PHOTO of the DAY...

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
10/02/21



Somewhere between 1953 and 1955 the years during which this aeroplane operated into Blackbushe, US Navy R4D-8, 50836, from United States Navy Naples rests abeam the mighty US Navy hangar. Once just an everyday scene, today almost beyond belief!



The days come and the days go but still many a memory reaches back in time to when Blackbushe Airport was second to London's Heathrow Airport in terms of value to both civil aviation plus the United States Navy. During her latter years as a Government operation plans were drawn up whereby the expanded Blackbushe would have replaced Heathrow! Hard to believe now as so much of the airfield has been allowed to sink into desolation, but 10,000ft of runway were once on the drawing board. You just need to drive along the A30 as it transits Blackbushe to get the idea of 10,000ft..

The miracle of Blackbushe must be the fact that there have been various bodies willing to take her on and fight for her ongoing survival. Non more than today's group who in less than two weeks march the Airport into the Court of Appeal once again intent on driving Blackbushe past the personalities and the bureaucrats who for six decades have nailed Blackbushe's hopes via anachronistic history and an inability to see what we all could have in a new and reformed Blackbushe.. Who wins if the anti Blackbushe body wins the day? Nobody, if Blackbushe is successful everybody wins, employment, local economy and Hartford Bridge Flats will live on in pride and glory rather than becoming more acres of abandoned wilderness.




Shadows of destruction..early in the sixties and viewed from the then new "Temporary Tower", Neville Duke arrives on runway 01 in command of the Dowty Dove. Still piles of rubble to be seen, the job of clearing the Government's demolition project was back breakingly horrendous, but had to be done - volunteers and the AVM and his chaps! The occasional arrival of an aeroplane spurred our hopes of better times.



IF you could go back in time to THIS day, 10th February, 1945 as we follow RAF Blackbushe's path through the last War you would see a large convoy of vehicles arriving, 41 in fact complete with 200 personnel to be accommodated..changes were in the breeze. As the month progressed numerous visits were made to the airfield by high-ranking officers in connection with the proposed change of use of the site from Fighter Command to 110 Wing, Transport Command scheduled to take place in mid March.

For so long Blackbushe has had questions over her future. It really is time they were settled once and for all. Maybe February 2021 will see to it?

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
11/02/21


06.00..the home weather station offering minus 3.3C, apparently quite warm compared to our brethren north of the border!! Noted last night how bright the stars in the firmament were except for the high levels of light pollution that rather spoil the show. Street lights, residential flood lighting rather lessen the show although Blackbushe at night is hard to beat for light production. BCA's illumination of the Common Land they occupy is nothing short of blinding.. but nothing is better than seeing the Airport runway lights on duty. One can almost 'see' large prop driven transports tracking between the lights as they did long ago! Sadly all the original lighting was ripped out in the Government's ambition to totally cut off Blackbushe and any prospects of her returning to life....the wonders of politics.

Talking of politics, Captain Boris is promising to unveil his "road map" on 22nd February. This will be the master plan for our route out of lockdown or so we are assured. Purely coincidental, but the next day Blackbushe Airport will be at the Court of Appeal. Could THIS be the six decades in coming "road map" that will take Blackbushe into the realms of freedom where at last common sense takes the upper hand?




Night flying 'goose neck' style. Long ago on winter Wednesday evenings Three Counties Aero Club would be night flying. Goose necks either side of the runway.. Back in the 1960's ascending from Blackbushe's flickering goose necks the surrounding area was inky black. A few lights from the Yateley direction but otherwise a black void into which one had no wish to descend!!



Finally today, have you used the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 'FS2020'? Well, there's a treat in store for you if you use this incredible product, a new Blackbushe Airport add-on is no available and for the first three months of its life all proceeds are being donated to Aerobility. Follow this link to today's latest news and how to purchase Blackbushe for FS2020. It's as near as you'll get to flying from Blackbushe without actually being there. Please take a look at these words for the designer... blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/15109


What does 2021 hold in store? Blackbushe IS now available for FS2020, Boris will be unveiling his "Road Map", Blackbushe maybe will make the move that will free her of those diabolical chains so precious to local bureaucracy and associated bodies... It could be a great year? For now dawn has broken, the early light revealing a world dead still and frozen solid. Time for a nice hot cuppa, meanwhile stay well and stay safe.. no slip ups!!

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
12/02/21


Most of my days for many many days have started sitting in the POTD chair trying to formulate thoughts and images that combined might create a few moments of interest as they carry the Forum's birthright of conveying thoughts and images pertaining to Blackbushe Airport.

Today the situation has taken a turn about. No searching through the vault's thousands of images, the job has been done by one of our wonderful members "longshot44". I'll say no more except give you a link to his wonderful action photo at Blackbushe. Over to Longshot44.... click the link blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/15116

How delightful, I can have an early breakfast!!

A footnote before regarding Covid-19 in our Hart district. The number of active cases in Hart's area as reported by the ZOE assessment is 186, down 300 from last week.

Please, if like Longshot44 you have any treasures, memories, experiences, anything regarding Blackbushe this is the place to share them. Thank you!!

You must agree it is THE most magnificent photograph?

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
13/03/21


Almost -5C up on the roof at 06.00 this morning. Happily the data provided electronically the POTD scribe has not been out on the tiles so early! 12022021..I missed this pertaining to yesterday's date, it's palindromic and also ambigramic with the right type face.. reads the same back to front and upside down.. That's today's excitement, a day late but I know you're amazed...

Yesterday while being oblivious to the day's palindromic date the Blackbushe Forum added three reports that stir the editorial juices. All three lurk in the Forum's "General Non-Blackbushe Discussion" section and are indicative perhaps of the way future aspects of General Aviation are shaping up. Seems very few people venture into our 'Non Blackbushe' pages accordingly the three articles are accessed by the following short cuts. Sadly very little is heard from our Members and /or guests, but some feed back would be appreciated as to the way future air traffic in our skies might be shaping up!!

blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/15119 The end of an era. Hence today's Forum header photo.


blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/15120 The new world of e-flight comes closer?


blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/15121 $1billion step toward tomorrow?


Any comments, opinions, points of view would be welcomed.. Forum's are for exchanges of opinion!




Blackbushe traffic of tomorrow?




Blackbushe traffic of yesterday...the scene before Hartford Bridge Flats realised their true vocation in life..serving aviation!



Treading the pages of history on this day, 13th February, 1945, the above vast plateau would have seen 418 Squadron Mosquitoes departing on a sortie to support the Canadian advance at Kleve..


Hear from you later, the POTD comments section is ready and waiting!!

Enjoy the weekend...
PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
14/02/21

Valentines Day... Th feast day of St Valentine. St Valentine, the one considered the patron saint of love is one of fourteen St Valentines and is buried north of Rome. No doubt the Covid effect will be sorely felt by florists and restaurants today as their custom will perhaps find other ways of marking the occasion.. Talking of the Covid effect, the latest from ZOE and figures relating to the Hart District show 160 active Covid cases in Hart at the moment, down by 98 from last week the graph now touching lower levels last recorded in October last year.

Looking into the past of Valentines Day at Blackbushe for a moment..

14 FEB 1956 G-ALHC BOAC Lockheed L-749 Constellation crew training


BOAC frequented Blackbushe for crew training and weather diversions..all types operated by BOAC until 1960 crew trained here, some were hard to miss, the Comets for example!




14 FEB 1958 G-ALHC BOAC Canadair C4 crew training


Just one of BOAC's 22 Argonaut aircraft. Basically a DC-4 Merlin powered, modified and built by Canadair Aircraft Ltd..




14 FEB 1958 G-AOYV BEA Viscount crew training


BEA Viscounts were frequently seen at Blackbushe, either for crew training or weather diversions from London Airport. A weather diversion day illustrated..




14 FEB 1960 TG517 RAF Hastings to Airwork for conversion


One of the numerous RAF Hastings finding themselves at Blackbushe for conversion work by Airwork.




Just thoughts of Valentines Days gone by... Romantic?

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
15/02/21


240 pence in a pound, 20 shillings in a pound, sixpenny bits or a tanner, threepenny bits, a florin which of course was 2/- or 24 pence, 12 pence in one shilling, ten bob notes, pound notes, halfpenny's, tiny little farthings, not forgetting half a crown the coin that equated to 2/6 or two and sixpence. Don't forget a guinea. One pound and a shilling. A penny was written as 1d, at school one's early mathematics studies included UK currency calculations where money columns were headed £ : s : d and off you went without a decimal coin any closer than the French coast...

Fifty years ago today we went decimal coinage in the United Kingdom. All of paragraph one had to be forgotten, one's complement of ten fingers made sense we'd gone decimal!! Fifty years ago, a pound was still a pound it just looked different as did its constituent parts..

So why the fuss at "POTD". Decimalisation arrived half a Century ago today. Fifty long years. Go back yet another ten years and that's how long local bureaucracy has had its knee into Blackbushe Airport's neck. What an indictment, local and county councils have fought against Blackbushe Airport being permitted to unfurl her potential for a decade longer than we've had decimalised currency. A SHAMEFUL SIXTY YEARS. Today what should be a properly equipped airfield serving the population with work, generating funds for the local economy, and a flagship for General Aviation is after sixty years of bureaucratic oppression still making do with a few 'temporary' offices, no permanent hangarage, and just one third of the original Terminal Building following the County Council's decision to destroy the other two thirds.

What a sorry tail. Heads or tails, one hopes it's more than a toss-up as to the Airport's future. How can it be that after decimalisation PLUS ten years cash strapped Hampshire County Council is STILL pumping huge sums of OUR money into their antediluvian, bloody minded, senseless ambition to rid their precious county of one of its unique and most precious assets? Can somebody please advise or at least sympathise with this extraordinary state of affairs? Some feedback from POTD readers would really be appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!




There she is. Ten years before decimalisation came to our currency, eighteen months before this it had been second only to Heathrow in our airport hierarchy, today sixty years later Blackbushe Airport remains some political football kicked around by blinkered bureaucrats whose goal would be the final removal of the golden egg that remains on Hartford Bridge Flats. Patiently Blackbushe Airport awaits the gift of common sense that is so sparsely served amid the bureaucracy of Hampshire.



What are your thoughts?

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
16/02/21


Yesterday's "POTD" reflected on the passage of time since the UK became the holders of a decimal based currency. Just half a Century. "POTD" also reflected on the unbelievable truth that Blackbushe has been fighting for survival against local bureaucracy for all of that half Century PLUS another ten years... No remarks or comments were noted subsequent to the fact being broadcast by "POTD" as to the mind numbing sums of money ploughed into the resultant legal battles by both the opposing bureaucracy, Hampshire County Council, and the various owners of Blackbushe Airport during that half a Century plus ten.. The County Council have gone to the Government cap in hand for financial support during the Covid crisis, they have instituted across the board cut backs in services following the announcement of £80,000,000 in 'cut backs' over a two year period. This year we who pay our Council Tax dues to HCC will soon discover we're compelled to pay ever greater sums for our residence in what is a beautiful and delightful county.

There MUST be someone else who feels something wrong whereby a bureaucracy can play with many thousands of our pounds of public money in pursuit of its blind ambition to destroy the asset that Blackbushe as a developed General Aviation centre would be. Considering the public financial constraints imposed by the bureaucracy in question is it not a situation that makes you mildly concerned?? Do you want to see Blackbushe finally turned into more acres of neglected wilderness? Begs the question as to how/why a car auctioneer has spread over many acres of the old airfield's Common Land with apparent disregard by those who despise the prospects of an aerodrome and its guaranteed wide open spaces.. The Forum looks forward to your thoughts!




County Council controlled Blackbushe Airport.




Blinkered bureaucracy would prefer this scene to equate to the one above it...we've already been forced into subsidising their ambitions through taxation.




Private enterprise meets overgrown and stagnant bureaucratic ambition..



So... here we are. What are YOUR feelings on the matter? Please tell!!

Fifty years have flown since decimalisation was introduced, and all one can say about Blackbushe and bureaucracy is there's been "little change" during those years!

Next week the situation might be rolled nearer to the legal cliff edge? Next week kicks off with Boris unveiling his road map to the future on the 22nd. Hopefully his road map will be marked with pathways to the brighter future we all seek, the bright sunlit uplands may still be some distance but at least the route we must take being unveiled will spur optimism. That's on the 22nd February.

It does not end there, 'cos on 23rd February Blackbushe will be taking the journey leading to the Court of Appeal. Hampshire County Council will again be spending astronomical sums of our money on the attack, Blackbushe will counteract with enough to fight back. WILL this be the final encounter whereby Blackbushe slays the dragon that has exhaled its tainted breath over the airfield for so long?




Whatever the future has in store for Blackbushe...




One way, or another, she's given a lifetime of marvellous memories and opportunities..



One lives in hopes of ever better memories in the time that's left...

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
17/02/21

At 06.00 this morning a welcome ten centigrade degrees are waiting beyond the front door. A significant shift from last week's efforts..the other most topical news item for us all is the direction of the Covid virus. TV news last night indicated our Hart district has the lowest infection rate in the south east, the ZOE study today indicating just 143 active cases in Hart, down 93 from last week. At the beginning of November we were over 300 rising to 1000 cases after Christmas but steadily falling since then. My AZ jab is two weeks old today, one week to when significant immunity should have built up. The one day of chills and aches and pains that followed the jab being a small price to pay for the long term benefits and maybe even 'freedom' to find out what 'normal' used to feel like at some point this year! This time next week in theory my resistance will be that much stronger but more importantly and significantly Blackbushe's day in the Court of Appeal will have been concluded. As a consequence the most pressing question must be will Blackbushe have found her immunity to the threats posed by her local source of infection from which she has suffered for six decades?? The waiting game will go on a bit longer...




"The Field of Dreams". Gravel excavations, a car auction business that has spread across Common Land, a car park plonked on the very end of runway 25's western extremity, and a desolate waste land east of the airfield where nothing happens bar more scrub and brambles adding to the surrounding atmosphere of neglect. To the south west of the airfield total destruction of once mature woodland where gravel extraction leaves a site competing with what we know of the surface of the Moon so far as desolation is concerned. All the airfield wants to do is construct some hangars and a new Terminal that would be easy on the eye compared to anything else like gravel extraction and the unstoppable car auction business that currently upsets the once peaceful airfield aerodrome on Hartford Bridge Flats. The northern side of dear old Blackbushe has now been handed to 'open space'....Considering how back in 2019 the Planning Inspector approved the de-registration of Blackbushe's currently operational acres and the minimal effect new hangars and airport facilities would have on the overall picture it's almost beyond belief that next week the Airport goes to one of the highest courts in the land to once again tackle the devil that lurks in our local bureaucracy.



We can but hope it's not just Covid-19's bloody minded aggression that suffers defeat this year.........

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
18/02/21

Slightly later than usual I note the eastern sky now smeared with ever more early morning light as the wonders of seasonal change manifest themselves. Change is in the air... Covid cases in Hart continue to fall, 139 today down 97 from last week. What will it be like when we eventually return to 'normal? Emerging from a masked socially distanced society where gatherings of fellow humans might have unpleasant consequences for all involved, shopping without stepping away from fellow masked citizens, airports teaming with life again, vapour trails once again crossing our now almost empty southern skies, Blackbushe alive with circuit traffic and business flights - it's going to be like discovering the lost world! If Blackbushe emerges triumphant from the Court of Appeal next week it will truly be a year to remember!!




The lost world of Blackbushe 1950's style... scenes impossible to reconstruct so far as the players are concerned, but the stage is still there...waiting!




Throughout her life Blackbushe has been supportive of light aircraft operations..The Royal Artillery Aero Club, 1956, bring back memories of prop swinging days. I preferred to keep one arm behind my back unless the compression demanded a little more thrust..




Old residents captured and recorded by the late "Benjy" Wilmer...




Perhaps this recent photo from David Payne epitomises what many of us hold dear in our hearts, Blackbushe Airport where civil and military lived and operated in perfect harmony.



We'll meet again tomorrow if all goes well, another step nearer the mysterious world of the "normal"?

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
19/02/21


Total admiration to the NASA team for landing Perseverance on Mars last night. One can only imagine the elation felt after so many years work and the investment made in this quest to maybe find indications of life forms on another world. This plus "Ingenuity", the autonomous helicopter that in a few days if all goes well will mean humans have flown on two planets. Where it will lead to who knows, but mans insatiable appetite to learn and explore is not going to stop here..

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, another example of 'perseverance' ...it's called Blackbushe Airport. Sixty years worth as she has persevered endless barriers of bureaucracy and never once given up the struggle. Next week she'll launch her own 'ingenuity' within the Court of Appeal!




Near on six decades since our first permitted 'flying days', Blackbushe Aero Club, and setting up a Club Room in the otherwise almost empty Terminal. Whatever the holds for Blackbushe nobody can say she has lacked perseverance..



Here's to continue success on Mars and continued perseverance in the name of Blackbushe!!

PB