PHOTO of the DAY...

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
17/04/21


A notable day in the United Kingdom as Prince Philip is laid to rest in Windsor, we wish him a peaceful onward journey to where no doubt his sharp wit will be welcomed by many, misunderstood by others...

The day started, according to the Celsius scale as being one degree under at 06.00. With the second influx of the Astra Zeneca juice to be released into one's bloodstream at midday one wonders whether the recipient will also be one degree under a few hours later as happened post the first infusion? All in a good cause....

Yesterday was another bright and refreshing April day in the company of continued cooling from winds originating t'up north. A perfect day for another three mile bash around Blackbushe's awaiting and sadly disused runways. A further pre-walk inspection of the new cafe being prepared for duty at the Airport revealed continued rapid progress, new flooring in situ, totally new kitchens, new everything, can't wait for the doors re-opening for business and the new name to be revealed!!!!

Walking across the many acres of disused Blackbushe now conscripted to fade away, like watching a dying friend as you remember the good times together, is always a somewhat depressing experience but one where many memories are stored away. Such walks apart from proving one is still able to walk three miles without too much effort, wheezing, or muscular spasms are good for body and soul and the chance to snap a few photographs via the wonders of the phone in one's pocket.

It's hard not to draw 'then & now' comparisons. We'll see..




Now..the eastern side of runway 14/32




Then..1977's Blackbushe Air Festival, parking area for some of our splendid flying machines..there were many more!



An unusual moment in time!




Now, runway 14/32. No aeroplanes, just beer cans, graffiti, and a generous canine depository directly on the centre line..




Then. Just one of the many glorious "Farnborough Weeks" when runway 14/32 assumed new life as we located the daily stream of visiting aircraft..





Then, caught from a Baron, the now barren runway 14/32 back in June, 1986.




Journey's end..short final for Blackbushe Airport's runway 14, 1960 something or other..



Many a memory lies out there in the Blackbushe 'beyond'!! A couple more from "Then and Now" tomorrow....

Which ever runway you may be using, have a good day.

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
18/04/21


06.00, outside the conditions are once again "one degree under", but the skies look laden with promise for another England at her best kind of day. The Met provided the most perfect send off for Prince Philip, picturesque tails of cirrus against the most perfect burning blue could not have been better. Great weather for the second squirt of AZ's miracle juice and this time absolutely no side effects! The ZOE study today showing 24 active Covid cases in Blackbushe's Hart District, down 10 from last week..

Huge thanks to the nearly 500 good souls who visited "POTD" yesterday, today another "Then & Now" moment before Sunday takes off...




Taken during Friday's walk on the wild side of Blackbushe to stay in touch with old memories while standing on what was once busy runway 01/19. Taken from north of the main runway (the crowd line for air shows long gone..), if you look to the aeroplane before you with its cockpit covers on and then look to the grass betwixt it and the Airport's checker board NDB unit you will see the grass area where I sat on a cold Sunday in 1962, 16 years old, assisting with the Aldis lamp signalling for aircraft in the circuit from AVM Bennett's blue and yellow striped Land Rover. (Looked like an ice cream vendor's shop). The Airport at the time was granted a 28 days a year permission to operate by the authorities. Such days were precious, spending them mid field as canvas covered aeroplanes enjoyed Blackbushe's circuit were near to heaven for a young lad who mourned what 'they' had done to a superb airfield. On this particular Sunday we were using runway 01 as you'll work out from the photo below..




..and then! Captured from the spot described above. Moments treasured, the late Reg Venning in his early flying days with his Taylorcraft +D G-AHUG, on one of those magical Sunday Mornings when Blackbushe was allowed to fly aeroplanes. Reg Based HUG at Blackbushe for many of the years to come..




..also on one of 'those Sundays', the late "Holly" Birkett circuit training in dear old 'PKL' photographed from the ice cream Land Rover. Back then flying days produced one problem. People. People wandering across the runways regardless of trainee PPL's heading in their direction. A problem that lasted for years, the ice cream Land Rover being dispatched frequently so as to advise walkers that being struck by an aeroplane was not entirely recommended.. The reasons given for walking on an active runway were various, imaginative, or just downright rude. These sorties did much for my driving experience being too young to drive on public highways.




Today. The central triangle formed by the Airport's three runways..




Then, the "triangle" formed the nerve centre of the 1977 Blackbushe Air Festival. Much nervous energy was spent on the triangle during the execution of the event's two days while around us the aircraft parks provided a generous and varied collection of flying machinery for our guests to enjoy..




Today. Early spring 2021. The cross runway 01/19 continues to crumble as relentless nature walks where heroes once trod..




Then. World War 2. Many bombers lined our runways between missions over enemy territory playing a valiant and costly role in the fight for freedom. This scene typifies the time aside RAF Blackbushe's cross runways...




Now... the views from Blackbushe's runways have changed, in some cases, not for the better over more recent years. British Car Auctions have retained a large portion of the airfield for their used car business and seem to have no regard for the rules that forbid the fencing of Common Land.




Peep through the surging undergrowth and the size of BCA's encampment on what is largely Common shows no sign of shrinking any day soon..




Guards - best have your papers ready to show?

The changing (changed) face of Blackbushe..





PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
19/04/21

Well, that was quite a weekend, sad to say 'farewell' to Prince Philip but nonetheless a celebration of a man who was perhaps not fully understood, and that weather! Pure blue skies painted with the hands of an artist as feathers of Cirrus completed the heavenly picture..

Looking back in time for a moment..For those who frequent the pages of aviation history today is one those 'first flight' occasions... 1944, DH Hornet: 1946 Bell X-1 (first glide): 1950 AVRO CF-100 Canuck: 1951 de Havilland Sea Venom: 1956 Supermarine Scimitar: 1960 Grumman A-6 Intruder: 1979 Learjet 55: 1984 IAI Astra, and in 2006 NASA's New Horizons project departed for Pluto. 19th April! 59 years and a month since your scribe also made his first flight launching into the Blackbushe skies for what would be the first of many times!


A few landmarks in Blackbushe's days since becoming a privately owned airfield...




1962, the "Great Blackbushe Re-opening Air Display"..Hawkers sent their Hart over from Dunsfold.




Shades of war. The movie industry has shown a liking for Blackbushe many times during her life, in the 1960's the "Battle of Britain" had this opening sequence shot in the Airport's western forests..




Concorde's salute to Blackbushe some years later!!





Blackbushe has been a drag race venue, hosted car club rallies, caravan club gatherings, air show venue, pop festival site, movie location, and even an aerodrome, the above records when the drag race people had not vacated the runways as they should have. A divert to Lasham was our only option having just popped back from an escape to France..




Farnborough Week for many years was a productive producer of visiting aircraft. Here comes the BAA!




Dakotas have brought history and passengers back to Blackbushe..




Well known shapes and sounds have carried more than words can say...




She's given rebirth to aged heroes enabling them to feel the sky once more and carry their legend forward for generations to come.




Visitors have given many us something to smile over..




We've witnessed return of the heavy bomber..





...also the heavy transports of delight, and history..




..and the more petite!




Farnborough Weeks captured the occasional glimpse of old Blackbushe.




..today we have the affordable General Aviation centre, held down only by the claws of intransigent bureaucracy and totally inflexible attitudes of those who bow down to anachronistic and ancient laws.


..and so the clock's hand continue to rotate, every hour hopefully an hour less to wait for common sense to be lavished on the one and only Blackbushe Airport where the future will be unfurled amid the complex machinery of law...

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day EXTRA"
19/04/21

We live in amazing times! A massive human achievement in aviation as the first powered flight took place on another world has just taken place, Mars!

It certainly took ingenuity...Unlimited congratulations to all concerned! Wow!! Our Forum's first report from another planet.....






Just need to get the Blackbushe problems to overcome bureaucraticly induced gravity..

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
20/04/21


This time (06.25) yesterday powered flight, so far as we know, had only been conducted on one world. This one. A few hours later that had all changed, powered flight having been carried out on two planets yesterday morning. Nothing to do with Blackbushe perhaps, but all part of man's continual efforts to expand his awareness and capability be it here - or on Mars. An event, I noted, pushed down into third place by the BBC News yesterday, football taking precedence over all.... We have proven flight in thin air is possible, now we need to show that flight is going to be possible in hot air, the hot air that surrounds Blackbushe generated by parties for whom gravity surrounding our airfield is just not strong enough to hold its flying machines down...amid the hot air generated during years of anti-Blackbushe anti-aviation anti-progressive anti-opportunity and anti-social reticence generated by sixty years of antipathy powered bureaucracy.

Today, 20th April, is, or would be, my Dad's birthday. He was my inspiration, my hero, and my soul mate especially after my Mum's death when I was eleven. I still miss his sense of humour and his ability to achieve things I considered impossible, I miss him greatly, but cherish his memories. Perhaps I could just wish him a happy birthday from "POTD" where 'ere he may be? It was he who introduced me to Blackbushe Airport when I was around four or five years old, we made a number of visits to the "A30" as Vikings etc trundled into the Hampshire air or maybe Hermes or Yorks or Bristol Freighters departed into the mysterious distance. Through his work contacts he arranged for me to go on a tour of Blackbushe when I was eleven or twelve with the head of ATC, a Mr Eccles I recall. I'll never forget how proud I felt climbing into the awaiting black and yellow air traffic vehicle and being driven all around the Airport, across runways, around hangars and seeing so many airliners at close quarters. The view from the Control Tower was one not to be missed - what a magnificent airfield lay beyond!! The die was cast! Helped by the fact that we had lived in Sandhurst for my first five years of life and the sound of heavy aircraft departing Blackbushe had become a distant but regular and stirring sound.




My Dad, an aeroplane, and I.... four years old!




May, 1964...as Dad and I passed London's Blackbushe Airport en route to somewhere for some reason I snapped the Terminal. By that time I knew every inch of every part of the building thanks to being part of the AVM's small but devoted team.. Sadly the County Council elected to destroy two thirds of this fine building, but prior to that the views from the eastern most windows across Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey were superb.



My apologies for making "POTD" personalised this morning, I'm sure you'll understand. Happily my Dad was well and active at the time of the Blackbushe Air Festival in '77 and able to enjoy the results of what was probably one my more prolific contributions to Blackbushe!

Moving onwards, or more accurately backwards. A look at the current header photo and what it reveals..




The sad dividing line betwixt Blackbushe Airport and the destruction that happened on its eastern side. Taken in 1960's, in the lower left we see AVM Bennett's Percival Proctor and a little further down the line his DH Dove that spent its last days there before being disposed of.. You'll note cars parked near the Terminal on the east side of the dreaded fence, it was still possible to drive across the taxiways remnants until all access was finally bulldozed..

On the grass one of a couple of Ansons that staged through Blackbushe before seeking duty elsewhere in the world. The Airport signals square to the right of the Anson cleasrly shows we were using runway 14 that day, the photo was taken on the climb out from said runway.

The Airport vehicles are gathered by the Terminal. Our blue fuel tanker, the stately Airport fire engine and next to it the AVM's 'ice cream van' coloured Land Rover described in a recent "POTD"... Various visitors are parked on the apron including a Tiger Club Stampe and the Army Parachute Club Rapide.

The 'grass island' leading to the apron is sporting the Shell refuelling complex, no longer did we have to depend on the old blue mobile tanker. Slowly slowly Blackbushe edged back to some form of basic life...

The car park is - as it so often is - well patronised, the same gate access to the A30 as used today although we did have a second access just out of the photo's left hand side. Looking along the A30 are many parked cars. Today it's a 'clear way' where parking is prohibited and anyway the roadsides are no longer easy to park on. The sight of club aircraft circuit bashing was one of great interest to many who stopped to break their journey or who simply enjoyed watching aeroplanes. The A30 was a main route to the west country this being pre any M3 Motorway. It could get VERY busy a lot of the time..

The blue/white striped structure near the windsock is AVM Bennett's store for Airport equipment and often his Fairtravel Linnet aeroplane.

Still heading to the west we see Three Counties Aero Club's premises. Built in 1962/3 TCAC brought new life to Blackbushe from both the social and flying aspects. Sadly very few TCAC members are around nowadays. I've still got my button hole badge and many happy memories of years spent there. I'll never forget the surprise while working for Bennett at Blackbushe when Bill Freeman, Airport Manager, told me that a new flying club would be setting up and building their own premises!! A NEW building on Blackbushe was like a miracle. Of course, bureaucracy would only permit "temporary planning permission", but somehow the building has survived various occupants including European Flyers, today's Blackbsuhe Aviation and the now defunct Bushe Cafe. Happily the new ********** cafe will be opening soon!

Finally, if you return to the main gate you will see the gravel 'service road' the AVM constructed to avoid cars and service vehicles mixing with aeroplanes on the taxiways, our express way to the new hangars at the west end of the airfield, the end now obliterated in order for second hand motors to change hands . Today nature's barrier of trees and such like have taken over the route by the fence, nature is relentless.


..and so is time. "POTD" signing off for another day.

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
21/04/21

What EXACTLY is it that the birds are so flaming cheerful about at 05.00? You break the bonds of double glazed sanctity and the sparrows' choral society give it full beak even before the Sun has made it over the horizon..

One of Blackbushe's many good friends, Mike Biddulph, recently sent over a link to the past, a link that may well feature RAF Hartford Bridge/Blackbushe as Bostons depart on a typical sortie performed from here to drive the enemy from paces they should not have been...







One thing is for sure, it captures exactly what the bombers of Blackbushe were asked to do time and time again until peace was restored.

The return of well earned peace to our shores brought with it the growth of civil aviation, new independent airlines, and shapes and sounds that consumed post-war Blackbushe, a perfectly located airfield not far from London and equipped with a long hard runway... just what the Government wanted.




















Just a few images from Blackbushe past, I think they speak for themselves..



Thanks to Mike for his contribution this morning, if any of our Members or Guests have any evidence of Blackbushe's pictorial past they would like to share, we'd love to hear from them!!

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
22/04/21

We live in extraordinary times, each passing day confirms it! As if the Covid beast had not done enough, and still is doing to destroy what we once considered 'normal', our nation's slide into an increasingly dictatorial rule for the 'good of the people' continues. The beastly 30 limit on funeral attendances, the cruelty of which was emphasised at last weekend's funeral at Windsor, plus many other you can do this but not that Covid rules; then add the hell bent drive to drive our UK into a low carbon nation that in the process will drain our pockets as we stoically strive to be the world's number one low carbon nation. Current statistics indicate UK plc produces some 1% of global carbon emissions. Our future carbon free country will be covered in trees and more trees, windmills, and solar panels to serve the national carbon flag waving jamboree resulting in ever less room to grow our food. Continental cabbages could be in for a field day.. Not to mention steel production! Could it be that UK steel production may fall foul of future emission rules whereby we have to import the stuff? Aviation? Talk of carbon taxes that will make travel by air once more a thing for the rich? Apart from death threats, the motives above are full of good intentions we must hope the processes will not bring us to our knees - or bankruptcy? This all might be a bit sinister sounding, the motives are good, but softly softly catchee monkey?

Forgive my early morning cloud of gloom on another day where clouds are - at the moment - few and far between. Yesterday triggered a perfect illustration as to our extraordinary times. As reported in the Forum's 'non Blackbushe discussion' department yesterday, Southampton Airport once again hit the local news.. An MP who supports the extra 164m of runway length at Southampton has been issued with death threats by parties who do not agree with him. Rational conversation replaced by death threats!




Can't be too careful or the whole show can go tails up...


Have a great day!

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
23/04/21


There's something very satisfying about seeing progressive work taking place at Blackbushe, we all (most of us) know what we'd like to see in the way of "progressive" work at the airfield but such ideals have yet to find any friendship amid the all powerful County Council and its mandarins. However, work continues at a pace in the all new cafe that will soon rise from the ashes of its now extinct predecessor. Another week or so.. patience chaps, the kettle will soon be on!

Following yesterday's quick pop in to admire the excellent work going on in the cafe another walk on the old Blackbushe 'east' to stimulate body and mind both of which appreciate a bit of action. Walking abeam the main apron admiring the vivid yellow flowers of the gorse that now have residence on old Blackbushe I was reminded of a fact I could have included on a recent POTD and its aerial view of the apron. Thus, below is a similar photo taken whilst in the Blackbushe sky..




What's the difference between this photo and the somewhat similar one of a few days ago? We're now on 32 as indicated by the signals square, t'other photo was taken ascending from 14. Very sad that 14/32's excellent surface is no longer available, but for now look down on the apron if you would... You may recall POTD mentioning the "Comet line" running across the apron? If not, a line was painted across the apron to assist taxiing Comet airliners ensuring their distant wingtips did not clang against the more senior aeroplanes parked on the once expansive main apron. The line is still clearly visible from the above photo extending from the taxiway to where the apron was chopped just abeam the Dove's port wing. The line remained for many years after the airfield's 1960 closure but today is all but a memory.. Just a bit of history, remember Britain's first commercial jet airliner's crews trained at Blackbushe in the world leading DH Comet. They probably also produced the world's first complaints about jet noise as Yateley residents may well have been world leaders lodging their complaints about British aviation's short held supremacy in the sky and its presence at Blackbushe.. For the record, training flights were adjusted so a circuit training did not continue during the night, a right hand circuit from 26 (as it was..) or a left hand circuit from 08 (as it was..)could well have caused the odd eyebrow to raise at 02.00 or thereabouts? Early jets were not totally quiet.




Runway "32" as indicated in use according to the signal square in today's first photo and as she looks this month. A vast wide open runway, silent, the domain of a passing Fido and his owner going walkies...one or two magpies, and a goodly share of memories!




Just for the record, it was on this day in 2005 that the Cessna Citation Mustang first took to the air. A 'Wijet' Mustang joined the static aircraft display for the Airport's 75th Anniversary celebrations....


Have a great day, looks line blue skies all the way once again! Good day for a walk...

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
24/04/21

Running behind schedule today, a slight technical issue required us to delay boarding following a Wi-Fi issue, but all systems now cleared for flight..

Another day of cloudless southern skies and that 'refreshing' airflow from points east... The press today are stirring the No10 cauldron with stories true/false/otherwise of sleaze, deceit, and who dunnit leaks whilst the present incumbent has been resident at the well known Downing Street address. A refreshing change from being force fed Covid whose viral properties have almost been matched by the viral nature of Covis rumour mongers, anti-vaxxers, and the misleading facts society.

The media have a way of extracting data from 'sources', it's rather sad that they never got to the bottom of some of the skulduggery exuded by 'anti-Blackbushe' extremists in the past, although events did find the local media's attention some years ago..










..and a few more extracts from the press concerning Blackbushe, one way or another....




























There are many more, but it cannot be denied Blackbushe has proven to be newsworthy for many decades, her newsworthy qualities remain strong - the last sixty years of cantankerous bureaucracy from lowly Parish to high and mighty County providing enough meat for many a journalistic mile..



Enjoy the weekend, our airfield that despite all is free to fly aeroplanes and, of course, savour the forthcoming pleasures of when the all new cafe is ready to fling open her doors and show you her new decor, new style, new crew, new menus, and of course, her carefully considered new name..

PB

[PB]

"Photo of the Day"
25/04/21



Another week, at 06.00 t'was a grey overcast for a change! Change, something we all hope for at Blackbushe while the bureaucrats and their legal beagles fight over how the airfield's future should be fashioned according to Common laws originated when the poor and needy dwelling within the nearby village of Yateley were granted rights to gather kindling or graze specific animals to support their needs and plight. The world, and Yateley, have moved on rather dramatically since 1066 when the formal start to English law of real property was introduced after the Norman invasion and Common Law was built throughout England. The new King, William the Conqueror, standardised England's feudal rules compiling a reference for all land and its value in the Domesday Book of 1086. Feudalism lead to all land being owned by the Monarch, estates were granted to the lords who in turn parcelled out land to tenants. Peasants favoured the enclosure of commons if it resulted in its distribution amid the poor, needy, and landless. In the hundreds of years that have ensued since the Domesday Book much of Britain's land has been privatised, taken out of collective ownership and handed to individuals. In our "property owning democracy" figures indicate almost half of the country is owned by 40,000 land millionaires or 0.06 of the population. Figures extracted from Simon Fairlie's "A Short History of Britain in Enclosure".

Whilst many factors have been employed in reaching such levels of land distribution, the most contentious has been 'enclosure', the subdivision and fencing of Common Land into plots allocated to the people deemed to have held 'rights' to the land enclosed.. For 500 years the argument has continued as to this 'enclosure' the beneficiaries insisting on their necessity for development and land improvement while the dispossessed argued it deprived them of their livelihoods.

Almost one thousand years after the Domesday Book's ink dried man has achieved much on our still largely green and pleasant land, meanwhile the airfield known as Blackbushe is stymied thanks to the application of those now ancient laws appertaining to Common and consequential legal hearings trying to ascertain the correct interpretation and application of terms therein. Man can develop pandemic fighting vaccines, fly helicopters on Mars, yet we are unable to find 'common ground' enabling an airfield to provide hangarage because the land upon which it is situate is deemed as 'Common'.. Our County Council are perfectly happy to sink many thousands of our pounds into their dogged wish and courtroom encounters to see ancient laws destroy the Blackbushe asset and the employment potential offered today and in the future.

I hope I live to see Blackbushe reach the just conclusion that common sense suggests should be reached, but time is ticking, we've seen off the first six decades of adversity...

Meanwhile, change is taking place at Blackbushe within the bounds placed upon her... The Airport cafe is taking shape under the current refurbishment scheme, the new name has been displayed by the A30 while some parties have taken to the Forum to reveal the name as if it were a secret they were divulging. Far from it, the name and details of the cafe have been available to all on the Blackbushe Airport website...and on signage adjacent to the A30. Click this link for details and textural photos of work in progress>>> www.blackbusheairport.co.uk/cafe

The Forum gave some column inch comment space on the matter of the cafe's name in POTD's "Comments" department last evening.. Quote, "Someone was bound to break the silence, no prizes for making the announcement, but anyone visiting Blackbushe with serviceable eyes would (should) be able to read the new sign! The name "Pathfinder" was selected from a wide variety of proposals, but the one chosen was based on historical circumstance, a nod to the airfield's past, an outstanding aviator with an extraordinary military flying career, a champion of post war independent British independent civil aviation and the person without whom there would be no airfield on what by now would be the abandoned and overgrown former Blackbushe Airport site. That person is the late Air Vice Marshal Donald "Pathfinder" Bennett. Delighted the Airport has decided to adopt the cafe name 'revealed' above by one of our Members and also included on the Airport's roadside signage; it was selected from a number put forward by someone you may know of.. ?"




It's for all to see, the 'first signs'.. premises opening soon!



Meanwhile, an era closed for good when the last DC-6 landing at Blackbushe took place in 2008. It was slso the first since Blackbushe was closed by the Government and aircraft such as the mighty six, and all aircraft, were banished for all of time.. Or so they thought.




G-APSA almost home, famous runway and famous aeroplane about to be reunited.




G-APSA kisses Blackbushe for the last time..




"Welcome home!"




Must you go? That familiar oily smoke indicates the P&W's about to turn and burn..




Bye bye old friend..




The last "Goodbye", G-APSA leaves her old home for ever... we tried to rescue her later, but sadly to no avail..



Thanks to Malcolm Hemming for the DC-6 studies, and that from POTD today, is that....

PB