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Post by PB on Aug 27, 2016 6:04:25 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
27/08/16Bank Holiday Weekend...the doorway to autumn, the next Bank Holiday and it will be Christmas. The years spin around with increasing disregard for my wish that they'd perhaps spin round a little slower? Time, an extraordinary medium of no consequence in the big picture, but to us the most precious commodity there is after our loved ones - and aviation.. Today, lacking any particular idea for POTD thought I'd pick out a day long gone, 27 August, for example, in say 1957 - a mere 59 years ago - and relate what the observer would have seen on this day long ago. Here goes, no idea where it will lead... US NAVY assorted movements including R4D8, SNB5, R4D6, R5D, Israeli Air Force MosquitoUSAF VC-47RAF Gloster JavelinIndian Airlines ViscountWest African Airways Canadair C4BEA AmbassadorDan-Air numerous DC3 movementsRAF ValettaTransportes Aeroes da India Portuguese DH HeronOrion, Independent, Eagle, Karl Herfurtner - lots of VikingsDan-Air, Air Kruise, Silver City - various Bristol FreightersBOAC Constellation crew trainingAirwork, Air Safaris, Britavia HP HermesMinistry of Transport and Civil Aviation, BOAC (crew training) DoveDan-Air, DH HeronBOAC, DC-7Westair Curtiss C-46There we are, a selection from just one day in the life of Blackbushe, 59 years ago today... Maybe gives an impression of why Blackbushe was so missed when it was closed, and the ghosts of those days still linger? Sorry, no photos time would not permit, not to mention going boss eyed down the the vaults digging that lot out!! Just create the photos in your imagination..some of us don't have to imagine - those 59 years have spun round that fast! At least they have for those of us still nursing a couple of active grey cells..... Hope the sun shines for you this weekend! PB Link to comment .... blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/5364
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Post by PB on Aug 28, 2016 6:29:25 GMT
"Photo of he Day"
28/08/16A very rapid visit to the vaults this Sunday morning... The photo below takes us back in time anywhere between 1954 and 1958.  One of the Hunting-Clan fleet enjoys some TLC from Eagle Airways..Right on the edge of today's gravel extraction south of the A30 and in the Airport's once active far south-western corner where Eagle's engineering base was located.. just another image of days long past. PB
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Post by PB on Aug 29, 2016 9:47:31 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
29/08/16Bank Holiday Monday... The sun is making a valiant up there to defy the Bank Holiday reputation, there may be hope? The sun failed in its duty yesterday your scribe, and many others, getting a regular sprinkle from the endless rolls of soggy stratus that made their somewhat low strafing runs across Dunsfold's Wings and Wheels show. POTD forced to be brief again today due editorial obsession with 2017 and ideas that won't go away. Started work at 06.00 sadly POTD having to suffer, and office now closing for the day. Bank Holiday = family time. I'll leave you with an image from Blackbushe's last Anniversary celebration, way back in '92.  The fun 50th do in '92.Next stop, the 75th... Have a great Bank Holiday! PB
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Post by PB on Aug 30, 2016 6:11:38 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
30/08/16Bank Holiday over, must be as the 06.00 sky looks clear of cloud while the sun continues its daily climb out... POTD meanwhile wonders, as that early morning sunlight bounces off the editorial head, what direction we should go in today? The dark and dusty vaults have shared their contents fairly liberally over the past 20 months since the One-Stop Forum was created, our Editor often scratching the aforementioned editorial head in search of a fresh approach to Blackbushe. Today, for example!! Thinking about it for a moment, the Blackbushe situation is both unique and extraordinary. Unique in that it is the only airport that once was a major player in the Tactical Air Force's wartime endeavours, a US military base, and also held claim to the title of a major London Airport, London's second airport in fact. An airport that has been closed and virtually destroyed. Extraordinary that despite all the efforts to remove this fine airfield she retains breath for aviation in her lungs, and serves today as a useful and tidy looking GA airfield while future plans hold significant promise of a brighter tomorrow. It really is quite a story! Today, a couple of angles seen from the cranky old crows nest of a control tower thankfully no longer in existence....  A scene that fairly typifies Blackbushe in the early seventies. A couple of Aeromart aircraft, the Steamed Chicken Line's Beagle 206, and the common before it took hold and blotted out our view of the east.. Someone hopefully shot the marshaller....?? Better... who remembers ICL's flying club on the north-east corner? One aeroplane can be seen in the distance outside their premises.
 Just like us, aeroplanes come and aeroplanes go. Another era in the life of Blackbushe.. Fun days we've had, sad days we've had. Here's one of the fun flying days with some warbirds, the cranky old tower keeps watch! That's Aeromart's club building behind the Spit's tail..More meetings at Blackbushe today and tomorrow with an eye on the future...? PB
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Post by PB on Aug 31, 2016 5:36:54 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
31/08/16Sorry, POTD closed today... but have a photo anyway!!  PB
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Post by PB on Sept 1, 2016 5:56:47 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
01/09/16The POTD editorial team are back in the office once more! The "team" continue multitasking in numerous directions with an eye on the future at Blackbushe. All is not quiet behind the editorial scenes! The dust has finally settled on the 2016 Air Day, and I know one or two of the Blackbushe 'supporters' have questioned 2017 and any progress we might have made in that direction. By the end of this month, we've just landed in September for heaven's sake, the bones of what I'm throwing in the cooking pot should be laid before you. While it will never be possible to please all the people all the time, if what is on the drawing board takes off I think most will be pleased. I'd like to think that PB's efforts can manage at least one more step into the air as we jointly celebrate 75 years of aviation at Blackbushe/RAF Hartford Bridge? My proposals to date for 2017 will create an awesome task for somebody, and many days will start as today at 5am for that lucky person - like today -, but providing the clockwork in my chest keeps ticking I'm ready to take on what could be a biggy. The proposed doctors' strikes will not help with the cardiac 'studies' that are pending, but onwards and upwards, obviously the junior doctors have set where their priorities are to be found.... Out of pure nostalgia, here are some reminders of previous PB attempts at keeping Blackbushe on the aviation 'events' map...  IAS Air Cargo 1977 The Blackbushe Air Festival... British Air Ferries 1977 TMAC 1977 British Airways 1977 Sally B '77  '77 Pleasure flying by British Air Ferries Half of our dual Varsity display '77 1977, the Fun Fairs and Flying mix...all on Blackbushe's north side. 1992 "50th" 50th..Dear Spencer Flack rang up one morning and said, "Would you like my Mustang for the 50th?". My answer is obvious!! What an incredible offer... 50th 50th Pleasure Flying by luxury Dove...  50th Gary Numan and the late Norman Lees prepare to lay smoke courtesy of some Airport diesel...50th Could have had an F-16 from the RNeAF, but support arrived from RAF Cranwell and the US Navy came back 'home'... 50th We had new types on show too. The Optica, for example. Flying in her was fun, never forget seeing Minley Manor vanish between my legs from the goldfish bowl cockpit!  The first Great Blackbushe Aviators' Weekend..
 The second Great Blackbushe Aviators' Weekends.. The first Air Festival back in '76 The late Charles Church was one of our greatest supporters.. Some of the superb GBAW 'team'...sponsored by BCA ..couldn't have done it without him, Stuart on the left, Airport Manager and link with BCA. Fast moving Richard Noble presents the winners prizes at the second GBAW, the first year it was HRH Prince Michael who presided.. Lots of fun competitions in the air and on the ground.. Latest Nav Aid... Non Directional Balloon Fun, food and flying..could not have survived without our wonderful girls!! GBAW programme of events.. Probably my toughest assignment was 1977... One can almost feel the nervous rashes reforming!!
 ..can't forget this year!Dear old Blackbushe, you've given me a lifetime of fun, adventures in the air, challenges, the greatest friendships on earth - and off it - frustration, tragedy, tears, and opportunities..how can I thank you enough??
How about a birthday of all birthday's to mark your 75th??Work to done perhaps? PB
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Post by PB on Sept 2, 2016 7:45:04 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
02/09/16Sorry, POTD crew under a bit of pressure this morning... people to see, places to go.  Blackbushe's largest visitor this year..didn't actually land but paid his respects. Be nice to see him back, and perhaps stay a while?It's going to be a busy winter....!! Have a good day, must dash. PB
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Post by PB on Sept 3, 2016 6:29:17 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
03/09/16In years gone by this weekend would have witnessed the annual Farnborough Air Show ready to open its doors to the world. Every year at this point in September "Farnborough" dominated the head lines, and Blackbushe was at the ready for Farnborough visitors. After the fantastic Farnborough's of the fifties when Blackbushe offered the most extraordinary assembly of aircraft from the Globemaster downwards, post 1960 Blackbushe was a sadly very different animal. It rained at both Blackbushe and Farnborough, sometimes the September sun shone, but those Farnborough Weeks at Blackbushe when a handful of visitors assembled on the apron were in many ways the most magical. Blackbushe showed signs of coming back to life, a very weak heart beat, but there were signs! Now there is no Farnborough Week so far as extra Blackbushe traffic is concerned, but a few photos can be found from those early sixties September days. It was magic too, the impossible happened as the odd Anson, a couple of Doves and assorted others rested on the apron recently abandoned by our government.  This would probably have been mid sixties by which time air traffic movements at Blackbushe were improving in numbers.. Anson, Doves....the early days!  Farnborough Week 1962. Temporary EKCO radar unit, but the airfield still looked the right size! "They" had already dug up the east end of our main runway. Looks much better without today's scrub? Blackbushe lives!! We wheeled a couple of aircraft to the A30 frontage for Farnborough 1962, along with one of the AVM's Fairthorpe cars, to show the world BB and aeroplanes still went together! Early Linnet views the A30. The Terminal was still in very good shape, but full of ghosts from the airlines who had vacated a couple of years before..a lot of the destruction debris had been cleared by this time.. Blackbushe "south" as seen from the Terminal. Today, you can't see the wood for the trees, as it were..One wonders what it would have looked like had the US taken over the airfield as a strategic bomber base, with a 10,000ft runway? We'll never know, but pretty sure we wouldn't be looking at putting on the airfield's 75th next year!! Have a good weekend.. PB
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Post by PB on Sept 4, 2016 5:46:07 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
04/09/16Blackbushe resident Hermes, G-ALDA, with the Airwork staff car park in the background...  The cars look pretty ancient, but the Hermes still cuts a good shape..The aerodynamics team at Handley Page were a good step ahead of the car manufacturers of the fifties.. ? PB
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Post by PB on Sept 5, 2016 5:41:39 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
05/09/16Having spent hours yesterday searching through the vaults for material regarding a non-forum project, here's a link to a series of non-forum photos dealing with Doug Arnold's Warbirds of Great Britain... www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2016/03/11/historic-aviation-nostalgia-blackbushe-1978-1984/Whatever might be said about the Arnold era, opinions were sometimes 'varied', they were fun days and seeing Blackbushe with B-25's, Dakotas plus the odd 'Luftwaffe' marked "JU-52" dotted around, a Comet, Spitfires and a Mosquito you could kid yourself Blackbushe was thriving as an airport. No doubt Warbirds of Great Britain helped keep Blackbushe on the map... The old airfield has been used for many movies, The Winstone Affair, Through the Eye of a Needle, Hannover Street, and Rush being some. The two photos below taken from the Terminal Building during the shooting of a film, but usefully I cannot recall which one. They make an interesting view though....  Remove the film crew and perhaps you have an image reminiscent of the scene at RAF Hartford Bridge back in the forties? "wartime" Blackbushe. Numerous movies were shot at Blackbushe during the fifties. At six in the morning the grey cell is reluctant to recall too much, but might be of interest at some point to list "Movies shot at Blackbushe" somewhere on the Forum? PB
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