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Post by PB on Aug 4, 2016 6:53:58 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
04/08/16Some aeroplanes carry nostalgia wherever they go, and one such carried loads of nostalgia when it landed at Blackbushe last Saturday morning. Brought to us by the generosity of BAe Systems and flown by an F-35 test and development pilot the venerable "Annie" touched down on Blackbushe's runway, a length of tarmac that challenges for the levels of nostalgia on offer and has hosted very many Ansons during its life.  August, 1962, EKCO's G-ALIH arrived from Southend - the Anson's association with Blackbushe lived on! Monochrome or colour, even with a big nose the Anson has the look of a classic British aeroplane. Another Farnborough Week, later in the 1960's.... Does my nose look big in this??1962. One of my formative years working for AVM Bennett where much was learned about life and getting things done...sometimes the hard way, but there was no harm done, it stiffened my resolve, a resolve that appears to have stuck!. I'm still here and maybe I'll live to see the AVM's dreams and plans for Blackbushe unfurl into reality? Meanwhile. I'll continue to do all I can in support of our airfield, next year for example when the 75th comes around? Moving back to the past, an advantage of working at Blackbushe in those far off days was being on the spot when an opportunity arose.. Such was the case with EKCO's Anson. Blackbushe had been loaned some kind of mobile radar unit with Farnborough Week pending. The Anson duly arrived during the Farnborough rehearsal week to fly a calibration sortie with Captain Meredith at the helm. These were the days when Blackbushe was deserted, just a vast amount of tarmac, Bill Freeman was the Airport Manager and I was the Ops bloke who did most things to pass the time! It was surreal having this great airfield to wander and no aeroplanes..just the Terminal Building had survived. The Anson brought a huge break in the monotony. Captain Meredith was flying solo and the right hand seat was going begging on the pending calibration flight. If you don't ask, you don't get...Your scribe was seen entering the rear door so as to clamber up the fuselage and occupy the magic right hand seat, with a very round Cheetah engine just to my right!  Taxiing across the then huge apron, the alien forces were already gathering to destroy most of what you can see from this shot.. Magic moments! My first flight in anything offering more than one engine, and a desolate but still intact Blackbushe beneath. The madness behind its destruction must be obvious? Farnborough 1962, the main exhibition marquees are just about make out able from my ancient B&W photography.Black and white photos were quite apt as we had to keep the sortie brief due to a particular RAF aerobatic team, The Black Arrows. Eighteen very shiny jet black Hunters were in the same bit of Hampshire and we moved closer to Blackbushe urged by our two Cheetah engines who sounded magnificent from where I was sitting! Not a massively long flight but I'd got my tenth type in the log book! A flight out of the thousands that were to follow that truly stand out as one that's hard to forget. The Provost on Saturday became my 126th type! That's another story, perhaps a whole lot of stories? But, getting an Anson back to Blackbushe for our Air Day was truly a very rewarding moment. We've already discussed "next year".....  PB
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Post by PB on Aug 5, 2016 6:15:34 GMT
"Photo of he Day"
05/08/16Friday morning. Hard to believe that this time last week I was still imprisoned in hospital awaiting the verdict as to whether I could be set free after Thursday's heart "event" and exciting ambulance ride... Never mind the heart, my over riding issue was getting to Blackbushe for the Air Day - there was much to be done and the prospect of missing the fun and results of so much previous work was unbearable! I was lucky and made it back to Blackbushe by around 13.00 a week today - the night before's incarceration must have been the longest night ever, but the clockwork was still ticking and the relief of actually getting back to the airfield was immeasurable. Next round of tests today, but otherwise all I have to do now is clear up the Air Day papers that decorate the office floor! Oh, yes...and continue plans for next year - the wheels are turning, hopefully the 'clockwork' will keep ticking too? So, enough of such tales, time to look at more interesting tails from long ago....  Halifax of Wesminster Airways. Two tails, one previous owner... Broken up at Blackbushe November, 1950. SANA Halifax. Damaged by fire in 1950, broken up at the end of '51. Another of the Blackbushe based Westminster Airways fleet. Veteran of the Berlin Airlift, she too was withdrawn from use at the end of 1950. What a lovely gate guard she'd make today? More tails, three in fact, put Lancaster wings with four Merlins onto a boxy fuselage and call it a York. Avro did just that...and they were just part of the everyday Blackbushe scene Loads'er tails, but thereby hangs a tale. Just another day on the Blackbushe apron some years ago. A beautiful Dan-Air Ambassador, foreground, with its three tails still survives at Duxford..Whatever tales remain to be told of Blackbushe in the future, sadly these multi tailed machines of yesteryear can never play their part again. One advantage of 'getting on in years' is to have been there and seen them, and heard them... Such sights and sounds on a wonderful airfield, a scene you could not help but fall in love with. Regardless of how well it functions today, my heart strings are still pulled by this splendid old airfield - as some of you might have guessed? She's 75 next year, hopefully we'll all be at her party? PB
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Post by PB on Aug 6, 2016 6:55:43 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
06/08/16What a difference a week makes... seven days have slipped by since the Air Day, and although the met was good the 100% blue of this morning would bave been much better than the murky start to last Saturday. Still, it's a gamble with the weather in this country and we certainly didn't lose the bet, although some aeroplanes were lost due't murk t'up north.  Airline buses serve Blackbushe Airport! My inner man had a deep satisfaction in seeing airline buses operating from the Blackbushe car park once more...56 years have slipped by since BEA, BOAC, Eagle etc etc operated road connections to Blackbushe..  Somewhere around the mid 1950's Blackbushe main entrance, looked much smarter come the late fifties. A movie set, but the detail escapes me..numerous movies were shot at Blackbushe during her 'operational' years. Another Annie for all the Annie aviators in our midst!! Farnborough Week, 1953....It's a week since our last Anson movement..A York in the background. Been a while since one of those was here. ..and last weekend you could have caught your Rapide service from this spotWhat a difference a week makes, what a difference over half a century makes? Much personal satisfaction was derived from making Blackbushe buzz again last weekend, with regard to doing it again let's just say I've taken the first giant step towards a bigger and (even) better occasion for 2017 and the Big Blackbushe Birthday - 75!! Beyond that....just have to wait. Have a great weekend! PB
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Post by PB on Aug 7, 2016 5:55:11 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
07/08/16Early start this morning my sortie down into the POTD vaults necessarily has to be rapid, although the 8/8 cloud cover may well mess the day's plans for Netheravon... So, the day's spoils from the vaults....  An evening scene over Yateley Common...One of the many Blackbushe based Eagle Vikings makes her way down the centre line for Blackbushe's runway 26 over the wide open spaces of Yateley Common. As with today, the approaches to Blackbushe traversed extraordinarily unpopulated open spaces for an airfield with such a useful runway length in the south-east of England. In the fifties Blackbushe was used as a test bed for new lighting systems and the hours of darkness yielded a truly glowing spectacle...A huge orange lighting gantry spanned the A30 where the 08 centre line intersected the A30 trunk road to the west of the airfield. All very impressive!  A less successful approach to 26.. BEA training flight, no simulator time in those days, it was definitely 'hands on'. Blackbushe Airport is situate on a natural plateau..As we all know, one of Blackbushe's great advantages is that it is located on a natural plateau. One does need to bear this in mind when on the approach, it being preferable to remain above airfield height on finals. The plateau effect does make Blackbushe 'stand out' from the visual point of view, you can see it from miles away when the met permits, it also tends to keep you above surrounding low lying mist hence the airfields's generally good weather record.. This was confirmed by the many fog diversions that failed to make it to Heathrow and arrived by necessity and convenience at Blackbushe. The RAF's daily Dakota service to Prestwick from Blackbushe also proved the point. It flew for 12 months and only had one weather cancellation.. PB
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Post by PB on Aug 8, 2016 5:33:58 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
08/08/16A few days ago I was going on about the nostalgia effect of seeing airline buses operating at Blackbushe Airport during the recent Air Day, pointing out that 56 years had slid by since such sights would have been seen...  Passenger services, 1950...KLM DC-4 diversion from fogged in Heathrow, KLM coaches at the ready. Ground services. Home based Airwork Hermes towed across a large expanse of apron that is no more, the Hermes and the apron long gone.PB
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Post by PB on Aug 9, 2016 6:03:32 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
09/08/16Today's time travel journeys back to the late 70's when Doug Arnold ruled the roost...a roost where the occasional warbird would be seen passing by.  Well known B-17 slightly low on the down wind leg...The late Don Bullock mows the Blackbushe grass. It was equally exciting flying with him, just lasted longer!! Sometimes it was in advisable - sadly, it was once. PB
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Post by PB on Aug 10, 2016 5:47:13 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
10/08/16At an hour when one should be sleeping, when dreams should be taking the upper hand, strange compelling forces from an airfield found in north-eastern Hampshire conspire to curtail the bliss of sleep. Once more the cold and early light of an August morning drags me from the sanctity of sleep to this world of conscious dreams and schemes... A world where this not so small airfield with huge potential bubbles caldera like, its past history and future prospects both fighting to burst forth and spread themselves across "Photo of the Day"..at the very least!! So, is the Blackbushe story - soon to have spanned 75 "Diamond" years - to be likened to a tragedy, or a comedy, or history? The history factor is without doubt a major feature of the Blackbushe 'theatre', tragedy is there too both with lives lost and the destruction of one of our finest airfield locations in 1960... but comedy? Maybe the comedy comes from bureaucratic bungling and the endless application of anachronistic ancient 'rights' that for so long have blighted the potential of Blackbushe combined with the sacrificial severing of the airfield's vitally important 'east end'? Nonetheless, throughout these tormented years we have witnessed the slow rebirth of Blackbushe despite the efforts of those who would thwart the airfield's uses at any cost... The recent Air Day gave another chance to thumb one's nose at bygone bureaucracy and show that Blackbushe is far from the end of her story.  9th September, 1978. To dare to dream? Doug's Dakotas and a City Hopper service from the Netherlands for an instant create a vision of Blackbushe long gone...and hope? The "Field of Dreams..." A sign of the times? One's best effort to bring back the best of old Blackbushe..! Life anew? So many refugees first saw the 'free world' on arrival at Blackbushe.. Now maybe it's Blackbushe's turn for life anew? Since 1942 Blackbushe has been a pretty cool airfield, through war, peace, destruction, survival....Let us hope for enlightenment from the planning departments and an end to her decades old 'winter of discontent'..2017 will see Blackbushe Airport reach her 75th birthday. Her "Diamond" celebration!! If ever a birthday needed celebrating, it must be this one!!!!!  ? PB
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Post by PB on Aug 11, 2016 6:30:59 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
11/08/16With an airfield like Blackbushe and a vessel such as "The One-Stop Forum" most of my days start with wondering whether to go backwards or forwards in time when 'Photo of the Day' confronts the vast POTD editorial team. With its broad history and wide opportunities into the future you might say we have miles of material from which to pick. True, and the word 'miles' sparks a thought for today's POTD effort.. Blackbushe may in indeed have a varied and fascinating past, but during her life - and before - wonderful aviation enterprises flourished not too far away. One of these being the producer of many classic British aircraft designs, designs seen at Blackbushe throughout her history.. Over at the now long disused aerodrome at Woodley, near Reading, the Miles Aircraft company was founded in 1943 - the amalgam of FG Miles joining forces with the established Phillips & Powis Aircraft already based at Woodley. Throughout its lifetime, Miles produced exciting and innovative aircraft designs combining excellent qualities in the air with the looks that suggested their British background - elegant, beautiful, with the quality "If it looks right, it'll fly right". How often that was an accurate assessment of an aircraft's handling qualities I'm not too sure, but generally it seems to apply.... The first aircraft to land at Blackbushe was a Miles design! A Magister flew all the way from RAE Farnborough under the command of the then Group Captain Alan Wheeler in July, 1942. 74 years ago, 75 years ago next July, goodness..!!??!! Must be time for a celebration?? Stay tuned is all I will say...!! Miles had the ability to make the most utilitarian design requirement acquire a reasonable degree of elegance, although beauty may well be in the eye of the beholder in this case??  Miles Aerovan, G-AKHF, belonging to F G Miles parked at Blackbushe in September, 1951. Photo taken amid the Airwork complex, now known as Yateley Common. Aerovan, G-AIDJ, at Blackbushe in 1948. Awaiting delivery to the Arab Contracting & Trading Co. Sadly damaged beyond repair taking off from Rutbah Wells, Iraq, in November, 1948.  Miles Gemini, G-AJOH, an example of Miles styling combining aerodynamics and great looks, sits amid the huge infrastructure that once was a part of Blackbushe.. 1949. The Miles Sparrowhawk at Blackbushe.. 10/10 for styling. G-ADGP. 1952, Blackbushe based Hawk Speed Six, now lives up the road at Shuttleworth.. She and Blackbushe have proven to be survivors. Not a Messenger, not enough fins, but a Miles M.28, G-AHAA, the Miles Mercury..a British European Airways communications aircraft at Blackbushe in 1948.History by miles to be found at Blackbushe, and I can think of no better type than a Maggie to appear at Blackbushe's 75th Anniversary. Were such an event even to enter my mind....   Have a nice day.. PB
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Post by PB on Aug 12, 2016 5:50:44 GMT
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Post by PB on Aug 15, 2016 21:21:56 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
15/08/16Hello, back in the circuit for a moment.. Having been bashing the heavens today, and what a great day for enjoying the wide blue yonder, I took this shot to show how much land to the south of Blackbushe has been chomped up by the gravel diggers.  Turning base for 07, you could fit another airport into Hampshire's answer to the Sahara...thought it might be of interest? Blackbushe today, not quite what it was in the fifties, but still a great airfield!!POTD will be back.. PB blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/5253
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