Flying in the Persian Gulf

Beech Queen Air (B80)

After some time as a First Officer in the right hand seat of a DC3 I was promoted to Senior First Officer and became Pilot in Command of a Beech B80 aircraft. I would fly, usually empty, down from Bahrain where I was based, to Al Azaiba on the coast, west of Muscat, which was the base for the company we were contracted to, Petroleum Development Oman. This was a very busy base camp and usually two of our DC3's and one of our Beech 80’s were based there. We flew all over the deserts to the south of the Al Hajar Mountains.

While the DC3’s operated the daily resupply flights to the various geophysical camps in the desert behind the mountains of the Jebel Akhdar, rising to nearly 10,000 feet, the B80 was used as an air taxi, ferrying up to 9 passengers as required. There was usually a daily flight to Fahud airstrip for Petroleum Development Oman. It was good to be away from the scheduled airline routine and actually be Captain (even if only a small 9-seater).

The Company maintained an apartment in Abu Dhabi for us pilots as we spent between five and ten days away from home. A pleasant day's work was flying west along the coast from Abu Dhabi to a base camp at Tarif and then on to Jebel Dhanna where there was a tank farm and return to Abu Dhabi and a cold beer or two. We soon discovered the Sailing Club which we could join. It was a tin shack with a fridge, situated on a sandy creek where we could sail dinghies.

A word about runways in the Empty Quarter. Away from the coast with its paved runways, the criteria for landing a DC3 on the sand, was “drive a Landrover at 60 mph, apply the brakes and see that the ruts are not be more that 6 - 8 ins deep”. One time with a sandstorm approaching, we had to take off at right angles to the "runway" which was just like the rest of that part of the desert, but marked with widely spaced empty oil drums.

We regularly flew the F27's to Salalah on the south coast of the Sultanate of Oman. It was an interesting and undeveloped place in those days. We were not allowed to night stop there because of the bad guys firing mortars down into the airfield from the adjacent Jebal al Qara, though I did spend one night there when the F27 had something wrong with it. We stayed in the Officer's Mess which had some intriguing but secretive British "advisers" helping the Sultan's army fight the rebels. The Sultan, Said bin Taimur, ruled from his palace there, which was connected to the rest of the country by a net of army radios.

I expect Salalah is still somewhat of a remote place, and hope you can still buy frankincense there.

An assignment I was given was flying Sir Edward Heath and his party around the area when he was Leader of the Opposition, some time after 1964. I picked them up at Bahrain airport and in the next week or so flew them to Saudi Arabia, then on to Buraimi Oasis (also known as Al Ain) where we dined in state with the Ruler, Sultan bin Zayed. As their pilot I was sitting on brocade cushions with the minor functionaries for the mutton-grab, remembering to eat only with one's right hand. Of course, it was a men only meal.

To find the landing strip one had to look for the Jebel Hafeet looming up in the distance and then buzz the fort and wait for the retinue of large Mercedes cars to arrive.

Jebal Hafeet (no paved roads or street lights in those days!)

Buraimi Fort

This map covers covers most of the area I used to fly over. Bahrain where I was based is to the west of Doha, the capital of Qatar state.
A usual trip taking a day, was to leave Bahrain at dawn, next stop Doha, then on to Abu Dhabi, northeast to Dubai (spelt 'Dubayy' on the map) and then return the same way.
Fahud and Nizwa were only rough airstrips.

I recently found this old photo of Dubai Airport Control Tower and Fire Station