John was posted to Hong Kong in 1954. At 1900 Flight Independent AOP Shatin.

He was an accomplished Auster pilot and instructor. He thoroughly enjoyed his time here and made many lifelong friends.

A 1954 Flight magazine had an article about the Hong Kong and had this to say about flying there:

"The men stationed with the Flight take great pride in pointing out that one of their spare-time hobbies is flying, for any time one of the pilots makes a trip and there is a spare seat in one Auster, he is usually willing to take one of the ground staff along with him."

One thing he mentioned with amusement was the many passengers he took up who were air sick. The 1954 Flight magazine also mentions this:

"The ground-crew are apt to tell the guest-passenger how pale he looks when he lands. Pinned to the wall of the Flight office is a small chart headed "Shooting the Cat"—a polite way of putting "List of People who were Airsick." Any new addition would certainly be in good company, including that of a certain subaltern who said, loudly, that no one could make him airsick. His name duly appeared on the list with "windy" against it."