Mike's Saudi (26) Early days at Tabuk

Very few of the old Khamis bunch arrived at Tabuk where we started off with no Saudi friends and not many English friends either fortunately Fred had came to Tabuk too so at least Karen didn’t feel too bad about the move. Fred was an English teacher who together with three others seem to form a new group of friends for her. They were a mixed crowd John a New Zealander with a sarcastic sense of humour, Pete who ran a private bank for the boys, and another John who was Winston Churchill’s nephew. Soon they became our friends too. Some of her flight line friends had transferred with the aircraft and some members of the photo club had come as well. Before long we were running a fairly full house. The camera club gained some new members and I used to run portrait lessons in the garden which was full of eucalyptus trees and bushes.

One of the new members didn’t think I was experienced enough and one night soon after we started we were sat in the club room under a single strip light when he suddenly asked “What exposure would you give in here Mike?” Not a nice question but I answered it to the best of my ability and he whipped his exposure meter out and measured the ambient light. “You’re right” he said with amazement, I never told him that it was a lucky guess but from that moment on he never questioned anything I said.

I had been promoted and now worked in Training Control as one of a team. There was no close contact with the Saudis except at a managerial level which had the benefit of meeting the senior Saudi workforce. Although I knew a few of them through my time with Ali Badi I never knew them socially. But we got along just fine I was now working over a much wider range of trades and my main trouble was with the BAC section heads that saw it as their main responsibility to maintain the aircraft and tended to ignore the training of the Saudis. They were senior to me which meant that I had to go through my management to get things done. A most frustrating position to be in, so in due course when I was asked to apply for the Training Control managers job which I was expected to get. I refused. I’ve often wondered about that decision since but it did lead to the most interesting part of my stay in Saudi.