Sometimes you are sitting on something special

[Zak33]

I have a new job, right? Right.

Tumble sent me something recently and he texted me to say "you work on an airfield" which I do.....its an industrial estate now.

http://www.cheddington.org.uk/airfield.htm

'Ave THAT.

A friend of mine who is a mechanic up the airfield, works in a hanger!!!!

Sometimes you cant see the wood for the trees!!!!

[Tumble]

fantoostic

[MA_Moby]

I just had a ganders at my flying map to see where it was (they mark disused fields, because there are so bloody many you can navigate by them) - it's still listed as an active field, 6nm east of Aylesbury/5nm south of Leighton Buzzard: probably a small part of it has survived as a private strip - or else a new strip has been cut in a nearby field? either that or the CAA have been slow to update their maps! keep an eye on your six!

[jeNK^]

In my brief experiences in small aircraft, I remember taking off from RAF Halton, getting to about 2000ft and seeing so many disused airfields.. it was actually a shocker, as pre-flying I didn't know of any disused airfields.. and to see atleast 5 within 5 miles...

[MA_Moby]

Halton is right next door to Cheddington

yeah it's a shocker isn't it. In Norfolk they're all covered in turkey farms

[Nick]

Yeah, the whole of the Vale is damn well covered in them... there's simply LOADS of farmers or country types who have pulled up vast quantities of concrete to mkae way for arable farming.... but have left enough for a small private strip.... There's two active strips within about 500 yards of where I live now.

Plus I think it was at Wing, they used to build hydrogen filled airships during WW1... then you've got Fighter Group command at Uxbridge... and Bletchley Park just outside of MK... recent history is bloody everywhere if we stop to have a look... like the Mosquito Museum 5 minutes from my work... which I STILL haven't visited yet!

And Bovingdon airfield houses the main LHR VOR/DME beacon for incoming flights... go there and look up... on a sunny day the contrails resemble spaghetti junction...

[MA_Moby]

I was interested to find out more abotu Wing and saw this webpage:

http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/eme..._airfield.html

I didn't know about the MB series of prototypes.

Can anyone tell me what the huge hangars are that are visible from the road between MK and Cambridge? They look like airship hangars? Near Bedford?

edit: this must be them, Cardington

http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/r...ion_beds.shtml

[Nick]

Yes mate, Cardington... home of some disasterous airships... got a book about them, massively over weighted, hugely expensive and flawed designs... essentially killed our airship industry before it got off the ground... Will see if I can dig the book out... makes very interesting reading about what happens when bureaucrats get involved...

[Zak33]

and High Wycombe I believe, was Bomber Command. Least I think thats what I heard on my latest CD from Tumble

[CoDa]

I used to work on a converted airfield where these flew from on D-day

[Tumble]

Waco Gliders... everything made out of wood... seats.. control columns... mental...

[Stolly]

I work on the former RAF Pocklington. It was an operational Bomber Command field throughout much of the war, seeing Halifaxes based here in the main. IIRC, it was a free French field until they moved just up the road to RAF Elvington. The building i work in is called Blenheim House, which i assume is named after the Blenheim aircraft although Blenheims were never based here.

The field itself is still in use as a glider club although they use a grass strip parallel to one of the old concrete runways which are no longer in use and are either dug up or overgrown. The technical site is now an industrial park, with three of the old hangers still in existance as well as a few smaller buildings.

The area around York is thick with former RAF bomber fields, its amazing how close they are, how there were not more collisions is amazing

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/s62.html

http://www.controltowers.co.uk/P/Pocklington.htm

[Nick]

and High Wycombe I believe, was Bomber Command. Least I think thats what I heard on my latest CD from Tumble

Well, just outside Wycombe, buried deep under that MAHOOSIVE hill that the cinema sits on is NATO's european ops center.

Back when Reagan and whatshisface were busy tooling up, that would have been one of the most nuked locations in the country... of course, with China having nuclear ICBM capability... it's still a target...

[jeNK^]

I used to work on that hill, still have an office there.. think if there is any form of threat, and they want me to work their that day I shall be pulling a sicky.