|
Post by PB on Aug 13, 2017 6:41:07 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 13/08/17Taking the 'helicopter view' this morning.... Photographed a good few years ago now, the old 'southern taxiway' shows the route aircraft once took crossing the main apron when heading for the '26 hold', or '32' if the wind demanded... Remember that the apron was hugely larger than it is now, the outline of the now extinct apron can just be seen as a 'path' in the lower quadrant of the photo. The excavated apron having given way to a fresh growth of scrub, the old grass area retaining a greater amount of dark gorse bushes. The old taxiway takes a turn to the left if you're heading down the photo. That is the point where the taxiway to the A30's famous aircraft crossing can still just about be made out, the A30 crossing leading to "Blackbushe south" and the ghostly plan of the still obvious taxiway complex that once existed 'over the road'... Silver City/Falcon/Britavia's 'Blackbushe south' hangar would have been to the left of the photo. In fact you can just see the Minley Road as it curves up from Fleet. That's the point from where I retain a memory of numerous big white tails lined up courtesy of Falcon Airways and their Hermes fleet close to the hangar.. The Terminal Building is now much shorter than in the photo. Hampshire County Council were still to vandalise more than half of this famous old structure.. It's truly sad that so many decades can drift by allowing the airfield to float in a bureaucratic no-mans land, a wilderness of indecision, lacking of someone with the balls to make decisions about the future. Yes, that's a B-17 on the apron.. Wonder how many of those would have fitted in the original apron? Quite a few!!This photo clearly shows the arc that depicts the boundary of the original apron! It could so easily have been preserved if the Airport owners offers of money and land exchange had been accepted, but the opponents had their way, their costly and disasterous intervention is still clear to see!! As you'll see from the second photo the Blackbushe 'car park' was pretty messy based on the destruction levied by the government, we also had two gates leading onto the A30... both were "in and out" facilities! Happily its reconstruction gave us a very decent car park even if it is pretty full most of the time nowadays.. Finally, the sandy scar south of the A30 might be where Silver City's engineering department where once housed? No doubt our Silver City correspondent can help with that? Bob??? That's it..taking the rest of the day off! PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 14, 2017 9:08:21 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 14/08/17Yesterday we took a 'helicopter view' of the Terminal area.. a little more down to earth this morning... A reminder of the bureaucratic respect held for Blackbushe in County circles..1996, Hampshire destroy their portion of the Terminal having let it rot for over 30 years....Same airport, this summer celebrated her 75th year - proved that some of us still love the old airfield!PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 15, 2017 5:26:07 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 15/08/17One of those nights when you wake incredibly early to find your mind wrapped up in inconsequential stuff. That repetitive annoying dream has just faded into wherever dreams come from, but you still cannot remember what it was about, while the effects still play their theme in the background. Only one thing to do, get up.. No idea where POTD will lead this morning, but no doubt something will trigger, who knows? Noticed that POTD reached 85,000 hits yesterday which is quite a surprise. The previous version of POTD was hosted on "another" forum and reached 90,000+ hits before the owner of the 'other' forum took some kind of dislike to my efforts and deleted the lot in one fell swoop. For better or for worse, thanks to all who frequent the "One-Stop" we seem to have almost got back to where we left off, or should I say were kicked off? Talking of dreams, as I was, here's an image that one can but dream of.. Viewed from Eagle Airways hangar, 'Blackbushe south', a York in the foreground, traffic on the A30, an airfield with not a tree/bush/ scrub to obstruct the view...and a US Navy Beech 18 in the air.."Let us spray".. Eagle's busy spray shop.Something akin to a dream..Tropic Air York, Eagle Viking, US Navy (?) Super Connie, Beech 18, old cars, lots of old Blackbushe huts of WW2 origin...1949 en route to GARUDA2017...a moment recaptured, a reflection from long gone days...Dream on... PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 16, 2017 9:23:19 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 16/08/17With more than a small does of bemusement we have to swallow the "elf n safety" pill that will silence Big Ben for a rather generous four years! The media are already describing this as an achievement not reached by Adolf Hitler, which is undeniably true. A description this forum has more than once no doubt awarded the government of the time who elected to destroy Blackbushe Airport in the fastest time possible.. The closest the Nazi bombers could manage was the back garden of the nearby Ely Hotel. One can just imagine the Fuehrers sly smile learning that the RAF's vital Hartford Bridge base had been flattened. Happily the government's very own blitz on Blackbushe failed to be the 100% success raid intended, as various forms of aviation can still be seen there. A few photos below from the Doug Arnold warbird era... Doug's Mossie...Doug's Meteor..Doug's Spit...Doug's Sea Fury, one of several..Doug's "Jug"..And all on Doug's Airport... the one the Luftwaffe missed!PB PS Travelling by train today? Avoid Waterloo, it looks like it's been hit by an air raid!
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 17, 2017 5:29:45 GMT
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 18, 2017 9:49:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 18/08/17Not sure whether to look back, forwards, or which way with POTD this morning... Looking forward, there is still plenty of time to place a written submission - should you wish - with regard to the proposed RNAV approach procedure. www.blackbusheairport.co.uk/consultation/Even if you have no comment, or just tick the box either "support", "object", or "no opinion"... Further indications of other work in progress will be published later this month.... Meanwhile, a step back to the beginning of July when despite considerable adversity we managed to mark the airfield's 75th birthday in quite a successful way! Some of our 'warbird collection'. Yak3, Hurricane, Yak 52, Mustang..Who needs aeroplanes when there's music?The Royal Air Force were there....as were British Airways.Apart from Pete's F-16 patch could have been a moment from RAF Hartford Bridge in the forties? A welcome return of a type that once lived here in US Navy days..Blackbushe fire crews on patrol...elephant's trunks providing the latest way to squirt out fires, maybe the "jumbo jet"? The "75th" cake cutting by airfield supremo Cameron Ogden flanked by your scribe and a number of the Hungarian refugees who flew to Blackbushe and freedom long ago..I could write a book on the 'events' that took place leading up to the 75th, but I won't as it would surely lead to a recurrence of the stress induced rashes! PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 19, 2017 6:16:35 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 19/08/17Quite some years ago the Police and the RAF worked together in an exercise to demonstrate their combined mobility in times of national unrest. The photo below confirms such am exercise when three Argosy transport aircraft arrived on the very quiet plains of Hartford Bridge to show how fast a number of aircraft could transport the law across the land... I doubt we'll see this repeated using the C-17? Two of the three Argosies that arrived on an otherwise very quiet Blackbushe..I always thought the Argosy was known as the 'whistling wheelbarrow', but not according to the RAF slang offered by Google.. Apparently the RAF had another, but equally descriptive, term for the Argosy. Something to do with engine noise and the small black radar dome on its nose.. Have a good weekend.. PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 20, 2017 6:42:01 GMT
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 21, 2017 9:09:40 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 21/08/17Airports are not always happy places. Blackbushe was the birthplace of Eagle Airways - a fact that will never change, but despite Blackbushe being closed in 1960, one of Eagle's loyal servants came home to die a few years later.. She'd have made a great gate guard, but sadly was worth more as scrap...Airports are not always happy places.... PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on Aug 22, 2017 7:51:34 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 22/08/17Back to the early sixties, beatle hair cuts, flared trousers, and psychedelia whichever way you looked...well, not everywhere, Blackbushe entertained her 'freshly abandoned' look, while some of us looked distinctly younger than perhaps we do today? Slightly. Today's first offering taken in the early part of 1963. The temporary lock-up hangars were complete having been built under conditions not unlike WW1 battlefield footage, while a second larger hangar also offered much needed shelter in those 'pre-historic' days. 1963. Now all on the land rented by BCA, the old north western taxiway still serving aeroplanes, the tracks leading to the top left corner taking you to the bomb dump and numerous nissen huts etc from WW2.I always found that north western corner very quiet and almost eerie. Something to do with the wind in the trees, and what I knew of the past and an active imagination? M-way under construction...but where?Photo taken around the same time as the one above it, the time when steam trains still bellowed their long trails of white steam as they plied the track from the west to London via Basingstoke, Hook, Winchfield, Fleet etc etc etc...The heads of steam could be seen from miles away if you were airborne. Question is, which bit of M-way is this?? Simply cannot recall, I think I might have been heading toward the west at the time..so could be anywhere. Railway station, road in the foreground and the new Motorway ripping its way through the countryside. Any idea where I was? For years I've assumed it's the M3?? The M3 construction provided Blackbushe with easy motorway access, a valuable tool in the airfield's "sales manual" - especially for future marketing material? Or this?..or this?OK, I know where this is...The end of a cold winter, and today's pics!PB
|
|