Hunting Percival Provost T52. R3616
Outside Field Aircraft Services in August 1972.

This is one of the batch of 7 aircraft that appeared in December/January 1971/72. Field Aircraft Services were awarded the contract to renovate these aircraft, it appeared that they had been stored in a salt air environment but were not too bad, they came out factory new. It was interesting that even during the years of 'Sanctions' the British owned Field Aircraft Services maintained discreet contact with the parent company, it was not unknown for visits by the parent company, 'Hunting Group' representatives to be made, general introductions were not made!

This aircraft is reported to be an ex-RAF aircraft, 'XF693', it also had a British civil registration 'G-AWTC' before it found its way to Rhodesia.

The author of the book 'Shadows', see book review, had dealings with this batch of aircraft, 7 in all which arrived around this time. Now I know what the climate is like in the UK and realise that the surface corrosion evident when they arrived was 'Normal', even away from the sea, in Rhodesia the atmosphere in general has low humidity, I had not seen similar corrosion before.