Fat Albert, Shropshire Blue Volume Three (Shropshire Blue #3)

Ron Powell joined the C-130 Hercules fleet as a pilot just as the Falklands War started. So his early months on the aircraft, affectionately known to its crews as Fat Albert, are dominated by frequent visits to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.
But this third volume of Shropshire Blue also chronicles flights across much of the rest of the world, from Las Vegas to New Zealand and northern Canada to the Falklands. Highlights include flights into Hong Kong, East Berlin, Beirut, Cape Canaveral at the time of a Space Shuttle launch, and Ethiopia during famine relief operations.
Along the way, there are airborne emergencies, touch and go medical evacuations and a cast of amazing characters, good and bad.
Shot through with humour, this richly illustrated memoir provides a fitting farewell to an aircraft with a long and distinguished record in RAF service.
Once again, the cover design is by Martin Butler.