Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

In 2009, Dubai always seems to be in the news. It's a place that I've always enjoyed visiting - although in retirement I doubt if I will ever again be able to afford a stay there. My very first trip to Dubai was in a Victor Tanker en route to UK after our rather traumatic Lone Ranger to Singapore in July 1972 (we had routed via Masirah on the way out east - click here to read that story).

In 1972 Dubai was little more than the small villages around the Creek. There were no sky-scrapers, hardly any vehicular traffic, and hardly anyone outside the Middle East had ever heard of the place. It's one big attribute in 1972 was that it had a very long runway: that was important because a fully loaded Victor tanker carrying enough fuel to reach Cyprus needed over 10,000 feet of runway to get airborne in the high temperatures that are the norm at Dubai.

For reasons which are too lengthy to describe here, we were not expected when we landed, in spite of having properly submitted a flight plan before leaving Gan in the Maldives. We were directed to a remote part of the airfield and surrounded by armed guards. Eventually someone from RAF Sharjah, just a few miles away, came and vouched for us. We were filled up with BP but I had to sign for the fuel, the airport handling and landing fees, and the overnight stay we made in the only decent hotel there was. I never got the bill so I assume someone at the British Embassy settled that.

As it happens the last overseas trip I made with the Red Arrows was to Dubai in 1999 for what the international air show the Emirate called Dubai 2000. On that occasion, while the Red Arrows were practising, I was invited to take a trip to the top of a new hotel that was nearing completion, a hotel that would be the tallest building in the UAE. I had not expected that my trip to the top would be in a small bucket, hauled by a single rope, 1,000 feet or so up the outside of the building! In spite of having made parachute jumps, parascended, parasailed, and flown thousands of hours, I have always been, and remain still, frightened of heights when I am attached to them.

There was no honourable way I could get out of the bucket ride! In fact coming down was, if anything, more frightening than going up. I even had to stand on a transparent platform at the top that had a completely unrestricted view of the ground far below. I just managed to take a few photographs from the top before vertigo threatened to embarrass me in front of my hosts.

There are more images taken by me at Dubai 2000 here.