One common denominator was more than one marriage, along with an alcohol based lifestyle. This was brought about by the job, living in the Officers Mess with no women, and at times just numbing the brain after a bad day. However this also extended to carrying a whisky flask and having a couple of slurps at first light before you took off for an operation that you really would have sooner stayed in bed for. There were no heros, you did the job and hoped it was your lucky day, flew back to Salalah, parked your ass on your stool at the bar, then exchanged stories and got pissed, often playing silly drinking games and seeing who could stop the overhead fan with their head, no A/C, without being carted off to FST having been scalped.
Unfortunately when I left in '77 and joined Bristows, I still had the habit, little danger involved, but it eased the back pain. Fortunately an older pilot who had had a similar career took me to one side, so that was knocked on the head. Unfortunately one of my closest friends in Oman was Chaz Nicholls, he was an ATCO at the time, but I used to take him up when I had spare time and got him to a reasonable standard on helis and fixed wing. He left Oman after me, but went to the States and got his fixed wing ATPL. He then went to fly with Royal Brunei and progressed to a Senior Captain. Saw him a few times over the years at our annual SOAF reunions, then read this devastating news. Tried to get in contact again, but after his jail sentence nobody had heard from him so don't even know if he is still alive.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... ozing.html
Airline pilot jailed for drinking
A pilot has been jailed for six months for drinking before a flight.
Charles Nicholls was due to fly 200 passengers from Heathrow to Brunei on 1 July when he was found to be six times over the limit for flying.
Nicholls, 54, a captain with Royal Brunei Airways, of Eastbourne, East Sussex, said he drunk a "large amount" the night before he was due to fly.
He admitted the excess alcohol charge. A judge at Isleworth Crown Court said it was "irresponsible and reckless".
'Danger to the public'
Judge Richard MrGregor-Johnson said: "You blood-alcohol level was over six times the limit for flying.
"It was over one-and-a-half times for driving a car let alone flying a passenger aircraft.
"You were entrusted with the safety of the crew, passengers and, of course, people on the ground who may have been affected if anything had gone wrong.
"It is plain you had consumed a large quantity of alcohol on the previous day.
'Bottle to throttle'
"That is highly irresponsible and reckless.
"Those who are reckless in such circumstances risk being a danger to the public and to themselves and I am satisfied this demands a custodial sentence."
Simon Connolly, prosecuting, said a security officer noticed Nicholls smelled of alcohol as he headed to the plane to carry out safety checks .
The police were called and Nicholls, of Admiralty Way, was found to have 69 micrograms of alcohol in 100 ml of breath when the limit should be 9 micrograms.
He was fired from the airline immediately.
Nicholls' defence said he had stopped drinking at 2130 GMT observing the pilot's rule of 12 hours from "bottle of throttle".
But he did not take into account the fact he had been drinking at lunchtime.
Nicholls admitted a charge of carrying out flight preparations as captain of Royal Brunei Airways flight B198, when the proportion of alcohol in his blood exceeded the prescribed limit
Also found a couple of old pics from when we got the Hunters to replace the Strikemasters. We used to beat up the airfield when we got back from a mission, but this time it looks as if we had not used our payload.
tut
. 
, she has a one big deep cut and had to be stiched around the wrist area and amazingly missed all the main blood areas 
. little nicks on her knee and face, however she's now fine but sore 
