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Post by PB on Jun 6, 2015 6:23:05 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
06/06/15The weekend has made it, or rather we've made it to the weekend, a weekend where in the south we have a sunny disposition - unlike Scotland according to the met charts - but you get what you deserve. Scotland, a beautiful land where in the hands of a few things can turn ugly. It has happened in Europe, it happened at Blackbushe when a few in a position of 'power' exercised what they could to ensure the detriment of our fine airfield. Despite the wielding of influence, and demolition contractors, those who exercised a campaign to destroy Blackbushe as an airfield failed. Not entirely, their damage is still here for all to see, but t'was only for a short while that Blackbushe was void of the sound of aero engines. Recent discussions with regard to who, and what, can operate from our remaining runway shows that small changes would need to be implemented for the airfield to carry light commercial traffic. That is a subject for another day, but over the years we've seen the types with which Blackbushe could offer a service to the public flying in - and out - of Blackbushe with a valuable human cargo aboard. The sound of Rolls Royce turbo props was not limited to the pre 1960 era...  KLM City Hopper F-27. Farnborough Week Dash 7 demo, but carried lots of passengers from EGLK, including your scribe.. British Air Ferries flew numerous sorties throughout the Blackbushe Air Festival..with high passenger load factors Passenger carrying Dakotas have not been strangers to Blackbushe since the 1960 closure  British Airways came back, plus a useful load! Suits Blackbushe nicely Emotional moments, the first commercial airline flight into Blackbushe since the 'government pulled the plug' 1962 or..3 Another Farnborough Week, Busy Bee at a Busy BB.. Delta Air Transport - another Farnborough Week special
 Talking of Farnborough Week, even SHE came back home!
 Highly trained Blackbushe ground staff escort passengers from the latest flight from Switzerland - Farnborough Week KLM City Hopper expresses many peoples opinion on what happened to BlackbusheWhatever people may say, or argue, Blackbushe has the potential to do a lot more than it has...a great deal more! Just needs some oil applied to the creaky bits. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 6, 2015 7:22:43 GMT
Let us not forget..
D-Day 6th June, 1944On this day in 1944, Blackbushe based aircraft played a significant role in the D-Day landings.  Laying smoke screens to protect our ships, harassing the enemy by bombing strategic targets, our crew performed the most heroic tasks. Not all returned to Blackbushe by the close of day, they paid the ultimate - as did so many - for our peace in Europe, and our safety.    "Thank you" seems so little in return.. We will, however, remember them!! PB Link to comment... blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/1707
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Post by PB on Jun 7, 2015 8:30:37 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
07/06/15According to EGLF's ATIS we are having a nice day. Hopefully the same applies to EGLK where no longer the Sunday Market aerial ballet of plastic bags is performed as could be expected when the wind serenely deposited a plastic bag as propeller fodder - or worse jet engine fodder - just as you hoped to see the runway sink beneath you. From the aviation point of view, this must be the most immediate benefit from BCA's plans to restructure what is now 'their' part of Blackbushe. The part that now has no aviation links at all. Once again, we find ourselves mourning the loss of infrastructure at Blackbushe. But, as often happens round here, we can look back...  Blackbushe Airport 2014I snapped the above shot last autumn where we see the two hangars furthest from camera that enjoyed planning permission for "aviation use". Plainly that is no longer the case as all the buildings and the vast concreted area now belong to BCA, divorced from the rest of the airfield that happily - at last - belongs to an aviation company. Blink Ltd.. Whether we will see new hangars for aeroplanes remains unknown, but an airfield enjoying Blackbushe's location and size without hangars and a more complex aviation infrastructure is going to have some challenges to face. Time alone will tell..  Not a flying machine to be seen.. Days of hope...Optimistic times as Doug Arnold built all the hangars. Built for aircraft, not auctions, but times they changed..   Then came the Spitfires...seeking rebirth at Blackbushe..
 and various other types!  Now the vision of pre-owned vehicles being buffed up, the sound of auctioneers' high-speed patter and their gavels sealing the next sale, are the domain of the "ex" hangars. Memories from the days of Douglas are now fading alongside memories of a better Blackbushe back in the fifties..Hope must not fade for a better future, but seeing those hangars stuffed full of old motors, old white vans, and the 'dealers' does not deliver the warm and fuzzy feeling associated with the times when RJ Mitchell's dream machines found new life at Blackbushe. Now we want new life for Blackbushe as an airport. Simple. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 8, 2015 6:09:06 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
08/06/15Got to be quick, the great hand that feeds me has reached down with a little earner, so as I can give HMG a large % of it.....someone's got to pay the foreign aid bill? Today's focus is placed on Blackbushe based Eagle Airways...  Eagle were not shy in displaying a variety of colour schemes over the years..Indeed, one of the Eagle fleet showing a scheme that didn't spread too far around the always respectable looking Eagle Airlines collection of flying machines. Of note in the photo is the main runway. The large triangular section 'markers' that ran the full runway length of the runway are clearly seen. Past the US Navy hangar in the background, and here seen as they stretch across the now totally disfunctional so called 'public open space' known to others as Yateley Common. The area was 'leased' by the government for flying in WW2, subsequently becoming London's second airport....  The 'Common'...It would be so nice if the new owners of Blackbushe could lease back a relatively small part of this land. Blackbushe would become safer and more efficient, the common would be smartened up while still preserving specific areas of so called "SSI". AND the local purse would benefit as a bit of old Blackbushe came back to life. Ignore me, just early morning pre work ramblings. Who on earth would support such logic anyway? PB
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Post by PB on Jun 9, 2015 6:40:18 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
09/06/15Another day, another photo... Another day calling for brevity as the great god "£££££" calls me to duty. Not for long though, and time enough will follow for a minimum of two miles heart pumping exercise on Blackbushe's vast unused runways and taxiways - plus the challenges posed by walking across 'the common'. Meanwhile, the grey cell must get its early morning work-out working out what it can say about Blackbushe today... Well, yesterday I made comment on the background to Eagle's Viking. Today looks like being a similar performance. Different aeroplane, different era though.  Doug Arnold's Mosquito takes some exercise on Blackbushe's main runway. By the time this photo was taken, Blackbushe had been closed for nearly twenty years. The US Navy hangar still presented an imposing back-drop although it was now years since it had housed Neptunes, Super Connies etc etc.. Broken concrete, untamed scrub, snakes, and local 'powers' lay between the Blackbushe of now and the Blackbushe Airport of the fifties. Nontheless, the Mosquito looked very much at home on runways that during the last war had been home to numerous squadrons of the type. Runways where the sound of the Mosquito and her magnificent Merlins would have been music to local ears, mayhem to others at the receiving end of their intended missions. I hope that the Mosquitoes song would have been music to local ears? There were disturbing reports of complaints from the nearby village that the noise from our resident bombers running up their engines was 'disturbing'. Maybe they didn't know there was a war taking place with these aeroplanes about to be occupied by our young men risking their lives so as local residents would still be free to complain about such things? As they did. Let us hope that the peacetime destruction of the east end of the airfield was not some sort of revenge.. A note on time and its peculiar passage before I head for the car keys. Blackbushe Airport was closed in 1960. The Second World War ended in 1945. Only fifteen years passed during which Blackbushe became London's second airport and her glorious peacetime golden years came to pass. Extraordinarily fifty five years have passed since the Government axe chopped Blackbushe off the major airport list. It must be a miracle that has kept Blackbushe ticking while both her arms are tied behind her back thanks to the ancient rights hotly supported by some. Those years would seem to have passed by in blink..Now it is Blink we turn to with hopes that at last Blackbushe will recover both her arms - able to use them to her full benefit as the centre for aviation that she is so suited to be. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 10, 2015 5:46:14 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
10/06/15As a new day sweeps in across the plains, and planes, of northern Hampshire I look back on yesterday's POTD whereby I mentioned putting Blackbushe's disused runways into action. Whilst void of aeroplanes, or anything else of value, they provide an excellent area in which to continue one's efforts to keep the heart slopping around as best as possible. Logged 2.02 miles in 34.21 minutes which is 16 and a bit minutes per mile. Is that good? No idea, but makes the four minute mile seem a long way off, but I did apparently shed 238 calories according to my onboard technology. Walking the disused runways on the northern half of the airfield continues to be somewhat depressing as you witness the crumbling tarmac and the work of unchecked nature. Old recollections flood back, flights that are now recorded in moth eaten logs, Farnborough Weeks long gone, and the temptation to think what it could become as a revived airfield is never far away.. 01 is fast becoming a weed bed, but at least the old photos are still useable..  Reg Venning guides home based G-AHUG onto 01 in the early sixties Clint's fabulous photo taken on very short finals to 01 Departing 01 in Auster G-APKL..cc 1963. Interesting view of the old infrastructure adjacent to the US Navy hangar. RAF days.. ...and coming back, same flight as above. Note the dreadful state of the airfield back then,, Wartime infrastructure as seen from a 01 departureLots of memories stored up in those old runways, runways that today are somewhat lonesome affairs when it's just you and your memories. But, I wouldn't be without them! Meeting with Blink again today where no doubt the "ideas" received from the forum will be reviewed. This refers to Blink's invitation to submit our ideas as to how the future Blackbushe might evolve. The window remains open to submit any bright ideas you may wish to share with Blink, as it is to fire questions at them. You know the old expression, "Use it, or loose it..". PB
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Post by PB on Jun 11, 2015 6:52:31 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
11/06/15Two things happened yesterday that carry some significance. Hopefully you will consider them significant too.. First, the Forum gained its 100th member as 'Shed360' arrived in our midst. Second, we rubber stamped the date for a long overdue flying event at Blackbushe. Details of the event will appear elsewhere in the Forum in the near future. Having stuck my neck out once again for the sake of 'our' airfield and those who have an interest in it, I truly hope I can turn to our Forum members if and when some helping hands are needed? One member has offered his services already.... Stepping back for a photo from the past as is the job of this bit of the Forum...  Dowty's delightful Dove, G-ASPAA moment frozen in time from the sixties or maybe early seventies. I was the Airport's 'operations bloke', Bill Freeman the Airport Manager, and visitors such as the Dowty Dove were - to me - like gifts from the heavens. Dowty would use Blackbushe from time to time, Neville Duke being at the controls on a regular basis. G-ASPA was destined to become a Blackbushe based aircraft years later. In a superb metallic 'bronze' scheme she had become the property of Staravia. There is a decent photo of her down in the vaults, but having spent the last half hour trying to find it...time dictates giving up on the search.  Short finals for zero one..Long ago. The chance of a Dove descending over your car as you drove past Blackbushe was very long odds..but it could happen. Descending into the bleakness of Blackbushe way back in the early sixties, the happy days when all the remaining runways were there to be used, Neville Duke completes another sortie aboard a Dowty Dove. Above the wreckage and remains of what shortly before was London's second airport, the Dove's arrival was almost a spiritual moment for me, like a ghost of former days materialising before my very eyes.. That's it, duty calls.. PB
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Post by PB on Jun 12, 2015 5:35:35 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
12/06/15Some mornings as the sun climbs out of the 'cloud bank of the day' one sits bemused before the QWERTY arrangement and wonders what to do with it.. My analysis of the situation over the past minute has concluded that sleeping longer than usual creates cloud banks in the brain that might not clear until encountering a passing WB, or Weetabix? Unusually, I did not spend half the night sharing the vaults with 'creatures of the dark' searching for a juicy morsel from Blackbushe of the past to share with you come the light... Nonetheless, despite cerebral overcast, let us journey once more into the distance....Back to 1947. The nearest I can offer is "1947", at Blackbushe on a crew training detail. With its long runways and nearness to London, Blackbushe was so convenient for crew training while they waited for someone to come along and invent something called a computer that would lead to 'flight simulators'.  G-AGRH, Avro Tudor 1, of British South American Airlines.
The Tudor, used by BSAA and the likes of AVM Bennett's Fairflight, or Freddie Laker's Air Charter.. Not a rip roaring success of an aeroplane with a chequered safety reputation. G-AGRH grew to become a Tudor Mk IV Super Trader but was sadly lost when in the hands of Air Charter it crashed into Mt Suphan in Turkey with the loss of the twelve souls who were onboard. Apparently she was carrying a sensitive cargo which needed to be quietly 'disposed of' after the accident..  She played her part in the Berlin Airlift flying 114 sorties and carrying over 1,100 tones of freight.. Commercial flying is such a different animal today, it continues to grow year after year, and our London airports are full to bursting, or soon will be. The potential for a runway somewhere around where Blackbushe is to be found also grows. Watch this space... PB
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Post by PB on Jun 13, 2015 6:13:13 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
13/06/15Sorry chaps, the Office is closed today. 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain this year, and today's a special day at Biggin Hill.  Memorial Flight at Blackbushe last summer..Perhaps they'll be back? Must away... PB
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Post by PB on Jun 14, 2015 6:30:53 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
14/06/15Yesterday under grey Kent skies we paid homage to the triumph of a passing generation as the sound of Merlins returned to Biggin Hill's airspace remembering their triumph of 75 years ago. The Battle of Britain was a victory belonging to a gallant few. The battle of Blackbushe still goes on, we can but hope that some day a settled future will be secured and the Airport may move forward into the role to which she is so eminently suited.. Carrying revenue passengers be it in aeroplanes small or otherwise. Glancing back to the days when transport aircraft were the backbone of Blackbushe, a couple of sights from the Eagle days as home based DC-6's enjoy the benefits of Blackbushe tarmac.  Eagle DC-6 G-APON taxiing on an intact Blackbushe Same type, different scheme..The latter photo shows one of the Eagle DC-6's on tow across the eastern reaches of the main apron. Sadly both the aircraft and this part of the apron are long gone. It still beggars belief that in the 'battle of Blackbushe' this valuable piece of tarmac was ripped up by forces alien to it and to aviation. Negotiations would have seen it saved in a land exchange deal, but despite the many many acres that make up Yateley Common, this precious piece of our old airfield was maliciously torn up at a great cost to the local purse. It is now just a tangled mess, just like the entire story that surrounds the destruction of a fine airport and its unresolved battle of 55 years against bureaucracy, ancient rights and misplaced logic. PB
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She played her part in the Berlin Airlift flying 114 sorties and carrying over 1,100 tones of freight..
