Flying through Red Sea mirage conditions

Wellham describes reaching a Red Sea airfield after an eight-hour flight. Near-continuous mirage made height over the sand difficult to judge, turning the landing into a problem that had to be solved on the ground. Black-painted petrol drums marked virtual runway edges and served much like flare-path lights at night. The arrangement shows how air operations depended on local knowledge and improvised ground support as well as aircraft performance. The passage ends with dinner, beds and a bar for the aircrew, followed by an encounter with disgruntled army officers who thought they had been forgotten.