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Post by PB on Apr 9, 2023 6:00:23 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 09/04/23It's quite ironic don't you think??
The Blackbushe Heritage Trust have pulled out all the stops to save an aeroplane that played a significant role in British aviation and our great heritage of days gone by. In a very few weeks a Viking that has been saved from the scrapyards of Europe will arrive at Blackbushe from whence she once flew ready for intensive restoration, a restoration that will for generations to come illustrate British aviation's drive, capability, and enterprise while also saving a large page of Blackbushe's history too...
Ironic? Yes, because down in Cornwall the County Council have become the dark force of anti-aviation, anti-history, anti-heritage, by demanding that Cornish Aviation Heritage remove all their priceless exhibits with immediate effect or, apparently, the County Council will do it themselves with little mercy for the loss that their actions will incur upon our heritage. I've had messages asking if there is anywhere that could perhaps save the Varsity by providing temporary storage space until a permanent home is found, but maybe an airfield somewhere could provide a suitable space? It occurred to me that Farnborough would perhaps be a perfect spot were a Varsity to be placed on show wearing the old RAE rasberry ripple colour scheme.. A token of the airfield's great past? But, would a hard nosed money making business such as Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited have room for a little emotion in their activity?Many a Varsity travelled through Blackbushe in the golden past. Here's VK501 of the Royal Jordanian Air Force having just been converted by resident Eagle Airways.One of the many RAF Varsities that transitted through Blackbushe in the fifties...If WJ945 goes for the chop in Cornwall, driven by some bureaucratic fervour, a travesty of the highest order will have been committed... "Flyer" recently produced the following on their website flyer.co.uk/cornwall-aviation-heritage-centre-faces-immediate-closure/
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 10, 2023 9:49:01 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 10/04/23A brief update today...The Viking's return moves closer! The Blackbushe Heritage Trust's Viking has now moved from its resting place in Austria to the hard standing where it will be dismantled at the end of April and all being well commence its journey home to the UK and Blackbushe Airport!! Plans are now well advanced for the provision of a suitable hangar/work station at Blackbushe which should be completed by 25th April. Thereafter painting and racking will be necessary, accordingly work parties are being arranged from 27th to 30th April. Volunteers for the task are currently being signed up on a shift basis. If you would like to become involved in preparing where the Viking will be given much TLC over the coming months why not text David Ashworth on 07990 536710 or the Trust on www.blackbusheheritagetrust.com/volunteer-signup and join the fun in the fresh Blackbushe air??Pilatus PC-12 - OE-EHA by Steve Lynes, on Flickr Bell 429 GlobalRanger - G-RIDB by Steve Lynes, on Flickr Pilatus PC-12 - LX-JFA by Steve Lynes, on Flickr Pilatus PC-24 - OO-MBP by Steve Lynes, on Flickr Just a reminder of some of Blackbushe's air traffic nowadays thanks to Steve Lynes and his fantastic camera work. Increasingly Blackbushe shows her worth to all forms of General Aviation air traffic!PB
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Post by PB on Apr 11, 2023 6:34:00 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 11/04/23OK, that was Easter, weather behaved for three out of four days so can't complain.
Next stop is the Viking's return to Blackbushe at the end of the month/beginning of May which leads us on into June and the 3rd of the month when the Blackbushe Air Day fills the Airport with aeroplanes, all kinds of exhibits,the car show, loads of exciting and varied eating options, pleasure flights and lots of happy people! Tickets are selling fast and limited in numbers, once they're gone they're gone...you know what to do!I'm coming back for the Blackbushe Air Day!Take a look at the list of fabulous aeroplanes already lined up for the Air Day Static Park, and it's growing all the time!! www.blackbusheairday.com/static-display-listHad you been at Blackbushe on 3rd June, 1959 - the last one before before Blackbushe was closed by the government the following year - it would not have snowed but you would have seen a British & Commonwealth Britannia on crew training..Same day an RAF Beverley formed part of the Blackbushe scene...Regular US Navy traffic would have entertained the onlookers of the day!..and, naturally, the many Vikings of Blackbushe would have been going about their business.The days when Blackbushe thrived on her mix of commercial and military aircraft may have been terminated by the actions of the UK government as we moved into the 1960s, but the sterling endeavours of Blackbushe's owners, and in particular her present owners, have not only saved one of the nation's most precious airfields they've given the future an airport that will eventually become the south's most well equipped and up to date General Aviation centre. Look forward to seeing you in June whether you arrive by air or by road!!
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 12, 2023 19:28:06 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 12/04/23Apologies should anyone have looked for today's "POTD". Operational circumstances involving giving a very precious grandson some flight instruction at an early hour rather took up the traditional "POTD" construction period...Three years old a great age for discovering flight! Here's a picture for "POTD". The early days when Vikings ruled!!Back in the morning...
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 13, 2023 6:22:02 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 13/04/23Here we are back on schedule once more... It's interesting looking back on aviation's past and we lean on its experiences, developments, and sadly disasters too. 13th April. The day the Vickers Vimy 'Commercial' made its first flight from Joyce Green airfield in Kent. A larger diameter fuselage than the famous forerunner it could carry ten passengers. In 1945 the last Boeing B-17 was delivered on this day, while in 1970 in space "Houston we have a problem" found fame when Apollo 13 following the explosion of an oxygen tank.. while a few years later in 2010 the crew of Cathay Pacific 780, an Airbus A330, had a problem too. Due to a system malfunction they were unable to adjust engine thrust which necessitated landing at Hong Kong International at 230kts, 95kts higher higher than the required landing speed. All ended well although the subsequent emergency evacuation injured 57 of the 322 passengers onboard... That was April 13th!Looking at Blackbushe on this day, in 1957 Bristol Britannia demonstrator aircraft, G-ANCA, arrived while Hunting Clan York G-ANGF was present, along with BEA Viscounts G-AOJE and G-AOJF and dear old Viking G-APAT of Eagle Airways was just one of numerous Viking movements. RAF Beverley XP283, a USAF C-54 and C-47 arrived. Convair 340 HZ-ABA of Saudi Arabian Airlines added some Middle Eastern spice this day in '57.Here's Eagle's G-APAT on the move..with some of the US Navy's activity around their Blackbushe base..Deep from the bowels of the "POTD" library, here's HZ-ABA of Saudi Arabian Airlines on Blackbushe's southern taxiway..See you on the 14th all being well...
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 14, 2023 6:24:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 14/04/23Half way through April, next week will see developments toward the accommodation for the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's Viking, volunteers will be coming forth armed with paint brushes having signed up on the Whatsapp painting group with a roster running through 27-30th April. Meanwhile, the team who will be preparing the aircraft for travel to the UK will be flying out next week armed with the necessary equipment and enthusiasm to get G-AGRW dismantled and onto the transporters that have the job of bringing her home.
The amount of work and preparation, fund raising, and dedicated volunteering involved in fund raising since the Blackbushe Heritage Trust was formed last year is nothing short of incredible. Massive thanks must go to all volunteers, all who have donated and to British Airways and Blackbushe Airport without who we would not be where we are today. A Viking returning to Blackbushe six decades after the last one departed the security once offered by Blackbushe. My records indicate that Viking G-AHPG was the last movement of the type at Blackbushe, belonging to Falcon Airways she went to Bournemouth and the Viking - it was thought - would never be seen at Blackbushe again. WRONG!! For the devoted Blackbushe work force it must have been a heartbreaking time as the residents departed for the very last time...
Back to the present, the General Aviation Advisory Council have published their latest "Aerodome Update" spelling out the none too beautiful status of many UK GA airfields. Popham, Fairoaks and Dunsfold are, of course, still on the endangered species list as are many other well known sites whose futures are not very accommodating when it comes to giving aeroplanes somewhere to live... Blackbushe is one airfield not on the list, she has survived six decades of bureaucratic handcuffing but hopefully withing the next year those handcuffs will have the key to release them.
Here's the GAAC document www.gaac.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AERODROMES-UPDATE-Q1-2023.pdfHere's "HPG" in happier times outside her Blackbushe hangar located on Blackbushe 'south', south of the A30...the last recorded Viking movement at Blackbushe departing for Hurn. The area is now thick overgrown scrub, not a sign of the life that once thrived there...In all the years that have passed since Blackbushe last hosted a Viking her heart has managed to keep beating, sometimes the heartbeat was almost extinguished as various bodies endeavoured to bring about the airfield's demise but the determination of her owners over sixty plus years has overcome adversity and given us an Airport with a great future, and very soon beyond all expectation - the home for a Vickers Viking, the commercial aeroplane that played such a large role in Blackbushe's life and that of British post-war commercial air travel..
You can still get involved, contact the Heritage Trust at this address.. team@blackbusheheritagetrust.com
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 15, 2023 6:43:46 GMT
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Post by PB on Apr 16, 2023 7:13:36 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 16/04/233rd June gets closer, the day of the 2023 Blackbushe Air Day, the aeroplanes expected in the static park grow in numbers. Here's the link to the current list, of course, in aviation weather and technical issues can play their hand but hopefully they won't! Click me! www.blackbusheairday.com/static-display-list
It's going to be a fun day apart from the many aircraft on display, with the extensive car show, wide ranging ground exhibits, live music, a very wide range of eating opportunities, and plenty of fun and bouncy things for the younger generation to leap around on - all included in the entry ticket price!! Don't miss an enjoyable, relaxed, well fed day with some priceless aeroplanes for company!!A moment from last year's Blackbushe Air Day....note how we arranged the weather too!Looking at the past, I note today marks the first flight of the Beagle Airedale in 1961. A step forward in this country's endeavours to have a light aircraft industry, it rather felt like a step between the streamlined light aircraft of today and the old Auster family. An attractive aeroplane, we had one at last year's Blackbushe Air Day...We also had an Airedale attend the unforgettable October 1962 "Great Blackbushe Airport Re-opening Air Display", the day when our empty airfield filled with life and aeroplanes flocked in from all directions. Even now I can see how dots appearing in the distant sky grew and grew in size and numbers until Blackbushe for one day was endowed with a wide range of aircraft numbers and types. Looking back, one of life's most memorable occasions, such was the depth of feeling shared that day...Looking back, it's hard to imagine life without Blackbushe! As a very young person in the 1950s she gave a vast and busy international airport serving civil and military needs.After the 1960 closure great sadness followed, but new life was brought about by AVM "Pathfinder" Bennett's purchase of the site and hence the airfield's chance for rebirth. The following 60 years have been filled with excitement, opportunities, amazing friendships, a lot of flying, running various events, tragedies, frustration, and always hope! Hope that one day Blackbushe will be able to offer permanent new hangars and 'airport' facilities without the chains of babbling bureaucracy that tied her down from the very earliest of days. The day will come, the Airport is leaps and bounds ahead of those primitive days in the sixties when horses were ridden across the airfield, nails scattered on runways, and learner drivers proliferated as aeroplanes jockied for the same runway!! Blackbushe is without doubt a field of dreams, dreams that I hope will reach fulfillment before, well before it's too late for some of us.... Fingers crossed!
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 17, 2023 6:31:02 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 17/04/23It's Monday! If you're going to work, well have a nice day...whatever you're doing, make the most of every minute. Each one is precious.
Here endeth today's lesson.
Today apart from being Monday witnesses a step forward at Blackbushe as the first components for the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's Viking are scheduled to arrive. Not parts of the aeroplane but the structure within which she will be accommodated during the refurbishment time ahead. You might notice if you're attending the Pathfinder Cafe for your essential refreshments today...
Everyone attending this year's Blackbushe Air Day on June 3rd will see lots of aeroplane amid all the other activitis going on throughout the day. Pleasure flying is one of your options and on 3rd June you will have the choice of flying in a modern jet powered helicopter or the beautiful and vintage de Havilland Rapide biplane.
The Rapide is another symbol of the design artistry employed by the de Havilland aircraft company, sleek lines, beautiful to behold, and testament to this is the Scillonia Airways Rapide that will be providing pleasure flights all day on 3rd June. Today, 17th April, is a landmark in the Rapide's long life story, for it was on this day in 1934 that the Rapide first tasted the air beneath her wings as she ascended from the de Havilland Hatfield works. The type made its public debut that year by participating in the Kings Cup Air Race.Scillonia Airways pleasure flying at Blackbushe last year...and the classic lines of the Rapide! Fly her in June!!!Finally, a salute to our brave boys who took the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's mobile sales unit to the Heathrow Aviation Fair at Kempton Park yesterday. They returned to base having made another valuable profit toward the restoration of our Viking, sincere thanks and congratulations to each and everyone of them..Have a great Monday..
PB
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Post by PB on Apr 18, 2023 6:28:31 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 18/04/23The focus of our daily encounters on these "POTD" pages is centered on a stretch of land, a plateau, that forms what historically are/were the Hartford Bridge Flats. The very wise move to build a military air base on the 'Flats' came from the needs of war, an air base that was to prove ideal not just for war but later for commercial and General Aviation needs too.
It's all too easy to forget what happened at RAF Hartford Bridge and the role she played in aerial photography of enemy territories, relentless bomber attacks on German strongholds across Europe, troop movements, the not talked about all black bombers, and her crucial part in D-day laying smoke across the Channel and attacking strategic enemy locations. Hopefully before my days are done it will be possible for a memorial to be constructed in memory of the many Hartford Bridge boys whose days ended far too soon and never returned to the safety of their home base.
Stuart Marshall's accounts from crew members who served here during the war are quite haunting. This morning "POTD" brings you a letter received by Stuart from F/Lt 'Dougie' Hadland of 162 and 692 Mosquito Squadrons. The period is July-August 1944."I was with 162 Squadron, 8 Group (Pathfinder Force) at Bourne, which was Mosquito squadron. Very soon after VE Day a number of us were posted to Blackbushe, to fly diplomatic mail to Brussels, Wiesbaden and Oslo. Our CO W/Cdr Sewell told us we were to fly down in formation and generally 'put on a good show', but having operated mainly at night and as individuals, formation flying was not our strong point. Hence we approached Blackbushe well spread out and I recall arrived on the circuit at the same time as a number of American (manufactured) aircraft were trying to land. I am not too sure if they were Bostons or Mitchells but I do remember, we had trouble with them thereafter. Their procedure was to do the main 'run up and checks' just prior to turning onto the runway for take off, so if we were unfortunate enough to taxi out behind them, we would be stopped just short of the runway being showered with 'muck and derision' from the slip-stream and sometimes boiling over....
On 16 September 1945, F/O RJ Phillips and F/O 'Dick' Sargeant crashed into high ground near Detmold, Germany, one of the dropping points for 'Operation Jane', and both were killed. Dick and I had been close friends for along period of our RAF service and his death at this juncture, after surviving the war, was very hard to take. I was called upon to se his parents who I knew well and that was not easy either.
'Operation Jane' may need some explanation. 'Jane' was a famous strip cartoon character in the Daily Mirror newspaper, she was a beautiful girl whose daily cartoon activities ended in Jane being in a scantily clad predicament of some sort. She was an idol of WW2 troops and to maintain Army moral, 'newspaper drops' to various troop locations were added to the Diplomatic Mail deliveries made by Mosquitos from Blackbushe. These drops were made at low level, and were called 'Operation Jane".Bringing "POTD" right up to date, those who are involved in or are following the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's activity in returning a Viking airliner to Blackbushe will be heartened to know that yesterday the major components of the temporary hangar to house the aircraft's restoration arrived at Blackbushe. During the week assembly of the structure will be complete and thus await the arrival of its tenant..Vickers Viking G-AGRW. Have to say, I never thought I would ever write that a Viking was returning to Blackbushe!!! Meanwhile, the team whose job it will be to dismantle the Viking and over see her shipment over the many miles from Austria will be departing the UK by the end of this week....She's coming home!!PB
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