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Post by PB on May 20, 2020 4:55:46 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 20/05/20The hour approaches 05.00.
"Why?" then you may rightly ask is anybody writing on the Blackbushe Forum at such an early hour? Why? The massed beaks of Hampshire that's flaming well why...Why when you've got a perfectly good branch to cling to would you want to join in the ornithological version of one of these 'lockdown' massed choirs on social media at four o'clock in the morning... You leave a window open in hopes of some additional fresh summer air, instead your night is sabotaged by our feathered friends with some insane emulation of the 'Last Night of the Proms'. Window now shut, sleep definitely shot, what else can one do?
Start the day the usual way, but earlier than planned...if 'planned' is anything akin to life nowadays. If anybody wants to make reference to "Tweeting" please resist..
Yesterday Blackbushe Airport burst into life in no uncertain terms.. As Chris, Airport Manager Chris, reported on the Forum's movement pages at the close of play yesterday, the Airport enjoyed 126 movements, significantly in excess of the entire month of April. IF yesterday's traffic volume is maintained opening seven days a week would once again be viable..and that craved "normality" would be several steps closer.
Not armed with suitable facts to back this up, but I'm sure somebody would be able to, but dare I question whether Blackbushe was busier than Gatwick yesterday, or was Blackbushe busier than Farnborough too? Purely traffic movements, aircraft weight/passenger numbers not included! Something deep in the dark recesses of my mind would be inclined to develop a smug smile if EGLK was busier than EGKK. Can't think why.
I do have a grouse, and this one nothing to do with the shooting season..Living south of Fleet the skies remained resolutely silent overhead yesterday. No 'wokka wokka' detected from RAF Odiham down the road, and NO traffic from Blackbushe Airport up the road, while Farnborough across the way gave the impression of a very quiet airport all day. Operation Nimby removed Farnborough traffic from enjoyable 'turn right after departure from 24' departures engaging my overhead in the process, now they depart on a fuel burning SID taking in Petersfield and Winchester before tracking for CPT or points north. The skies are empty of high altitude airways TFC apart from assorted freighters, aged 747s and MD-11's doing a great job...Sadly the new Farnborough controlled airspace has succeeded in removing light aircraft from transiting one's abode. Unless my double glazing precludes such sounds the welcome aural indications of a PA28 departure from Blackbushe bound for Bembridge or south to Sandown has become a thing of the past..Of late Farnborough's new airspace has looked like a very expensive bit of open sky.
It's now 05.20. Pictures?Memory lane..D-Day will soon be remembered once again,, apart from the tri motored flying shed the Dakotas from the Arnold years reflect a somewhat D-Dayesque appearance...as if a reminder was necessary, the south's most environmentally friendly airport, and yesterday one of the busiest!..a time when the sprawling acres of Blackbushe were under consideration as a new gliding site. Didn't catch on...and the time when the Army seriously considered adopting Blackbushe for their own use. Didn't catch on either..Think it's time to make a cup of tea and tell the birds to...you know, stick their dawn chorus elsewhere.
PB
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Post by PB on May 21, 2020 6:33:22 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 21/05/20Most days offer something of significance from the annals of aviation history. Take today, for example.. 1927. On this day Charles Lindbergh along with "Spirit of St Louis" landed near Paris, France. Mankind had breached the Atlantic Ocean's span solo and lived to tell the tale. It took him 33 hours and 29 minutes. Imagine!
On this day in 1977, 50 years later, Concorde made a special trip from New York to Paris to mark the occasion. Knock off about thirty hours flying time, the SST covered the tracks in 3 hours and 44 minutes.
Just fifty years passed for man to achieve such progress in his ability to fly at speed...
It has now taken SIXTY YEARS for the Battle of Blackbushe's striving to allow the development of a valuable aviation asset. Shameful that six decades have passed while bureaucrats have done nothing but waste time, waste money, spread lies and needless fears over Blackbushe Airport while Concorde evolved, flew, served, and retired. Six lost decades where many more could be enjoying employment, and the Airport pumping additional funds into the local economy. This year has witnessed Hampshire County Council's latest money consuming stunt to destroy the spirit of Blackbushe..the spirit retains its vigour despite Hampshire's shameful County Council, despite the efforts of Covid 19. The future has never been harder to predict than at the moment, but the value of Blackbushe to aviation in the future is without question as strong as ever. She just needs to fly free of bureaucratic chains. A brief moment in Concorde's life...a salute to Blackbushe!Not aviation related, but an extract the daily science journal "Nature" that may be of interest.. "This week, US biotechnology firm Moderna revealed that its COVID-19 vaccine triggered an immune response in people, and protected mice from SARS-CoV-2 infections in the lungs. The data have not yet been published or peer-reviewed. Vaccines being developed in the United Kingdom and China have shown tentatively positive — but not Earth-shattering — results in monkeys. The good news is that all three vaccines appear to be safe enough to proceed to further clinical trials. It’s too soon to say whether they actually work".WE can build extreme technology such as Concorde, we've been to the Moon and back more than once, we can create vaccines (hopefully) that will change the course of life on Earth, SURELY we can build some hangars on Blackbushe Airport??
What do you think?
PB
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Post by PB on May 22, 2020 6:32:10 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 22/05/20Sincere thanks to Rocky14 for his 'comment' after an open invitation in yesterday's POTD for all to comment following the "Six Decades of Disgrace" bestowed upon Blackbushe Airport by bureaucracy. Sometimes exasperation grabs POTD's editorial throat. I still find it extraordinary looking at mankind's better achievements - good and bad - since 1960 that he has been to the Moon, Concorde has come and gone, John F Kennedy became President of the United States and tragically gunned down, the Vietnan War, Chubby Checker gave birth to the "Twist", Gary Power's U2 was shot down by the USSR, aluminium cans came into use, photocopiers were invented, the silicon chip age has come from a mere chip to controlling most of what we do etc etc - and yet during all of this time the six decades of bureaucracy under which Blackbushe has had the misfortune to exist has done nothing but hamper and destroy its structures, bulldoze the prospects of its employees and many potential employees, and ironically negate the Airport's prospects of becoming an ever greater supporter of their local economy.
Look at the human trail of achievements since 1960, then stop off and glance across the hangarless, facility starved Blackbushe Airport. The owners have done all they can to provide a smart, efficient, business and flying training airfield, they even won the coveted "AOPA Aerodrome of the Year" in 2019... So this year Hampshire County Council indulge in a Judicial Review at OUR expense - well, if you live in Hampshire it's your money - and now we can but wait adding more time to the "Six Decades of Disgrace" brought to you courtesy of our blinkered bureaucracies...
I'm sorry, but it tears me to pieces having spent most of my life facing the disease known as 'Blackbushe Frustration', a contagion no doubt shared by most of our members and many others who view the need for "common sense" to be released from sixty years of confinement. However, unlike some contagions currently on the loose, there is an easy cure to this one... The local authorities could administer it if only they had a great big syringe loaded with "common sense". It must be in there somewhere, and I know exactly where it could be administered.........Looking backwards once more, so many changes have taken place since 1960...The mobile phone and the myriad communication options,'social media' and its sometimes questionable benefits, or even the rise of platforms like our "One-Stop" Forum.. Miracles of technology not even dreamed of when the bureaucratic bashers ploughed up Blackbushe! Happily the technology that brought yesterday's Photo of the Day photo to its knees has been fixed...We'll see if it stays fixed today?
APPARENTLY NOT..the clockwork seems to have broken again.. (I'll try again later in hopes our photosupplier has woken up!)
Technology is so great, until it stops working!!
PB
UP and running again!!
Happy recall from the 75th!!
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Post by PB on May 23, 2020 6:19:55 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 23/05/20Greetings, we've made it all the way to another weekend. Two notable factors. One, the sun is shining (correct at 06.30LT), and two, unlike of recent Blackbushe is flying today!!
At this juncture a cautionary tale, beware snakes in the grass, or snakes on the Common. Social media pages yesterday carried an amazing and large adder whose slithering was being conducted not too far from Blackbushe, but numerous reports were added from walkers on old Blackbushe Airport who had recently seen adders on the disused bits of Blackbushe. Frimley Park are able to administer the necessary snake bite serum, but it is highly advisable to execute extreme care at this time of year, with their young they are very defensive! Having almost trodden on one I can vouch for their presence on the old aerodrome.
Happily yesterday saw the technical issues overcome preventing POTD from having any photos.. Better try again, fingers crossed?Yes! A moment from year or two back when life was quite 'normal'.....Our apron..Early sixties. A visiting Dove, (breweries were our best customers back then, types including Aztec B, Piaggio P166, and the Dove..Alton was not far away, land of the hop growers and beer brewers) and the Airport vehicles... That was life in the very early 1960's. The apron and the Terminal were both still at full size, and the pre May 1960 MTCA Marshals hut whereupon all those years ago we placed the Control Hut "C"!! That's where long ago we booked aircraft in, took their landing fees, and thanked the crew for visiting London's Blackbushe Airport. Also very useful on wet weekends when volunteer debris clearers needed refuge.. Cosy but welcome.Another moment captured when aeroplanes at Blackbushe were exceedingly rare things. One Sunday afternoon long long ago when aeroplanes were rarer than most anything else, a Comanche was brought down for some demo flights. The metal surfaces, streamlined bodywork, and a smooth horizontally opposed Lycoming combined to present an aeroplane that was breathtaking in its beauty, performance, and sound. I was sixteen at the time and considered the price tag of £11,000 new rather extreme! How could anybody buy something that pricey? It WAS a long time ago.... A couple of years prior to this, when Blackbushe was still fully intact and a "Ministry" run and funded operation, Airwork had become the first UK importer of the other new shapes coming to British skies, Cessnas.. In those last fateful months before Blackbushe was closed I was surprised to see these new very small shiny metal aeroplanes parked around the Airwork complex. Next door to Airwork's Hermes they did look a little on the small side... such was the scene absorbed on my last bike rides to Blackbushe before armageddon descended.
Remember the snakes if you're walking on the Common this weekend, it's an area well know for them....
PB
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Post by PB on May 24, 2020 6:09:10 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 24/05/20Sunday again. Regardless of viral intrusions into life's rich pattern (scrub the rich bit..) spring has matured into the wonders of early summer. It's all going by so fast even when the high point of the week is taking the mower round the patch for its exercise.. Over on the plateau Blackbushe is closed again until Tuesday, part of the phased schedule toward eventual normal hours again. "Normal", such a lovely word.
In earlier times up on the 'plateau', this time in May would have seen continued bombing efforts to keep the Germans pinned down and away from our D-Day preparations, her crews receiving well deserved decoration for their courageous activities. Today, 24 May, 1944, an 88 Squadron Boston force landed near Eversley, happily her crew only suffering minor injuries. Just one photo this morning. An airfield who played a valiant role in the saving of our nation seventy years ago, an airfield that's taken undeserved flak in peace time, an airfield that is obviously environmentally unbeatable in the south-east, an airfield that will be the south-east's General Aviation 'centre of excellence' once common sense prevails. Anyone disagree?
PB
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Post by PB on May 25, 2020 6:28:31 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 25/05/20Bank Holiday Monday... The weather at 07.00 appears to be perfect. Blackbushe closed today due to the phased re establishment after the Covid 19 closure. Bank Holidays were quite often quiet from recall of long gone Bank Holidays at Blackbushe although the weather today would no doubt have been a little tempting to get the Dunlops off the deck? Today you may not be able to 'get away' but from tomorrow you'll be able to 'take away' as the Bushe Cafe opens for a 'take away' service...
Something slightly odd happened on this day in 2003, a Boeing 727 N844AA was taken by a Charles Padilla from Angola Airport. He flew it out and neither he nor the aeroplane were to be seen again, anywhere...? Shame the 72's have gone, lovely aeroplane, but none went in a unusual way than this one.
The General Aviation fraternity will no doubt turn to electric power in due course, the technology is perhaps going that way? In 2011 the e-genius made its first flight, "German manned electric airplane, two seated side by side high wing configuration aircraft completely manufactured of fibre composites and equipped with a retractable landing gear, propulsion realized by a permanent magnet synchronous motor with an electrical driven variable pitch propeller". More a powered glider in appearance, but here's a You Tube reminder if you wish... Before she became, "Just Jane", G-ASXX in 1967 at the conclusion of the Daily Telegraph/St John's Ambulance Air Display at Blackbushe. Happily "Just Jane" lives at East Kirkby today and is well worth a visit when it is again possible to do such things! At this time she was the only airworthy Lancaster in the world, if all goes according to hopes she may become the third flying Lancaster in time.. The photo comes from the Brian Goulding collection. Only seems fair for the Lancaster to be joined by a couple of her 1940's chums also on hallowed Blackbushe tarmac.Wishing you a happy and healthy Bank Holiday Monday.. PB
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Post by PB on May 26, 2020 6:37:24 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 26/05/20With journalistic blood dripping from their mouths the wolfpack media excelled themselves yesterday, breaking all the social distancing rules without hesitation as they closed in on their victim.. Let's hope, regardless of the political meal that some parties seek, we can get back to the pandemic in hand and focus on priorities?
Yesterday was indeed revealing, one just had to focus on the sky.. More accurately, focus on'Planefinder', as the skies were liberally stocked with light aeroplanes in all directions except the empty cubic miles of controlled airspace where life continues to be dull.. The motorless brigade were obviously feeling uplifted too, the airspace around Alton seemingly amassed with the whirling dervish gyrations of those hooked on thermals.. My direct view of the sky south of Fleet yielded little, a couple of red kites also engaged in a free thermal rides and very occasional distant vapour trails - freighters most likely?
The sky at 06.30 again looks pure blue, we seem to have a lot of blue sky days of late where the blue seems deeper, the sky almost saying 'come up and get me'. Blackbushe is open today AND the Bushe Cafe opens its windows offering you a take away service. Meals on Wings perhaps? Blue skies from yesteryear... Rex Coates wonderfully restored Miles 18. Like any open cockpit a delight to fly in and unlike many other fresh air cockpits far less wings and bracing wires to spoil the view!Another example of British aeroplane styling, Concorde in the distant Farnborough circuit during the days when we filled runway 14/32 with visiting flying machines, from north to south, Blackbushe had aeroplanes all the way! How it should be..............NOT a scene from WW2 Blackbushe, another movie shoot giving runway 14/32 yet another makeover ... Blackbushe has a certain ruggedness about her, maybe a wild side inherited from her heathland origins that somehow gives her a remote and somewhat separated feeling from the world around her? Whatever, Blackbushe has endearing qualities that make her a special place once you're tuned in to her soul....You may agree, you may disagree....
PB
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Post by PB on May 27, 2020 6:56:04 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 27/05/20Blackbushe Airport has many plus points, she could have an awful lot more if bureaucracy stopped putting its finger in.. However this fine day sees the introduction of slashed AVGAS prices at this fine airfield AND the Bushe Cafe is open for your take away refreshment needs. Oh, yes, and the weather is gonna be just perfic too.
A quick step back in time as the running a bit later than scheduled this morning... Pre owned Dakotas used to arrive at Blackbushe and park up with Eagle Airways. Pre-owned in that they still had visible RAF roundels, the service was thinning out their post war stock of transport aeroplanes. VP-YKP arrived as with G-AMYY roughly painted on her fin.. A new life awaited!Welcome to Blackbushe, it's makeover time.....and another, a more familiar location perhaps? The black structure long gone, the old freight sheds, the only thing left of them after the Government abandoned Blackbushe were numerous lengths of angle iron sticking out of the ground where they'd be severed by the demolition gangs. Across the Airport in all directions there was an awful lot of clearing up to do!!! PB
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Post by PB on May 28, 2020 6:13:00 GMT
Photo of the Day" 28/05/20The month of May is wearing out with few days left to go..Blackbushe coming back to life has been a key feature of May 2020.
Were you to travel backwards in time to 1960 the Airport would be taking its last breaths of life, ready to die on the 31st. Throughout the month the US Navy had been busy as always while the civil operators depleted in numbers as they moved away to alternate bases. The dark forces were mustering, forces that for at least the following six decades would be flies in Blackbushe's future...
Travel back to 1944 and the threat of invasion by the Germans was of many a mind. But, we had a plan... Concentrated bombing attacks were being made on strategic targets as the prelude to D-Day, on this day 1944 Blackbushe's 88 Squadron took out gun positions at Boulogne having already had very considerable success removing chosen targets in the pre D-Day strategy. Bombing and photo recce work were keeping the airfield very busy..Ladies and Gentlemen, your flight is ready for boarding... Happy recall of the warbird days! Those engine sounded quite akin to how they looked..but they did the job!A comrade brought his Yak to one of our rather impromptu 'flying days'.. Nothing really planned, but made fun days that were popular with the public.Farnborough Week in the seventies...Bizz jets were frequent callers, Shorts Learjet from Belfast ready to go..The apron took on the look of how we wished it looked every day, the busy business airfield providing jobs, and perhaps just missing a few hangars, a new Terminal and an aircraft engineering base?Business operations from the Netherlands, so much potential has cried out for very nearly sixty years since that Government axe tried to sever the Airport's neck...I know it's depressing, but the Airport has survived the most perilous journey since that time and most importantly she has never given up, and nothing could be more evident of that than today's efforts as she continues to fight the blinkered bureaucracy..
Meanwhile, it's a beautiful day, stay well, stay safe, and don't forget the Bushe Cafe is ready to serve you something tasty to take away...
PB
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Post by PB on May 29, 2020 5:34:32 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 29/05/20Almost as if the south of England regrets the imposition of a viral attack preventing its sun seekers going abroad it appears intent on bringing "holiday" weather to us...Another day dawns and CAVOK prevails, just a tad under +10C at 05.30, looks good for another day of opportunities in southern skies?
Talking of the skies..here's a view from yesterday, a disappearing Blackbushe...
Almost lost in the vast acres of surrounding forests what better evidence could there be in support of decades of claims that there is NO airfield in the bustling south of England more environmentally suitable for aviation than THIS one!!! Add to that the long clear unobstructed approaches to her runway and Blackbushe maintains her cast iron case for development as the south-east's most suitable General Aviation candidate. It's just tragic we're on the edge of six decades of intransigence that have blocked suitable progress..British Car Auctions seemingly spread themselves across large tracts of the airfield. Considering the "feeling" regarding Common Land use BCA appear to be consuming their bit without a mumble of opposition?Worthy of note is the long term hunger for gravel extraction in the "Blackbushe area".. The Airport lives on a rock solid base of millions of tons of the stuff. Let's hope it stays there.Before BCA took control..The two new hangars legally built by Doug Arnold and the Airport's north western corner before the blight of used cars infected it..Pop across the A30 to Blackbushe "south"... taken a few years back, but the evidence of a very different Blackbushe past is hard to miss.No further comment, just 'ghosts of the past' maybe?Blackbushe may have shrunk over the years, but she still has a big future ahead..or so we hope!
PB
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