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Post by PB on Aug 7, 2020 8:18:55 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 07/08/20
A day of celebrations.. my son's 40 today! He's grown, the years have vanished....
....through all his life the Blackbushe issue has gone on, and on, and on, and....well, you know!
(Regret no photo today, technical issue with our provider).
Back tomorrow! PB
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Post by PB on Aug 8, 2020 7:12:01 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 08/08/20An OAT of +20C at seven in the morning is very pleasant...shame it won't last much longer but that's the nature of the game on our little island. May help my 03.00 departure to Luton Airport tomorrow morning? A long ago view from the now demolished eastern end of the Blackbushe Terminal. Farnborough Week with a Hawker Siddley Dove and a few other visitors while our resident Condors, and 150 G-ASLB look on across the recently rain swept airfield. You can almost feel that autumn chill that often accompanied Farnborough Week when it came around in September every year. Many changes at Farnborough since then, sadly Blackbushe continues her fight against alien forces - doesn't dear old Blackbushe look grand as she was before the northern side was allowed to take on the look of Sherwood Forest? The Airport vehicles provide a formidable lineup....If you own the Airport you've got to own an aeroplane, or two... Here's one of Doug Arnold's run abouts, his delightful Twin Comanche. Photographed near where the BCA hangars are today. Didn't it look grand when we had aeroplanes living in those hangars! Never dreamed they'd one day become a second car mart.. If you own the Airport you've got own an aeroplane, or two... Now back in the sixties, AVM Bennett (to the right) discusses his Fairtravel Linnet...The AVM not only owned the airfield, he also owned Fairtravel who produced the Linnet, and Fairthorpe Cars who produced a number of fibre glass bodied sports cars. Blackbushe Aero Club were later equipped with two Linnets, a delightful aeroplane in the air and on the ground. ..and one more holiday snap from when the Terminal extended further east prior to the County Council's blitz kreig attack. A line of our resident flying machines, legends of the time, while just behind the crude fence the Parish Council's destruction of the apron is sadly evident. The dreaded Drangonfly helicopters did nothing to improve the scene having been acquired from the Navy's retired vessels list..for months they were a blot on the landscape. Two visiting military Pembrokes add a welcome addition to the scene while the rolling northern extent of the Airport was still mowed and looking good..POTD wishes you a pleasant weekend, PB
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Post by PB on Aug 9, 2020 7:44:39 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 09/08/20August steams along, recent humidity supporting the 'steaming' concept.. Seems a long while since the day started at 02.00, Luton Airport's Sunday morning seemingly very busy despite the Covid invasion.. but, back in the office and the morning's quick look at days bygone..
An aviation anniversary that may slip by too quietly today, on 9th August we remember Sir Frank Whittle who passed away on 9th August, 1996, aged 89. His jet engine continues to shape our world albeit somewhat more grown-up than his original designs.
Keeping thoughts with Blackbushe's post D-Day activity as we have done since June, by this day in 1944 operations continued at a pace targets selected for their greatest ability to weaken Nazi movements in France. Today 9th August, 1944, Blackbushe, or rather RAF Hartford Bridge, became 'self accounting' cutting all links with RAF Odiham for which Hartford Bridge had been envisaged as a satellite station. Parties of RAF personnel arrived from Ford and Tangmere to help form the newly independent air base. Successes and tragedies both continued their work on the resident squadrons.Blackbushe blue skies, and thanks to Sir Frank, one of those jet powered flying machines..The jet engine has shaped Blackbushe's air traffic for many years, and will - hopefully - continue to do so for many more years to come?1952, when the sound of jet engines gave Blackbushe Airport a whole new 'feel'.. BOAC crew training, often flying circuits with their magnificent new aeroplane, created 'varying view points' on the merits of jet propulsion. PB
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Post by PB on Aug 10, 2020 9:08:25 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 10/08/20Their side of the fence....Our side of the fence..This morning, just a few reflections on another wonderfully warm day to come.... Chobham Common has made the national news for a couple of days as it continues to burn threatening one or two well known golf courses including the cancellation of the Rose Ladies Series golf event. 140 acres of Chobham Common so easily wiped out and blackened...
Yateley Common burns..some while ago now, but shows the conflagration potential that still exists..[ Recent deliberate acts of fire raising to the north of the airfield have thankfully been stamped out by fire crews from the Airport and local services. Tragic waste of fire fighting resources caused by mindless vandals. Blackbushe is environmentally one of the best airfields being surrounded by "open spaces", spaces generously edged with ever more Common Land with its increasing fire potential and risk to life and, of course, the Airport and valuable flying machines...This was taken some years ago, the north of the airfield (behind me!) has also become overgrown, now sporting quite mature trees amid the scrub.A jet filled apron as the Common grows an ever thicker tangle of potential fire hazards close by..Early sixties, primitive times at Blackbushe but zero fire risk from council owner territory over the fence.Less primitive, early 1970's, the council owned acres yet to become overgrown.The difference of the decades....Back to the sixties... the wide open spaces of Blackbushe 'east'!Years later, evidence of fires on the Common never hard to find.Sometime in the seventies, the Council's fire dragon moved onto Blackbushe 'east', but failed to reach the Airport's current boundary...Fuel for thought. Blackbushe doing what it does best, being an airport!!
..on that note, have a cool day!
PB
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Post by PB on Aug 11, 2020 7:01:11 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 11/08/20It all seems black and white today...The view from the Terminal Building's First Floor in the 1950's...You see the first floor window in the Terminal's first floor far end?This was the view it offered in 1962/3. Just gives an idea of how expansive the apron would be if only a small percentage of the area ploughed up by the Parish had been sold to the Airport as proposed... Both parties would have 'won', instead two losers resulted.Despite the eventual Council funded destruction of two thirds of the Terminal and most of the apron, no matter how you look at it today, the old Terminal is looking great and cared for, and a "Welcome" is always waiting....!PB
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Post by PB on Aug 12, 2020 9:16:03 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 12/08/2010.00 and a cooling (?) breeze drifts across the airfield where the OAT readings of 27C are perhaps a little unusual for the time of day...?You've seen it before, so just like the BBC we bring you a repeat.. The scene caught during the few days the movie people were here to shoot scenes for movie released in 1963, "The Winstone Affair", during another hot August long ago... Starred Robert Mitchum.. "Lt. Col. Barney Adams (Robert Mitchum) is assigned to defend Lt. Winston (Keenan Wynn), a fellow American officer who murdered a British sergeant while stationed in India during World War II". The Blackbushe scene was to represent a parched Indian airfield while an American military Dakota taxied around. Blackbushe carried out the role with perfection under blazing blue and parched as could be as the airfield's green had transitioned to an overall parched effect with great authenticity. The Airport's blue fuel bowser added to the 'props' aided by an anti aircraft gun emplacement, piles of sand bags and a black and white entry gate that we collared and used as the gate to the apron for some years after!! One had to improvise.. The Turbulent was not included in the movie nor was Bill Freeman (shielding eyes), Airport Manager, and his son Mike (hands in pockets). Sadly neither have been with us for some time now.A day in the life of a Dakota, early nineteen sixties. The sound of the Dakota in English skies had not reached the near extinction level of today.
PB
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Post by PB on Aug 13, 2020 6:38:19 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 13/08/20A very different scene beyond the window this morning. 07.00 and only +21C outside, but a snug +26C in the "One Stop" office! Transported to another world during the past days of temperatures more associated with far away 'tropical' places one has that 'the holidays over' feeling seeing a more familiar grey overcast. But, we can always dig out a photo or two for old times' sake..The glorious fifties as a resident Hermes enjoys some routine TLC..1976, our first "Blackbushe Air Festival". Neil Williams takes the Old Warden based Shuttleworth Mark V Spitfire through her paces during the flying display. With a short lead time in which to put a display together I was - and still am - highly grateful to Shuttleworth for so kindly providing their delightful clipped wing Spit. To dear Neil also for his always totally polished display of the Spitfire whatever Mark he happened to be flying.Every picture tells a story. Taken a few summers ago, the sadly abandoned 14/32 as nature's teeth work on its relentless methods of 'taking back'. I first landed an aeroplane on this bit of tarmac, 32 on a summer's day, I repainted the runway numerals 14 and 32 on her with a broom for a paint brush in 1963..today I just walk her length submerged in memories and deep seated frustration after six decades of blinkered hopes.With the Red Arrows crossing the Blackbushe ATZ on Saturday, it'll be very brief, memory of a weekend a few years ago when the Royal Air Force Memorial Flight based their Spitfire here as she participated in various events within striking distance of Blackbushe. Once again, the clipped wing beauty of the Spitfire was ours to behold...PB
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Post by PB on Aug 14, 2020 6:23:57 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 14/08/20One or two random images for this overcast looking Friday..Sometimes I just sit, sometimes I just ponder...seeing this photo the mind pondered on what might have been seen had the US military carried out their plans for Blackbushe and popped in 10,000ft of tarmac for their strategic bomber force?US military were reflected in various movie shoots at Blackbushe over the years. The Terminal as was, a visit from the Belgian CIA, and one of Mr Arnold's flying sheds with decor that today would not be permitted? Ye Olde Blackbushe Tower perched on the Terminal's west end..it lasted far longer than its intended 'stop gap' tenancy, Islanders reflecting the Airport owner's dealings with the type, and BCA's Rockwell Commander G-BDUK. Captured at a time in the 1970's when Doug Arnold was owner of the Airport and BCA's only visible interest was using the site for their business aircraft. Times have changed so far as BCA are concerned, their loss of air mindedness being particularly noted. Passengers enjoying pleasure flights from Blackbushe way back in the early seventies aboard a Jersey Ferry Airlines, BN Trislander.. JFA operated from Shoreham and Portsmouth but had no scheduled services. Services to Jersey operated by Blackbushe's resident airlines would have been available long ago...
PB
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Post by PB on Aug 15, 2020 7:15:00 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 15/08/20VJ Day75. Today marks the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, remembering both the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. Few of us probably recall or are aware of the appalling suffering endured in the Far East war as peace was established under European skies. A quote from the Royal British Legion..
"Fighting in the Asia-Pacific took place from Hawaii to North East India. Britain and the Commonwealth’s principal fighting force, the Fourteenth Army, was one of the most diverse in history - over 40 languages were spoken, and all the world’s major religions represented. The descendants of many of the Commonwealth veterans of that army are today part of multicultural communities up and down the country, a lasting legacy to the success and comradeship of those who fought in the Asia-Pacific war. This year we remember the contribution of all Commonwealth and Allied Forces, without whom victory and the freedoms and way of life we enjoy today would not have been possible".In Japan, Emperor Hirohito delivered a radio address telling his nation that Japan is surrendering. The formal signing of the surrender agreement aboard the USS Missouri took place on September 20th, 1945.
In the air on this day, seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of World War II.
Today, Task Force 38, the main striking force of the US Navy in the Pacific, launched its last strike of the war, targeting Tokyo. A second strike released its bombs in the sea when word of the ceasefire agreement with Japan was received. In the final large dogfight of World War II, 15 to 20 Japanese aircraft attacked US Navy Hellcats of VF-88 Squadron flying from USS Yorktown. The Hellcats eliminated nine Japanese aircraft while losing four of their own.The legendary courage and hideous suffering of our allied forces during the drawn out period in the Far East leading to this day in 1945 can never be emphasised sufficiently. Closer to home where the direct impact of war had been removed, Royal Air Force Hartford Bridge celebrated peace in the Far East and the end of World War Two with two days of leave for all who could be spared. For all personnel remaining on the base an all-ranks dance was organised. Today, we can but imagine the atmosphere that must have echoed across the acres that today still enjoy peaceful aviation.
Slightly more recent acknowledgement of VJ Day at Blackbushe came in August 1995 when we took beautiful "BVOL", our Blackbushe based Dakota, to Newtonards in Northern Ireland for the VJ Day celebrations. The occasion was noteworthy in that we flew in the official VJ Day flypast over Belfast where below HRH Prince Andrew was taking the salute. Whilst from the sharp end of "BVOL" - G-BVOL - the Royal member could not be seen others things could. Occasionally. The weather was foul, heavy rain showers shared with numerous other aircraft. The unique view of an RAF VC10 hacking across our path with two Tornadoes closely tracking its refuelling drogues was memorable while the B-25 and Blenheim with which we started our sortie had 'departed from view'. The rain oozing from the windshield's surroundings was another attention getter! Great fun, as was seeing a host of military helicopters below during the mustering of machines making their way toward HRH and the Royal salute..The Blenheim and B-25 captured from "BVOL" on return home from Newtonards. A frame from my ancient VHS tape, wish digital cameras had been invented earlier..Lost love..our beautiful Dakota at home at Blackbushe. Her fuselage lives in a Netherlands museum wearing KLM colours..Sharing a moment with Monty's Messenger..Let's not forget the price paid by so many remembered on this 75th Anniversary of the restoration of peace.
PB
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Post by PB on Aug 16, 2020 8:06:55 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 16/08/20Our tropical isle of a few days ago where 'upper thirties' are but a memory replaced by cooler conditions and a more familiar grey overcast, it's mid August and thoughts turn to autumn as shadows grow longer earlier in the day. The time of year when "Farnborough" was in prospect, the annual air show and exhibition at Farnborough every September during the first full week of the month. The excitement would be growing by this time. The exhibition marquees would all be in place and before long the display rehearsals would begin. Formations from the RAF and the Navy. New shapes, new sounds, exciting times..
In the late 1950's some of us were old enough to go solo on the push bike and travel the largely uphill seven or eight miles from home to an airfield called Blackbushe where during Farnborough Week the heavens yielded the most amazing mix of civil and military aeroplanes. Never classified as a qualified 'spotter' I did have my Ian Allen civil aircraft registrations book whereby I put a line through those seen at Blackbushe. The book would have photos of the new types of airliners emerging into service, sleek jets joining the numerous non-swept propeller pulled faithfuls that predominated at Blackbushe on a year round basis. But, Farnborough Week was the icing on the cake. To me as a trainee teenager Blackbushe was a large busy airport about which I knew not too much except it was the source of much free entertainment and obviously somewhere that would be an airport like this for always. The rivalry between commercial flying and Common Land was something quite unknown to me at the time...that the Airport's future was at stake also quite unknown to me.
Blackbushe closed in 1960 and suffered almost total destruction at the hands of those who wished it gone..for whatever reasons. Happily aviation returned in a very limited fashion and has struggled to get a strong foothold ever since. However, Farnborough Week's previous use of Blackbushe managed a VERY limited renaissance as during the sixties the annual Farnborough show produced a few Doves, an Anson, and a few smaller twin and single engined visitors. To those of us 'on site' full of memories of how Farnborough Week at Blackbushe was until 1959 the sight of just a few visitors including the heavier Doves was quite magical. You had to be there to feel the magic. Progress in the seventies. Farnborough traffic included small regional 'third level' transports such as the Jetstream. Aircraft of this size using Blackbushe's excellent runway carrying small passenger loads seemed an admirable way of using the Airport's locked assets..Departing passengers once again traversed the Blackbushe apron.. Not quite the Hermes, Viscount, or DC-6 of bygone years but still totally symbolic of what the airfield is capable of.Paradise? For some it was, taking a week off work to take care of Farnborough visitors was bliss. Taxi service running across the airfield to the Terminal, parking sometime a whole runway length of visitors, even both sides on occasions.. A September morning 'on station' on runway 14/32 was a joy. Good company, Reg on the radio, Roger Russell, Dave Hill and myself with 'bats' at the ready, the Airport owner popping over now and again for a chat, while up to around lunchtime the sound of 'another inbound' repeatedly kept us entertained scanning the sky for 'the next one'.. Providing a warm greeting to all on arrival while disembarking their aircraft was part of the job, Blackbushe was known as 'the friendly airport' during the fifties, we had a reputation to uphold!The early sixties Farnborough Week traffic was usually contained on the apron, but having been largely destroyed by the Parish Council the surviving apron very soon filled up. Hence we migrated to the cross runways for additional parking space.. Happy Farnborough Week memories on the apron. Used by larger aircraft or those on a quick turnround. The Comet was on anything but a quick turn around, eventually leaving as scrap on the back of a truck.The gateway to ....who knows where?Blackbushe Airport; The affordable business airport...visitors turned their back on bureaucratic vandalism beyond the fence....
PB
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