tengah Airforce Base. The next Vanguard Exercise I was involved in was Vanguard 20, still at Tengah. This time we were being flown by the reliable C130 Hercules aircraft.

Usually, on exercise, the servicing crew is split in two, each team starting work at noon, doing any flying/servicing required, including any night operations, until noon the following day. They were then off duty for the next 24 hours.

This allowed somebody to get tanked up at night, sleep it off until noon and then be in reasonably safe condition to service the aircraft.

Unless required we would have the weekends off to do trips in the surrounding area and see some of the local sights.

The Skyhawks would fly from Ohakea to Williamtown just north of Sydney where the Mirages had their home base.

There they would be refueled and be turned around [serviced], then they would fly to Townsville towards the top of Queensland.

This was necessary because if the westerly winds were very strong the Skyhawks required an in-flight refuel to go direct to Townsville.

The servicing party would be split into three sections, Support No 2 going to Williamtown to do the refuel and turn round there.

Support No 1 going to Townsville to do the refuel and turn round there. Depending on the time the turnaround was completed at Townsville the Skyhawks either overnighted or flew onto Darwin the top end of Australia.

They were reluctant to fly over the center of Austrailia in the night, and a night landing on an unfamiliar airfield is also to be avoided if possible.

Support No 2 would fly to Darwin after Williamtown and overnight there with or without the Skyhawks.

The following day The Skyhawks would leave Darwin and fly to Bali in Indonesia, Support No 1 would be there to refuel and do the turnaround so they could fly to Singapore, where Support No 2 was waiting to greet them.

Support No 3 was the drivers, pay clerks, stores men, etc. They flew 13 to 15 hours non-stop direct to Singapore.

When they arrived they were shattered, that long on a hard canvas seat, with four engines roaring away through one-eighth of an inch thick aluminum wall, and the loadmasters doing their checks making sure nobody slept.

Usually the refuel/turnaround went without hitch, the pilot wanted to get where he was heading and wanted to stay in the loose pairs formation that they flew in.

One trip however, at Townsville after the refuel, and on the point of taxing out to the runway, one of the pilots said his throttle wouldn’t advance towards take off properly.

I squatted on top of the air intake and reached into the cockpit, slammed the throttle back and forward a few times, yes he had a problem, there was a definite restriction of movement.

He and his wingman [for safety reasons they stuck together as pairs] shut down their engines while we had a good look for the problem. Eventually, it was traced to the fuel control unit that lives at the front, bottom of the engine.

To replace this meant the engine must be removed, the removal trolley was on support 2 in Darwin.

They returned from Darwin to Townsville with the gear, arriving about midnight. In preparation we had removed all the bolts, catches etc ready for the tail to be removed, and the engine rolled back to have the fuel control replaced, and everything refitted.

We were sitting around the hanger doors waiting for the returning C130 when one of the guys strolled in with two dozen beer cans that he had just won in a raffle.

So we all had one, one of the armourers, who had nothing to do with the engine pull, felt thirsty so he went up and bought some more, the entire support one team were supporting the workers, even if they could do nothing physical towards the engine removal.
.
The Australian Orderly Officer [ the camp is his responsibility after hours] came by to see why the hanger lights were on, we told him the story, as he looked at the mounting pile of empties in the middle of the circle.

As he departed he was heard to mutter “ I wouldn’t have them working on my aeroplane”. The actual workers limited themselves to one can all night so I wasn’t worried about them.

While the engine is on the removal trolley there is good access to everything on the bottom of the engine. The engine can even be raised or lowered and tilted if required.

The following morning, after the fuel control unit had been changed, the engine and tail had been refitted we then had to do a full ground run.

There was no ‘tie down point’ that we could chain the Skyhawk to so we borrowed two of the Australian tractors that they used for moving their Orions with.

These had a long tow rope and winch fitted to the rear so I had the tow ropes fitted to the other tractor, lowered the arresting hook over the ropes, set both tractors at forty-five degrees and asked the Aussies to keep their engines running, in forward gear with the brakes locked on.

Their tractors were automatic transmission so there was no danger of doing wheel spins or anything silly.

Their reaction was ‘A little plane like that, pulling our big tractors, what does he think he has got’.

So we started up, rolled forward to make sure that we had caught the tow rope properly.

Then slowly advanced the throttle towards take off, the two Aussie drivers who had been sitting on the grass having a smoke laughing at our little plane suddenly had to run after their tractors and stick them in gear and race the engines for the rest of the run.

At Ohakea where we had a ground running area with a concreted in tie-down point, the throttle is advanced towards take off as a slam,[as fast as you can] to make sure the engine wouldn’t stall if this was done in an emergency.

If we had done that there the tractors would have been dragged into each other.

At the end of the run when we were happy and had shut down the engine they both came over and expressed surprise that such a little aeroplane could move their tractors so easily, they were told

“Never doubt a Kiwi”.

The engine in a Skyhawk is the same that was used in pairs for a Boing 737 that carried about 130 people plus crew and cargo.

A fully loaded Skyhawk will lift over 10,000 lb of bombs, rockets etc, plus its own weight.

Support 2 raced back to Darwin to do the turnaround on the delayed pair. The whole Sqn then went to Bali and Singapore, arriving one day later than was planned.

The two pilots arrived and were dispatched without any further problem. We went to Bali to do the refuel/turnaround there.

While the pilots were away having lunch and pre-flight briefing at Bali a local armed guard came over to meet us, using pigeon English that even a pigeon couldn’t understand, we made out that he wanted to have a look in the cockpit.

We said yes, but no gun, pointing to his revolver in the holster on his hip. He paused to consider, yes that would be OK.

So he passed his revolver to one of the guys and climbed up the stepladder and started to look into the cockpit. I got onto the air intake and motioned him to get in and sit down.

It made his day, looking at all the instruments, being allowed to press the gun trigger, and move the control column around as if he was in a dogfight.

While he was being amused the pilots returned and were told what had occurred. They grabbed the revolver, removed all the ammunition and started doing ‘High Noon in Dodge City’ cowboy walk downs, with the pistol tucked into the top of their Hi G [gravity] boots.

When the local returned to the ground he was full of thanks, then he asked for ‘gun’.

What gun?, everybody acted as if we couldn’t understand what he wanted, he was getting quite worked up when the Officers relented and passed his pistol back.

Then they offered him his ammunition as well, I don’t know which pleased him more looking in the Skyhawk or getting his pistol and ammunition back.

We carried on to Singapore where we were based at Tengah Fighter Base and unloaded all the equipment we had brought.

Our dispersal area was on the other side of the main runway, this meant loading a truck with our stuff, driving through the main gate out onto a civilian road for half a mile, then turning back into Tengah Base and driving through married quarters to our dispersal.

We had a new, young, wouldn’t listen to anybody else, type officer in charge of the Stores department.

He showed up in an Army RL Bedford, a three-ton high decked, do anything, go anywhere, vehicle.

We loaded all our stuff on board, the officer forgot to tell us to lift the flap at the back up and lock it, so we didn’t.

He lurched off in the direction of the main gate, over the two speed bumps far faster than he should have, and out onto the main road heading to our dispersal.

The Singaporean guard on the gate was probably very surprised to see an officer driving, even more surprised when the truck dropped a large cardboard box in the middle of the road, blocking all access through the gateway.

The guard yelled at the departing truck, but the officer wouldn’t listen to a person of such low rank, so he continued on his merry way.

English is taught in Singapore, but it isn’t a requirement to join the Singaporean Armed Forces.

The guard marched out to the box in the middle of the road and saw a large printed label on the side of the box.

B O M B? thinks B o m b? BOMB!!!

There was almost an international incident over us bringing bombs into Singapore. It was a box of six and a half pound practice bombs, made from steel, apart from hurting your toe if you dropped one, totally safe.

They required a shotgun sized cartridge that puffed a blob of smoke to mark fall of shot when dropped.

We later found out that the officer didn’t even have a license to drive a car, much less a truck. He returned to NZ the next day and we went without a stores officer for the exercise.

During the main ADEx [Air Defence Exercise] the Sqn was deployed to Butterworth Australian Base, halfway up the Malayan Peninsula, to be part of the defenders, during the exercise nothing apart from military aircraft were allowed to fly between certain hours in the Malayan/ Singapore area.

Usually, either Singapore based aircraft were the attackers and Butterworth the defenders, or the reverse. Next time the roles reversed.

Because there was no civilian aircraft in the area the attackers could start, taxi, take off and fly without using their radios, so the defenders didn’t know when to expect the opposition.

As the aircraft started up to deploy to Butterworth one of the fuel pumps in the main fuel tank developed a leak which poured Avtur [ Aviation Kerosene] all over the front wheel, on one of the aircraft.

This one and his wingman were left behind when the others took off.

I thought I knew the part number of the O ring that had failed, unfortunately, all the technical books had gone to Butterworth, and safety was the main thing.

Singapore at that time were flying the Skyhawk model S, an earlier model than ours, but probably the same fuel pump, it was worth checking. I got the fuel pump number off the label to make sure the pumps were the same.

I walked around the end of the runway to the Singaporean Sqn, found a good English speaking engine fitter and asked for their parts book so I could check that I had the correct part number.

He apologized, they had no use for the parts book on the Sqn, but he called to one of his men to take me to the Main Library.

We duly arrived at the library, the language barrier struck again, Part Book didn’t work, book with a picture on this page, words on that page, didn’t work, several other attempts, didn’t work.

As I was about to give up and go back to the Sqn when I saw a page from the parts book laying on the table, “Book this page came from”. “AHH you want something unpronounceable”.

There were five copies on Tengah Base, they wrote me a list of where they were, and who was looking after them. Great.

I handed the list to my driver and asked him to take me to the nearest book.

Away we went, I saw more of the base than any other Kiwi had we pulled up outside a strange hanger, he grabbed my hand and led me through the hanger and into an office, there was the parts book.

While unusual to NZ’s, holding hands for males was nothing uncommon and a mark of friendship for the locals.

A quick check, yes I was right about the part number, so I told the driver to go back to the Sqn where we had started.

OK, we set off again and did a grand tour of the base ending up at a different hanger, the driver got out and took my hand to lead me to the next copy of the parts book.

I had to visit each book and check the number was right before we were allowed to return to the Skyhawk Sqn.

By the time I had returned to the Sqn and replaced the O ring there wasn’t enough time for the pair of Skyhawks to fly to Butterworth and land before their cease flying time, I think there was a party in the Officers mess as well that night.

The two Officers had a good night in the Officers mess, we had a good evening in our respective clubs/messes. The following morning the two aircraft were dispatched without any further problems.

I had been given one of each trade in case any of our aircraft were diverted back to Tengah, otherwise, we had nothing to do for a week. I checked with Tengah Operations late each morning, left a Corporal and one other just in case of emergency, and stood the rest of the team down for the rest of the day.