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Post by PB on Jul 13, 2017 8:14:05 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 13/07/17Having promised myself a break from Blackbushe stuff it seems I'm unable to obey the most simple request...here we are again. Dogged by computer troubles, the dreaded blue screen of death has returned, and the debris from the 75th still scattered far wide across the office floor a quick burst of POTD is a pleasant relaxation. Or is it? Maybe I shouldn't have looked at the photo below .... You will probably recognise the airfield, taken on a rather high overhead join...Observations.. 1. I wonder if BCA know their Blackbushe operation lies near where the bomb dump used to be? Never saw any bombs back in the 60's when I first explored the region.. 2. The main apron. You can clearly see how much the council snaffled! They chose to refuse cash and land swop, preferring to plough a fortune into ploughing it up..hard to understand. 3. The Main Terminal. You can also see how much the council snaffled! Need I repeat all of point 2?? 4. Shame about the car park at the end of 25. A thought no doubt shared by others. My thanks to the Red Arrows for saluting Blackbushe on 1st July are boundless, below a couple of flypasts from an age before we were all ushered into glass cases and surrounded by cotton wool. Farnborough Week in the 50's, four Blackburn's salute Blackbushe! The dear old Beverley would often be seen here on para dropping exercises with the Army..USAF salute to Blackbushe, 1962 "Re-opening Air Display".Sadly I was 'instructed' not to invite the US military to flypast at the 75th, all the necessary papers were filled in and ready to go. I'm sure that two USAF F-15's made a low level flypast over Brookwood recently!!! Darned sure they could have helped us too, but.....we'll never know. Maybe I'll write an account of the 75th and the mentally draining months leading up to it? Maybe best that I don't. Moving on, computer to fix, magazine article to write, office to clear up, maybe POTD will take a break, who knows? PB
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Post by PB on Jul 14, 2017 5:33:05 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 14/07/17What could be nicer than a glowing fire to welcome you home on a dark and murky night? Especially when you know FIDO will be waiting for you?FIDO may well be dead and buried at Blackbushe, but the remains are still easily seen on Blackbushe "east" aka Yateley Common... PB
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Post by PB on Jul 15, 2017 6:07:16 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 15/07/17Blackbushe Airport. Two little words that to most people probably don't mean too much, if anything.. For some of us, however, they paint a complex picture where boyhood recollections, ambition, hope, frustration, sadness, friends,tragedy, success, failure, commitment, and a serious contempt for the bureaucracy that has stalled progress for nearly 60 years are bound together in some kind of mish mash of a picture that seems to show a reconstituted Blackbushe Airport where she has a secure future as a small airport permitted to once again have the basic facilities that a true airport must have. That 'picture' has stolen many an hour from the POTD editorial team over the years, but we forge ahead with brush in hand in hopes that one day the canvas will yield the desired image... Time alone will tell, how much time we have is the big unknown. Some images that fuel my cognisance of Blackbushe.. 1940's...88 Squadron1940's...16 Squadron1950's, the Eagle had landed..1950'sThe stuff of dreams!The way we were...1960's..devastationSign of the times..1960's1970's...Two weeks ago..she lives, with an echo from days gone by!Today I've a magazine article to write on Blackbushe, her life and times. Maximum 1,000 words. A small canvas for so big a picture? PB
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Post by PB on Jul 16, 2017 5:36:26 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 16/07/17Tomorrow witnesses the final 'wash-up' meeting for those behind the "75th"...the final crossing of paths. Should be interesting. Talking of 'crossing', the word conjures up an aspect of the word for which Blackbushe was once famous. Going back to the 18th Century, it might have been Dick Turpin who held you up on Hartford Bridge Flats...PB
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Post by PB on Jul 18, 2017 9:56:59 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 18/07/17With the 75th now slipping into the past, one's focus can perhaps be allowed to slip back to the golden past from whence the strange passion for Blackbushe first evolved. No doubt the "75th" recaptured some of the sounds from those golden 'fifties' days..Beech 18, Anson, Pembroke, DC-3, and the mighty Bristol Hercules engine coughing into life just as they always did when one was 'younger'... If somebody was to ask me what was my most enduring memory of the 'golden age' I would find it hard to answer, there are so many. There is one that for some reason stands out. An every day sight, but it's running in my mind quite clearly....Maybe I was 14, somewhere around there, perched on the grassy edge of the A30 with trusty Phillips bike along side, runway in use 08. Looking west on a slightly murky day toward the large red/orange approach lighting gantry that spanned the A30 just west of the airfield, out of the gloom comes the familiar four engined silhouette of a Douglas product. In my mind it could have been yesterday, sadly it wasn't, but it was such a regular sight you didn't bother to watch it land, other goings on would claim your attention. Today's POTD reflects a moment in 2008 when a similar shape returned to the final approach. An Eagle that still flew came home for a precious hour or so. Coming home....It was on her departure that the sound of Blackbushe truly returned to my ears. Four mighty Pratt & Whitneys make a joyful noise as they are asked for maximum effort, enough to shake tears from the eyes of someone who when much younger fell in love with their music. Today's photo may be be a bit out of focus, but it matches the misty memory! PB
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Post by PB on Jul 19, 2017 6:52:18 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 19/07/17I think a day or two off must be coming soon...The 75th continues to haunt as its entrails refuse to let go their grip. Hopefully, this morning's early emailing will put the lid on it, but I doubt it..If anybody out there should be thinking it'll be fun to run an air event at Blackbushe I could give you a few handy hints first!! It can confidently be said that next year will be without a Blackbushe event, the year after who knows? Photo wise today, I've chosen a couple of random "from the fifties" photos... Farnborough visitor, FIAT's Heron in 1957. We missed a Heron at the 75th by the skin of last minute paperwork. With the Anson, Pembroke, and Beech 18, the line-up would have been nearer complete?Note from above how big the apron was with numerous heavies in the background and still plenty of space to spare... Another type I'd have liked at the 75th.. The delightful Dove, 1957, amid some long gone Blackbushe infrastructure. Eagle's area I think?PB
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Post by PB on Jul 20, 2017 5:48:24 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 20/07/17As World War Two came to an end the military stock taking inventory must have been a complex affair. Airfields, aircraft, manpower, all would have to be tailored to match the needs of the new peace. Blackbushe was no exception, post war she was run down and placed into the care of RAF Transport Command... A state that did not remain for too long as the government recognised the great asset they had in this splendid airfield with its all-weather runways, ease of access to London and excellent geographic location. It was not just the British government that recognised the benefits of Blackbushe, the US also wanted to get their hands of her! The present day version of Transport Command paid homage to their old base in 2016 when we had hopes of a C-130 joining us for that year's Air Day.Sadly, the Hercules and her crew were required elsewhere come the day, at least we had the above fly-by... The delightful Blackbushe based Dragonfly G-AEWZ of Silver City with old Blackbushe south infrastructure to add another dash of history.. The type made it to the 75th, but 'WZ lived here from 1950 to 1958.I believe the structure in the background was Silver City offices? Bob Carter, can you confirm??? Early proof of concept! Sabena Convair 240 diverted from Heathrow in December, 1948.That's all today... PB Reply from Bob Carter re Silver City infrastructure.. blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/7633
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Post by PB on Jul 21, 2017 5:13:10 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 21/07/17 Three weeks have flown since the Blackbushe "75th". Very few people could possibly know, or will ever know, the circumstances that overruled my 'plan' of campaign. However, there is no harm in today listing the aircraft that were scheduled to appear but due to varying factors were cancelled due to intervention, imposed restrictions, or engineering matters that deemed the aircraft unavailable. Events, 'circumstances', technical and operational unpredictability all jumped up and took a share in the action in preventing the above from attending. Happily, the aircraft that were secured painted a pretty good likeness of the picture I had in mind many months ago...but there will always be a large BUT, or an IF, in my mind. I guess it's the price you pay for sticking your neck out, looking fate straight in the eyes, while the big axe hovers above in the hands of assorted others.. That's life... PB
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Post by PB on Jul 22, 2017 5:54:36 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 22/07/17'The whispering Giant', once the pride of the British aircraft industry, or certainly a headline stealer, as this new quiet aeroplane whispered her way into the marketplace...quiet when compared to the other market stealers of the day, Boeing's 707 eg... Crew training always an imperative, Blackbushe was here for the purpose whatever the weather... Britannia rules the waves, BOAC's crew training benefitted from Blackbushe whatever the weather..Not just BOAC who crew trained at Blackbushe with their Britannia fleet, whatever the weather.. British Airways' last Blackbushe crew training sortie..Blackbushe Air Festival 1977, special training flight for us!The "Britannia" said farewell to Blackbushe same weekend in the shape of Trans Meridian's CL44...In those days you could put together a flying programme according to your own ambitions and common sense. PB
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Post by PB on Jul 23, 2017 4:53:48 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 23/07/17Being of a certain vintage I, and a few others, carry as many memories as the memory will permit of the "golden days" at Blackbushe. Those days when cycling from home to the airfield was a non event so far as the journey was concerned despite the uphill gradient of Cricket Hill! Hard to forget, although almost impossible to believe, that as you passed abeam Blackbushe's east end and the centre line of the main runway there was every chance of a low final approach pass of a Viking, or a York, or a Beverley, DC-6, DC-3, Comet, Viscount, Ambassador, Bristol Freighter, or any of the US military that frequented the Blackbushe that juts out of the memory.... Understandable that many find it hard to comprehend what happened on what is now largely overgrown territory. The US military were well represented, land, sea and air... Land..Sea.....and Air. Little, and.....larger!It was a sad day when the bulldozers arrived - and took all away.. never dreamed that nearly 60 years later we'd be celebrating her 75th, that I'd be somehow involved, or that the events of 1960 would cut so deep. Seems that they did...PB
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