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Post by PB on Oct 21, 2023 7:05:11 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 21/10/23Pleasantly mild, 06.30 and 12C up on the roof according to the trusty 'home' weather service.. no need to resort to the bank sapping collection of radiators to stop the bones rattling this morning!
There is little doubt that our world is going to change with the pressures building-up to seek green power and vilify those who dare to resort to fossil fuelled life, be it heating or transport, the green lobby will be coming your/our way...
On 11th of this month "POTD" looked at City Airbus and the broad strides being made toward e-powered flight for at least short haul communications and a green solution fossil fuelled commuting.. The prospect of Amazon running a drone parcel delivery service. Here's the BBC's recent look at the prospect of parcels from heaven coming our way....
Drone tech has come a long way, any of us can now own one, they're easy to fly and a great way of getting some amazing aerial photographic results. Technically and aerodynamically, large or small, they are very capable devices.. "POTD" 11th October... blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/19015
Why mention drones again today? Simply because it was on this day in 2011 that an electric powered 'multi-copter' achieved sustained flight, the 16 rotor e-volo VC1 reached 10 feet above ground level and flew for 90 seconds. The flight won e-volo the Lindbergh Prize for advances in environmentally friendly 'green' aviation.
Something else 'going-up' this week, scaffolding now encompasses the Blackbushe Heritage Trust Viking. Work now begins on the fuselage skin, paint stripping and repair as necessary.
Going back in history and the evolution of British air transport, no drones, but in 1986 on this day British Airways were offered for public sales by the government.. Stepping back a little further and names that belong to the family of airlines once associated with Blackbushe, on this day in 1970 Caledonian Airways would take over British United Airways. One era starts, another one ends.. British United had formed from the uniting of two very familiar Blackbushe names, Hunting-Clan and Airwork.Airwork days at Blackbushe....and a distant Hunting-Clan moment on a damp Blackbushe..PB
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Post by PB on Oct 22, 2023 6:11:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 22/10/23Yesterday was a day for all involved in the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's 18 months of operation to be shaken by the hand and given suitable congratulations. At Aviation UK's annual awards gathering the Trust were awarded the prestigious "Group of the Year award... An example of true team effort with volunteers who have exemplified themselves in the mighty task of getting our Viking all the way from Austria, preparing the hangar and managing our events and fund raising activities, tackling the job of initially clearing out the fuselage and paving the way to the future, and not least to Blackbushe Airport's Directors who have provided so much support with accommodation both in the hangar and the Pathfinder for our promotional events.
Who, in the Spring of last year could have dreamed of such progress? We've been on TV and radio, enjoyed aviation press coverage, in particular the latest edition of Aeroplane where no less than four pages are devoted to the Trust, our super team and the Viking's journey.. The pictures can speak for themselves.. Thanks to Pat Marchant and Barry Love for providing them.
A welcome morale boost for all concerned, but a long road still lies ahead...
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 23, 2023 6:22:55 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 23/10/23Six degrees outside at six, time relentlessly ticks by - or away, depending how you look at it. Glancing back at POTD's origins this morning I noted with some surprise that come January some of our most diligent followers will have been clicking on our pages for nearly nine years. Nine years since Stuart Marshall and I sat down to consider some kind of online vessel that would carry the Blackbushe message far and wide, a message containing both history and hope, and perhaps on a daily basis. Apart from brief hospitalisation and even the occasional few days away, it seems that this vessel has been sailing around for quite some time delivering messages of hope, memories of utter despair, messages of grief at the passing of our friends and soul-mates, messages of celebration as we've accounted for our various events during these past nine years while recalling memories that remain outstanding accrued during the passage of time since AVM Bennett secured the future of the airfield back at the beginning of the sixties.
The most amazing thing is that some of our members have devotedly stuck with programme throughout nine years of rambling journalism. Nice work one and all, let's hope we can squeeze out a few more years together yet?? Sometime today "Photo of the Day" will receive her 680,000th visit, that is quite a few more than I anticipated nine years ago when not knowing what to expect I felt that we'd be lucky to get a hundred visits, perhaps.
The past nine years have seen changes, not just in the appearance of the person I see in the mirror of a morning, but to Blackbushe too! Who would have thought back in 1960 when the Airport was torn apart at ministerial request that in years to come this very site would receive the AOPA 'Aerodrome of the Year' award?? The quest goes on in hopes that an amicable solution to the thorns in the side of development progress at Blackbushe will be found in the not too distant future, hopes founded on selfish grounds as I really do not want to miss that moment when the turf gives way to the first spade and Blackbushe's hallowed soil prepares for something incredible. A new future. There it is, the first photograph glued to the pages of "POTD" in January, 2015. Now a famous image, it's on the "Airlines of Blackbushe Airport" sign that proudly proclaims the Blackbushe message adjacent to the Terminal, and latterly a very large version graces the entrance to the Blackbushe Heritage Trust hangar. If ever a photo told a story, it must be this one...Talking of time, since Blackbushe closed in 1960 man has set foot on the Moon, Buzz Armstrong has been here to talk about it, we've come and gone through the era of supersonic passenger travel, and we are all interconnected at light speed by the miracle (?) of the mobile phone. Who would have thought that one day we could sit at a wireless keyboard and send photos and messages around the world in an instant? Any minute the send button will send this on its way to you, where ever you might be, certainly better than the traditional means of sending letters and communications via the red box down the road.
Sadly, despite our capabilities we're still pretty violent creatures raining down death and destruction on innocents. Doesn't add-up.
For the record and earlier mention of supersonic flight, it was on this day in 2003 that a British Airways Concorde may the last commercial supersonic passenger flight as Speedbird Concorde 1 departed Heathrow for New York. She returned as Speedbird Concorde 2 the following day, landing in sequence with two other Concordes and thus the supersonic era closed its doors. The era proclaimed proudly by British Airways as the "arrive before you leave" era had closed its doors, back to seven hours again.
It's only time that waits for no man...let us hope it agrees to us sharing a few more early mornings paying homage to Blackbushe and aviation in general?
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 24, 2023 7:09:24 GMT
"Photo of the day" 24/10/23Well, some days things don't work out as you expect them to..
Take yesterday, for example. The surprise of a lifetime. Trickery and subterfuge, but of the very nicest kind. Advised by fellow Blackbushe Heritage Trust Trustees that Sir Gerald Howarth was planning to visit Blackbushe to inspect the Viking it was obvious that he would require something of a reception party, yours truly agreed to join the fun and be at Blackbushe to meet our eminent guest.
I would add at this moment behind the keyboard life is not easy, four year old grandson who is staying for a few days has insisted on sitting my lap, wriggling and asking questions... Not easy typing situation but wouldn't change it for the world!!
Anyway, back to Blackbushe yesterday, arriving in good time met up with Becky, Trustee and Blackbushe Director, Pat Marchant fellow Trustee whose company RPM Aviation were the prime force in getting the Viking from Austria to England, and Heritage Trust Leader David Ashworth who had set-up the meeting.
As described in "POTD" of 22nd October, the Blackbushe Heritage Trust were awarded Aviation Heritage UK's "Group of the Year" award on Saturday during their awards ceremony at Old Sarum. Sadly I could not attend for a variety of reasons, but was delighted to hear afterwards of the award the Trust had been presented with. There was also another award that I had not been told about!!
Yesterday the trickery unfolded, as it was decided that some photos should be taken of Sir Gerald presenting the Award for the history books with our much loved Viking looking on... As Chairman of the Trust it was decided that the photo should be of Sir Gerald handing the award to myself, but when I looked at the framed award I found my name on it with the inscription "Lifetime Achievement Award"... Hence the secrecy and whispers that had been going around. Seemingly having Blackbushe in my blood for most of my life and doing some stuff for her over the years extraordinary recognition was coming my way. My flabber was gasted in no uncertain terms. Photos caught me in a state of total amazement!! The moment is caught!! Deserved or not, not sure, but thank you to all for what was a massive surprise!!Sir Gerald is a man of significant influence and well connected, he is now very much 'on-side' so far as the Blackbushe Heritage Trust is concerned, the occasion provided a very opportune occasion to fully update him on not only the Viking story but of the long sixty years passed during which Blackbushe has soldered valiantly despite the obstacles placed in her way..Now, here's something for your Christmas shopping, the very first Blackbushe Heritage Trust calendar!!..and back to the past, a moment frozen from the past's many memories. 'Dizzy' Addicot flies the Vickers Gunbus at one of our very early flying events.. Such are the memories woven from the past sixty plus years of life's association with the aerodrome on the plateau known as "Blackbushe". Long may she live!Tomorrow's POTD might be brief, if at all, your scribe being wheeled off for some early morning laser surgery on the port eye. Hopefully 'see you' later!!
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 25, 2023 5:12:10 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 25/10/23Time's a funny thing. Not just how much of it has been consumed since Blackbushe started her uphill climb in private ownership at the very beginning of the nineteen-sixties, but more recent events and time's passage. The A380, for example, feels like a 'new' aeroplane in the world's skies yet I note that today celebrates the types first day of passenger carrying flights back in 2007 when SQ380 started passenger services between Singapore and Sydney...As big as they'd get at Blackbushe!Big enough to be a cloud on its own - the A380!A fanciful notion perhaps, but not one you're likely to see at Blackbushe anytime soon!! That's it, 06.15 gotta pack-up and head for an early hospital appointment and a blast of laser surgery in the left eye... see you soon. Hopefully!!
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 26, 2023 6:28:51 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 26/10/23Another day dawns, no sign of the Sun as yet - too early - but amazed by what yesterday's blast of laser energy into the left eye achieved. Some visual anomalies following cataract surgery have been fixed by this painless and miraculous perhaps 30 seconds of pure light energy being skillfully directed within the eye's workings. One more to go. Makes you appreciate life in the 21st Century.
A beautiful afternoon followed and what better way to spend it than drop into your local airfield with grandsons et al for lunch at the Pathfinder - all day Flyer breakfast, thank you very much, before taking a stroll onto the remains of old Blackbushe that rest east of our current boundary. Always a meaningful experience treading the ancient acres, but mud, puddles like lakes, and strewn evidence left behind by dog walkers or their pets, did require deftness and diligence as to where your feet might be placed. For he in the baby buggy it was no doubt easy apart from the jolts... the walk onwards to the dear old disused runways brought about the usual memory scanning, up come images of days long ago when we taxied to the most far flung corners of Blackbushe for departures on 14 and to the even further holding point for 19. So many bottled memories fight for freedom as once again I'm doing that first landing on 32, or blasting down 14 in a Three Counties Auster 6. It's a happy sad place..
Standing on the edge of the old and decayed runway 01/19 one is transported to images of rows of Bostons parked by its side during the conflict of WW2. In the quiet sunshine I found myself drawn to those images, and the thoughts that must have been shared by air and ground crew during those days of war - and uncertainty. The peace of a warm and sunny October afternoon felt like paradise surely if compared to the life shared on wartime Blackbushe?
My sixty years of Blackbushe throw back so many personal memories when walking 'the acres', fantastic friendships, amazing times in the air, the tragedies and friends from far-off days who I will never be with again, working for AVM Bennett has its own route down memory lane.. The faded white runways numerals on 19 and 14 brought back memories of being 17 years old and spending time painting the runways heading numbers on these runways back in 1963. Changed times, the far end of runway 01 yesterday, the place where old memories still fly.... Nature shows her work, it's amazing who you find hidden on old Blackbushe, no sign of the fairies on yesterday's tour of old places.Thoughts of those who lived, worked, and died, those who walked the same land as us back in the forties..it's hard not feel compassion for days lived before mine began.Blackbushe may be showing her age in places, but her spirit is boundless....PB
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Post by PB on Oct 27, 2023 6:09:43 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 27/10/23What happened to 2023 so far as the summer was concerned? A blaze of heat in June timed perfectly for the Blackbushe Air Day followed by nothing more than meteorological drudgery for seemingly endless weeks..and come 02.00 on Sunday we're steered into another winter's dark evenings. But, what a year at Blackbushe, we've gained a Viking, a hangar, and of greatest importance an amazing team who are taking on all the necessary aspects of the marketing and technical demands brought about when restoring an old and historic airliner, plus fund raising and media experts upon whom so much depends..
Publicity is all important, we've been on BBC TV, ITV, radio across the nation, and early next year we will be indulging in a podcast with Greatest Hits Radio that will be available across their websites that span the UK. I read yesterday that Greatest Hits Radio are expanding their weekly listeners a rate much that are no doubt causing concern at the BBC, they've gained 800,000 weekly listeners since June, hopefully our planned podcast will catch a good share of these increasing numbers of ears.. Ken Bruce, now on Greatest Hits Radio has a weekly audience of 3.7 million listeners.. More on that in the New Year.
The passing of time and the clocks changing means Christmas will soon be throwing its commercial tentacles around you. The annual present buying scenario and head scratching as we wonder what gifts to offer yet again. Well, this year how about giving something from the Blackbushe Heritage Trust shop?? There's the super 2024 calendar, or perhaps a Blackbushe Heritage Trust wrist watch, or maybe some raffle tickets for this year's draw? Great prizes once again!! To make life easy, all are available via the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's online shop... www.blackbusheheritagetrust.com/storeYou might also wish to take a look at the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's eBay site, rare books, hats, models.... Take a look!! www.ebay.co.uk/usr/blackbusheheritagetrustA moment from this year's Blackbushe Air Day, great success, a sell-out occasion, and one again blessed by the good record that surrounds our Blackbushe events...The first of what has now become an annual event, Blackbushe Air Day 2016. Great weather, and some great aeroplanes too!It will always be very difficult to compete with those 'air days' in the 1950s when Blackbushe was swollen to bursting point with all types of visiting aircraft with attendees for the Farnborough Air Show. Just a couple of the visitors, large , small, and all shapes too.. happily photos still survive to remind of that brief period in Blackbushe's expansive history..Bye for now, PB
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Post by PB on Oct 28, 2023 7:55:10 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 28/10/23One's grandsons returned home last night after a week at "Grandad's". Pure joy throughout, it's a bit odd not having an exuberant four year old climbing onto me demanding 'fly the aeroplanes'.. with the offer of flight simulation always there!! His first flight yesterday on the latest Microsoft product, MSFS 2020, we climbed out of Blackbushe circled Fleet and made our way to Heathrow landing on 10R. At four one cannot expect the finesse of a well healed professional aviator, but maybe the seeds have been sown?
From the aviation diaries it was on this day in 1972, so long ago!!, that the Airbus A300 first flew, perhaps Boeing would have to think carefully about the future? Looking to the well fingered and fading pages of my logbook on this day in 1972 I returned from Boston before zipping off to Toronto on 31 October, '72. Absolutely no recall, t'was just another day amid days of globetrotting. Here's a memory from the far off late sixties, maybe seventies, Gregory Air Taxis availed themselves of Blackbushe benefits back then with their Aero Commander. Of interest, perhaps, is the Control Hut with the letter "C" and numbers '26' in the background. This was originally the MTCA Marshallers' Hut, but in the days of AVM Bennett's ownership the 'Hut' became the nerve centre for operations where Airport were maintained and landing fees gratefully received. Time and weather took the upper hand and the Hut was dismantled before Mother Nature did it for us... The logs were kept in the wooden Control Tower with dear old Reg keeping him fully occupied on days when the circuit was alive with flying training and perhaps seven or eight at the holding point... The Terminal was still at its full span, the County Council were still to reek their havoc, while on the apron at the end of the line is Three Counties Aero Club's Terrier G-ARXL. Taxiing the Terrier was interesting after the simple needs of Colts and Cherokees, one had to employ rudder, throttle, and heel brakes in the right combination in hopes of going the way you intended - especially with the wind blowing across you! The dreaded tail-dragger 'weathercock' performance was one that had to be kept under control!
The other note worthy observation from the photo is the row of broken concrete behind the parked aeroplanes.... The 'after glow' of the Parish Council's ambition to rip up as much of Blackbushe as they could, the rubble once being the Airport's very large and useful apron.. It perhaps was used in the construction of roads elsewhere, hopefully it was not entirely wasted? Imagine the weight of 'rubble' from Blackbushe's main apron, the eastern taxiways, the southern end of runway 14 and the eastern end of our precious main runway then known as 08/26. The name Dennis Brant was emblazoned on the trucks taking Blackbushe away, one can only imagine the amount of money the Parish must have spent in the destruction of Blackbushe 'east' back in the sixties??
We live in more stable times now!!
Hopefully.
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 29, 2023 8:06:57 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 29/10/23That's it. The clocks have been cranked backwards an hour, all aboard the express service to winter... With the dire warnings being banded about regarding "climate change" should we expect a hot Halloween, a cold Christmas or the other way round? Who knows, meanwhile Blackbushe continues her moves toward a secure future although decisive conclusions may be some way off as the wheels of 'procedures' turn in their own slow way..
The end of October approaches and that means one thing for certain, another year will have been added to Blackbushe Airport's varied and most extraordinary life. It's always useful to refresh one's knowledge on the origins of our airfield, if only to realise how fortunate we are to have an airfield in the first place!
The first and nearest encounter the area known a Hartford Bridge Flats (Now Blackbushe Airport) had with aviation was in 1934 when a Blackburn Baffin made a forced landing in Frogmore, a small community a little way east of what today is Blackbushe Airport. No injuries or damage incurred. The following year pleasure flying came to Yateley, the airfield's nearest village, when light aeroplanes would fly from a field at Butlers House. For the sum of 2/6, two shillings and six pence in old currency for a short trip or 5/- five shillings - or in today's terminology 25 Pence - back then it was quite a lot of cash.
With the advent of World War Two the Hartford Bridge Flats were considered a likely place for enemy aircraft to land, thus the site was covered in trenches 12 feet long and 3 feet deep to deter any such arrivals. These 'anti-aircraft' trenches indicated the authorities concerns of unwanted aircraft arrivals which in turn awoke the realisation that the Hartford Bridge Flats would in fact be an ideal place to establish an aerodrome!!
War showed its aviation face before the airfield was constructed as a Luftwaffe Heinkel 1-11 attacked troops at Arborfield Garrison just a couple of minutes flying time from Yateley village. It dropped a string of small bombs behind the Ely Hotel just east of today's Blackbushe Airport. A couple of days earlier a resident living in a house opposite the Anchor Pub (one the airfield's northern boundary) heard a swishing sound soon after the air raid siren had been activated. The all clear sounded and the resident thought no more of the 'swishing sound'. Now, remember the earlier visit by a Heinkel 1-11? Air Raid Wardens were despatched to plot exactly where the bombs had fallen so close to the Ely. During this recce they walked over the spot where a large delayed action bomb had fallen, the bomb the Vigo Lane resident had heard 'swishing' as it fell to earth. The day following the Wardens inspection the delayed action bomb did what it was designed to do - blow-up! The explosion left a crater 60 feet wide and twenty feet deep. The Ely had been very lucky!!! No harm done, and very soon the Army put the crater to good use. It proved ideal as a training aid for troops driving Bren-gun carriers driving in one side, and out the other...
Another event of note before the land was requisitioned as an airfield, on 6th January 1941 a demonstration of the early airborne forces took place.. The weather curtailed events, but eight parachutists of 2 Commando jumped from a Handley Page Heyford as it passed overhead visiting VIPs while also towing a Hotspur glider..1942, Hartford Bridge Flats became an airfield about to go to war. Photo dated October 23rd, 1942.Similar view, just eighty years separation. Sadly now missing her eastern end having been dug up in 1962/3 by the local parish council of the time.."The Flats"..Blackbushe Airport in the fifties..1962, one of my first aerial images of Blackbushe, the Airport by now in the hands of AVM Bennett..Hartford Bridge Flats - 1963.More recent times!More from the early days tomorrow..
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 30, 2023 10:30:05 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 30/10/23There are times when after spending an hour writing the morning's "POTD" you feel like jumping out of the window. Ground floor, of course!! The last seconds before hitting "SEND" ...zap, some notice about file transfer came up on the proboards screen as I attempted to end the morning's scribe and then - nothing. All was lost, you know that feeling... Well, having stopped for breakfast and the morning papers perhaps it's time to try again? Can I recall what was said??? Ummm....
Yesterday's "POTD" looked back on the days before an aerodrome appeared on Hartford Bridge Flats, when it was just a plateau with trees, scrub, and heather in occupation. Aviation had its ways of visiting the area long before the notion of an airbase on the Flats was put forward.. As mentioned in yesterday's "POTD" a Blackburn Baffin made a forced landing in nearby Frogmore back in 1934, while in the following year pleasure flights were available from a field in neighbouring Yateley village...while in 1940 a German Heinkel seemingly took a dislike to Blackbushe's nearby public house, the Ely, they missed leaving a string of bombs across previously peaceful Yateley Common.
Another move by aviation in the direction of the Hartford Bridge Flats came in 1942. A converted Whitley bomber carrying parachutists developed some kind of problem and crashed at Larks Farm, in Mill Lane, Yateley. All the parachutists took to jumping out and were unhurt, the pilot landed via his parachute near the Chequers pub in Eversley. Typical....
With the need to build-up our defences and means of attack new airfields were needed. Early in October 1941 the airfield to be was requisitioned and work started with McAlpines as the main contractors. A standard three runway bomber base was built with a main runway spanning 6,003ft. From the outset the new airfield showed its suitability for flying. Being on a plateau there were few obstructions from trees, very few dwellings were in the area, and it was naturally very flat. Nature's aerodrome was about to be conceived..
A unique feature of this new airfield was that unusually it was built with a major trunk road running through it - the A30 London-Southampton trunk road to be precise. Never a problem, to the south of the A30 lay the technical area with two T2 hangars and acres of taxiways and apron space, to the north more hangars in the form of another T2 and several blister hangars, the runways, Control Tower, and the extensive camp where personnel were housed and airfield admin would be found..
Construction was carried out at some speed, a Mr Koff was in charge of all machinery involved in producing an airfield. Under his control were two tractors that pulled 12-yard scrapers to level the site plus a number of bulldozers. Mr Koff must have been seen as a bit of a character, strangely considering our nation's problems at the time, he was German. He would be seen walking round the site in hacking jacket and riding breeches with gaitors, a peaked cap and carrying a cane. It must have been quite a spectacle to witness so much activity as a huge concrete-making plant produced the tons of concrete required for runways and taxiways that had to be ready for heavy bombers.
Lord Haw Haw, the Nazi propaganda voice came onto the airwaves announcing an airfield was being built on the Flats. This worried the local community who feared the site would be bombed, fears that were quite unfounded, the Luftwaffe even missed the local pub.. No other attempts or visits by the Luftwaffe darkened the skies over Hartford Bridge.
On 1st November, 1942, Royal Air Force Hartford Bridge was officially opened. Sights of the essential life at RAF Hartford Bridge that were to come in the ensuing years of conflict. Heroes and many lives given in the quest for peace while serving on our airfield on the hill....There we are, I think that's pretty much what I wrote earlier!
PB
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