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Post by PB on May 29, 2017 6:28:48 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 29/05/17Life is getting even busier as BB75 looms within a month, Bank Holiday Monday to disappear under a cloud of pre-event concerns as most days seem to! Cannot imagine the stress at BA after the recent "IT failure" messing up the operation big time. Must be the logistical nightmare of the century... My memories of fog problems at LHR and the resultant chaos as we diverted aeroplanes and their contents elsewhere bring back enough stress events to mind! But, for the whole show to go crunch, Oh my... Hoping that BB75 is not beset by such issues! It will be an interesting couple of days as guests arrive with memories of Blackbushe past, as well as aircraft that have associations with Blackbushe of long ago. One such aircraft will be the one below.. Spitfire MkXI of 16 Squadron. MkXI's of 16 Sqn flew from here during WW2 doing incredible PR work prior to D-Day.. Our particular Spit is ex 16 Sqn, but arrived too late to be based here, the Sqn had moved to Belgium by the time she was commissioned.16 Squadron pilots at Blackbushe (RAF Hartford Bridge) during WW2, supported by one of their MkXI's. "Just another Day" for them...So many memories, events, tragedies and triumphs will remain silently hidden within the airfield's boundaries for all time, hopefully some will find sunshine on 1st and 2nd July? PB
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Post by PB on May 30, 2017 5:33:19 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 30/05/17Hope all had a good Bank Holiday weekend, weather looked pretty Bank Holiday like compared to the blue skies and heat prior to the weekend. With a month to go to BB75 your scribe was glued to his PC's keyboard most of the time, and here we are again... I really do need to get out more! Today's POTD captures memories of when as a sprightly school lad I got out as much I could to the nearest airfield - just happened to be Blackbushe! Three Counties Aero Club days...one of our Auster 6 aeroplanes about to head skyward.Amid school work I'd give all the time I could to things 'Blackbushe'..nothing new there, at weekends I'd wash Three Counties aircraft in exchange for free flying lessons. Seemed a good deal to me! Two Auster 6's, and the Auster 5, were the most challenging. White painted canvas seemed a magnet for capturing atmospheric gunge, but it was fun playing with aeroplanes. Their magic always rubbed off on me, there is just 'something' about the feel of an aeroplane and the fact that they can fly free as a bird... The photo dates back to somewhere around mid sixties. Note the US Navy hangar in the background to the right, and how tidy Blackbushe looked before it became so overgrown.. Much to be done, better crack on. PB
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Post by PB on May 31, 2017 5:26:33 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 31/05/17Within the Blackbushe Airport story there are, of course, dates that are particular land marks, dates that punctuate the story to dramatic effect. Today is one of those days...The dreaded 31st May, the day when in 1960 Blackbushe Airport was closed for all time, the day when Proctor G-AHNA made the final take-off after which never again would the aero engine be heard on what was destined to become simply Hartford Bridge Flats once again. 57 years have slipped by, 57 years since the variety of aircraft at Blackbushe was simply amazing. Airliners, private/company aircraft, US Navy, "Farnborough Week" and it's bizarre aeronautical turn out, the pulse of many an independent airline halted, no more crew training by BOAC and BEA, no more export flights by civil and military types as Blackbushe Customs would be no more, within a very short time after 'today' the Airport was literally obliterated... 57 years ago the paper, I think it was the Daily Mail, carried the brief story headed, "Bye bye, Blackbushe". Somebody wanted Blackbushe removed at all possible speed. You've never seen demolotion move so fast! It was brutal, thorough, apparently with absolute termination in mind. Every drain was broken, filled with rubble and then left, all cables and communications severed in such a way that the site would have no power, water, communications. The Terminal and US Navy hangar had a temporary reprieve but both were due to be demolished. That was it, over, done and dusted, no more. Or was it? Blackbushe was removed from the airport big league, but thanks to Don Bennett's purchase, 360 of the butchered acres of Blackbushe were saved from final ignominy, and in just one month from now we celebrate Blackbushe Airport's 75th Anniversary. 75 years of almost unbroken aviation activity, 57 years since the axe man failed to totally sever the sound of aero engines from the place we know as Blackbushe. Long may she live.. Feel free to "like" if you share my sentiments.. Thanks PB
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Post by PB on Jun 1, 2017 6:05:40 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 01/06/17Next time the POTD records "01" in the date it will be July. Somehow I feel there may not be a 'POTD' edition on July 1st, or maybe not even on the 2nd, I know something's scheduled for those days. Yesterday witnessed a long and detailed Safety Action Group meeting at Blackbushe. I can safely say that more detail has gone into this with a now sizeable team than any of our previous events at BB. WE have a fantastic professional team with vast experience and are totally up for presenting an event that meets all the needs of running a public event in 2017. CAA restrictions have limited what we can do in the air, and you don't argue with them. Well, you can, but.... Made me look back for a moment, and how aviation - and an airfield - can dominate your life... and how freakin' lucky I've been. Your scribe at an early age with his much loved Dad. And a very much loved aeroplane..the aviation bug, it had started!Few years later with his much loved Dakota...Events...1977 Great Blackbushe Aviators' Weekend ..Number one..and number two. Maybe something to think of in the future . GBAW number three?GBAW Pilot's tent 1988..1988!!! Bless me, time's flying too too fast..left to right, Phil Cardew - Airport Director, the late Charles Church, your scribe, and the ladies who kept the show on the road!!GBAW pilot's marqueeRichard Noble, "Fastest car on Earth" person presented prizes at the second GBAW. Royalty presented prizes at the first bash...Ahh, just another day at Blackbushe, 1977. ..and now we are 50, the Airport that is...just 25 years ago!
I have been SO lucky to have an aerodrome as a place to play with wonderful people to play with. Hopefully after July there might be just enough life left for something else?? I think there might just be? Time will tell.. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 2, 2017 14:09:17 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 02/06/17Bit late today, dropped into Headcorn on the way home. Nice airfield in the country. Back to HQ now, with just one quick reference to yesteryear.. 236 OCU Shackleton MR1, September 1956, demonstrates the views afforded by Blackbushe in a different age...PB
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Post by PB on Jun 3, 2017 7:38:12 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 03/06/173rd June. A month today the BB75 team will be free to resume life!! For now though it's heads down all the way to the 75th's start line on the 1st. An hour on Radio Woking this morning to focus the mind, but before then something for you to help focus on the fifties... Blackbushe Airport in the fifties..Take the tour! The US Navy hangar and their aircraft are to be seen on the north-east, several Navy aircraft parked as they always were, in the pans along the old north eastern taxiway. North of the Navy hangar the US military 'village' is clear to see where personnel were housed. A true US military base on a civil airport, quite unusual, but adds to the flavour of Blackbushe's history... On Blackbushe 'south', ie south of the A30, Silver City's hangar in the south-east corner has numerous aircraft for company as does the Eagle hangar on the south-western corner. To the right of the photo and just north of the A30 you can see the Airwork complex, the RAF's technical area in earlier times. The original control tower that witnessed from Bostons to Britannias is seen with a number of light aircraft parked around it, while a multi engined machine taxis by...located just south of the main runway's long removed eastern end. Draw a line across the four engined aircraft on the apron.. Every bit of the apron to the right of your line was excavated deliberately by the local authority of the time, the photo shows in perfect proportion how mush valuable apron was needlessly lost. I won't mention digging up the east end of the main runway.... Wishing you a sunny weekend..and happy memories for those who remember the golden days reflected in today's "POTD". PB
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Post by PB on Jun 4, 2017 6:24:35 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 04/06/17POTD's comments department yesterday included discussion on the use of runways at Blackbushe other than the well patronised main runway - today's only operational runway at the airfield. Photo coverage of these cross runways is pretty limited, with no wartime material in the POTD vaults, my few relevant shots being mainly early 1960's... Clint Gurry's photo taken on short finals to 01 - many a passing motorist would have enjoyed close encounters until the runway was closed a few years later.Three Counties Aero Club's Auster V G-ANIS short finals to 3214/32 and 01/19 looking good, but wearing the dreaded X indicating 'closed', seen from Air Swift's Baron, June, 1986.14/32 around mid sixties..the entire airfield still showed her true size.Pilatus Porter departs runway 19. The windsock indicating the benefit of multiple runway headings and the enhanced safety of being able to point your nose into the wind during critical stages of flight...My little friend with whom I so clearly recall departing from 19...Dowty's Dove short finals to 01 with Neville Duke in command.The still intact apron, and the threshold of runway 01. The "01" numerals clearly visible.Departing runway 01 long ago, 1963 probably in Auster J1. US Navy hangar and associated structures still very much intact. Could so easily have been saved and in use today.Returning to 01 early sixties. The wreckage and rubble of the government's destruction programme hard to miss. Sunday flying 1962..Holly Birkett's Auster G-APKL arrives on 01. Aldis light signals from the Airport Landrover..Reg Venning's Taylorcraft G-AHUG also feels for 01..Runway 32 in her latter years, closed but a good 'apron'Turning finals for 32, Miles Messenger, the section of runway destroyed by local factors hard to miss!Pre 1960!! Curtiss Commando finals over the A30 for runway 32. Airwork's hangars in the background.There it..we once had the luxury of six runway headings, a great safety factor, slowly but surely the old airfield has lost her available runways..happily the main runway stands defiant..the other runways hold their memories. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 5, 2017 4:52:28 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 05/06/17Pressure's on, another video interview this morning, programme content deadlines staring us in the face, press, promotions, adrenalin pulsating round the arteries, and .....supposing it rains? But, POTD carries on in the face of all the other stuff going on. Today is just another day, and the photos below are some more "Just another days" before the dreaded events in May 1960. Just another day by the A30...or over at Airwork.....or crossing the A30 with an Avro Lincoln on tow....or for tracking somebody else's navy??PB
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Post by PB on Jun 6, 2017 9:18:26 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 06/06/17Running late today, somewhat worrying "health" issue, hopefully short term.. ? Could not let today pass without a mention of the Blackbushe bomber boys. It's D-Day.RAF Hartford Bridge (Blackbushe) based Boston prepares for D-Day smoke screen laying over the English Channel.History in the making.. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 7, 2017 5:38:30 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 07/06/17D-Day passed yesterday with hardly a mention in the media, sadly another day dominated by the 'enemy within'..and I'm not talking about my health! Terrorist activity produces endless hours of coverage and probing by the media in all its forms. How, I wonder, would the 'modern media' have covered every day life during the Blitz when hundreds of British citizens were killed and made homeless on a daily basis as the Luftwaffe did their best to dismember our nation and our way of life? Memories, and knowledge of the incredible hardship suffered in this country during WW2 are bound to fade as subsequent generations move through life. However, the spirit of the day may still be felt at the museums and collections devoted to the most recent global conflicts. None captures the spirit to a greater degree than the sight and sound of a living aeroplane as it flies straight out of the history book's pages. That spirit has descended upon us at Blackbushe on numerous occasions... A Gordon Wilmer study of G-ASXX during a Blackbushe show in the sixties with Neil Williams in command. (I know Neil was spelled wrong..) Five B-25s arrived for making "Hanover Street" in the seventies. A reflection from Blackbushe in the forties was seen and heard coming from these brave machines.Sometimes you have to improvise..Once resident 'Warbirds of GB's' Mosquito. Her shape & sounds in our local skies were truly a mirror of the many 2nd Tactical Air Force Mosquito operations that took place from Blackbushe during WW2.I truly hope that our 75th Anniversary celebrations in a few weeks will capture something of the sight, sound, and positive spirit that endured during the dark days of conflict and destruction as our country felt the sting of an evil dictatorship. PB
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