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Post by PB on Nov 19, 2017 7:37:54 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
19/11/17Various 'ages' have ear-marked the Blackbushe story for those of us who have 'been there' for a reasonable share of the passing years. The wartime days, and subsequent commercial years of the fifties came to an end in 1960 when government planning directed the end of Blackbushe as an airport. From there the airfield stared at potential revival in private hands, but suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune as various parties launched vociferous campaigns to finally eliminate one of the south-east's most valuable sites beneficial to aviation. They failed. However, it has not all been plain sailing, obstacles still need to be cleared 57 years after the government surrendered the airfield to the wolves.. The first half of the sixties were tenuous, but Blackbushe survived those who wished her harm, and at last the airfield reached an age when the aeroplane sometimes appeared in numbers. Farnborough Week being a case in point...  Hopes for Blackbushe were not just pie in the sky, a sixties Farnborough Week where visitors once again flew into Blackbushe. Weekend volunteers did much to assist in those early years. Maurice feeds a visiting Beagle, the background rubble and debris indicative of those locally opposed to the airfield and dedicated toward its destruction. Wanton destruction of a national asset. Visiting Ercoupe in the sixties. US Navy hangar in place and the Common had not been allowed to run wild as it has today. The sole Blackbushe bowser served for several years, oil drums mark the bad lands left by the 1960 government destruction squads.. Reg Gregory joined the Blackbushe crew in the early sixties as aircraft handler before ascending to the 'Tower' where he spent many years... The airfield has had a number of owners since 1960. Doug Arnold hovers over what was then his aerodrome.
 We found time to have fun during the dark ages.. Your scribe in Three Counties Auster 6 drops his flour bomb on target! An exuberant moment as a visiting Beech Queenair flies by during the "Great Re-opening Air Display" in October, 1962.Quite a few photographs were taken during "the ages.."! Have a nice Sunday. PB
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Post by PB on Nov 20, 2017 7:09:30 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
20/11/17Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip celebrate their 70th Wedding Anniversary today. The One-Stop forum extends well deserved congratulations to them, and wishes the couple many future anniversaries together.  The Queen and Prince Philip prepare to depart Blackbushe aboard a Royal Air Force Valetta.The Royal Family and many famous names from royalty, show business, military and political sources have used Blackbushe's benefits over the years... The King and Queen Mother visited to meet and decorate crews during the war, meanwhile many famous names including Prime Ministers, Presidents, military leaders, actors, and singers have all benefitted from Blackbushe. Churchill, Montgomery, Eisenhower, Sinatra, are just a small slice of the famous names associated with Blackbushe. Blackbushe remains the only airfield on the planet on which a serving Prime Minister has arrived via an RAF V Bomber.. Sir Anthony Eden arrived aboard an Avro Vulcan. PB
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Post by PB on Nov 21, 2017 7:31:46 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
21/11/17Airfields carry an air of mystery, disused ones with perhaps an abandoned control tower or huts tangled with ivy that once housed air crews who faced death on a daily basis are today few in numbers, but they all offer a windswept eeriness as you absorb the peace that once would have been punctuated by young men doing the business of war. Some airfields having suffered the humiliation of closure refuse to give up as they continue to provide the spectacle of aeroplanes and aviators enjoying the magic of flight.. Blackbushe is one of those airfields, the ghosts of her military past still linger, her commercial airport history still remembered by many while it remains a surprise to others who find it hard to comprehend that the overrun common land, and tree enshrouded acres that have occupied much of the former airport once combined to form the airport that was considered London's "number two" prior to the 1960 closure. Walking the lengths of Blackbushe's sadly disused runways one's mind wanders toward the past, the mighty aircraft, the many who flew them, the lost spirit that once prevailed across today's ever more overgrown acres. If you are suitably old enough and remember Blackbushe at her best it is still easy to summon up the images and sounds of the airfield's proud past. The sound of four Rolls Royce Merlins at take off power, or pounding Pratt & Whitney engines still echo in the memory as today's Blackbushe offers the gentle sound of light aeroplanes backed up by the noise of the A30 and the large car auction business that now occupies the airfield's north western flank. The occasional red kite circling seeking to rid the Common of its vermin is the nearest you'll get to aviation as you wander the forgotten disused acres of Blackbushe. Sad. A couple of pictures from the 'forgotten acres'...  Four Merlins at take-off power. Imagine...The above taken from a Fairflight Avro Tudor departing Blackbushe's runway 08, ie an easterly departure. Looking down on what is now the remains of Blackbushe's 'east end'. The original control tower, Airwork's hangars to the top left that was the RAF technical area during the war, while the A30 runs across the span of the picture with the orange and white markers indicating the threshold of runway 32 just visible in the photo's top right hand corner. All of this area is now entagled scrub achieving very little.  The mighty Merlin. Regularly cast her magic across Blackbushe past..
 Avro Tudor. July 1948, at Blackbushe to conduct high mach number trials with the RAE, Farnborough. British South American Airways Avro Tudor, crew training in 1947. War surplus put to good use, this Halifax no longer carried bombs.. A post war Short Stirling, awaits delivery to the Egyptian Air Force.. 1949. A retired Sea Otter awaits delivery to Burma... "Star Fortune", one of the Avro York's of British South American Airways during a crew training day at Blackbushe. Blackbushe's runways were not just the domain of the piston engine! All the Comet variants flew here and crew trained here..07.30, time for the Weetabix, time to rest the ghosts of a truly amazing past on the great plateau known as Hartford Bridge, or perhaps better known as Blackbushe Airport.  PB
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Post by PB on Nov 22, 2017 6:48:00 GMT
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Post by PB on Nov 23, 2017 7:20:32 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
23/11/17All shapes and sizes doesn't only apply to the people who fly aeroplanes, the aeroplanes themselves come in many wonderous proportions. Today's "POTD" wanders back in time to recall some of the past flying hardware that has been poured from slightly unusual moulds, and spent time at Blackbushe...  The Lockspeiser LDA-1 "Land Development Aircraft".David Lockspeiser displayed his LDA-1 at the 1977 Blackbushe Air Festival. A multi purpose utility aircraft, an interesting concept that, had there been one, would have won the prize for the Air Festival's most unusual participant..  A trio of Comper Swift's attending an air rally at Blackbushe. Great forward vision with a Pobjoy radial providing the thrust.. A Short Skyvan visits Blackbushe in the late sixties. Great aeroplane from a utilitarion point of view.. Never a beauty, but a great workhorse. The last Bristol Freighter to visit Blackbushe. Arrived late sixties for a couple of days featuring in a bullion robbery movie; a very regular sight in the 1950's. The Vickers Gunbus represented WW1 at a Blackbushe air show in 1968.. Flown by "Dizzi" Addicot. Dizzi was famous test pilot with Vickers Aircraft, he also taught Gary Numan to fly his Harvard..Gary Numan learned to fly at Blackbushe.  The Fokker DR1 qualifies for today's POTD.. neat, but not a beauty..? The Cessna Skymaster. Beauty or beast? Whichever, the type was banned from Blackbushe by a Section 52 planning rule due to its noise output. Sounded wonderful to me.. The garden shed of the air transport world. Blackbushe's Warbirds of Great Britain acquired three of these Spanish built versions of the ponderous German JU-52.  The Optica. Gold fish bowl with wings, fabulous to fly in..attending the Blackbushe 50th Anniversary "do"..Another British concept that failed to make the big time. It had its fans... Luftwaffe Feisler Storch at Blackbushe Air Festival '77. It's flying ability far exceeded its beauty.. A serving Luftwaffe visitor in the 1960's...Dornier 27, effective, but still not a 'looker'! The real corker of a looker! The wonderful Aeronca 100.The Aeronca 100, I've logged probably as much taxiing time as flying time in the type.. Departing Blackbushe's 01, north to south runway involved a loooong taxi!! It's close proximity to the ground was a worry when taxiing for obvious reasons, any sharp stones were a concern... Great care needed to maintain one's manhood while entering and exiting the beast, those wires holding the wings in place were very sharp if inadvertently 'twanged'... The Jap motorcycle engine cautiously dragged you off the ground, but the odd thermal sometimes helped with climb perfomance...
 BUT, through the ages of aviation's varied shapes, the supreme beauty of the immortal Spitfire will never be bettered. The Spitfire, forever the world's most beautiful flying machine.Blackbushe, supposed to have been closed in 1960, but all the above represent just some of the wonders of aviation that have manifested since that fateful day in May 1960 when Blackbushe officialy died. Long may she live!!PB
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Post by PB on Nov 24, 2017 9:21:01 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
24/11/1724th November...while some are dreaming of a white Christmas in around a month's time, the more pressing event for many will be the frenzied Friday known as Black Friday..TODAY! The origin of Black Friday comes from various suggested routes, but there is no doubt it arrived here from the USA and results in an annual retail bun fight. No bun fights here, the Black Friday edition of "Photo of the Day" will only cost a few moments of your time, no other costs involved, as we take a Black Friday look at Blackbushe from a black and white perspective.. Sadly, I am no longer in the spring chicken category, my association with Blackbushe having one way, or another, having taken up a fair proportion of the passing years, but those years have resulted in a few photos lying around and assorted memories that I am always happy to share. So far as Black Friday is concerned, many of my Blackbushe memories are black in a truly negative sense - the Blackbushe story since 1960 being something of a black comedy. It's not funny, but in retrospect it's hard to believe, even laugh at...?? Bureacracy has prevented one of the south-east's finest airfields from enjoying worthwhile developments for fifty seven years. 57 years is a long time to wait and hope that sense will prevail.. From boyhood days when my parents stopped the car - as you could in those days - on the side of the A30 to allow my young senses to fill with awe at the spectacle of this huge airfield and its many aeroplanes on both sides of the road. Love, call it what you like, but Blackbushe congealed in my blood and to this day it continues to travel between heart and mind in some unstoppable way. Hopefully another year or two will be allowed for the continuation of the situation? Stop blabbing...  1961. The view from the Terminal. The airlines have gone, just their ghosts frequented this government sponsored desecration..The airfield was now in the hands of AVM Bennett, a windsock declared that all was not over yet..By 1963 it was time for me to taste the magic of flight, and since that moment when Blackbushe Aero Club's Piper Colt, G-ARNL, ascended from 08 with your scribe strapped to it, it was no longer just Blackbushe that had stolen my heart. Oh yuck, this is getting far too Mills and Boon, more photos please..  Photographing the airfield from a new perspective became a new interest..seen from Auster G-APKL looking west to east, 1963. The airfield south of the A30 already excavated. The anti-airfield local forces had started destruction of the runways on their "Blackbushe east". Tragic. The A30 in 1963, we're landing on runway 01 which often caused interest amid the passing motorists... the runway was closed a few years later. The view climbing out on 01, the US Navy hangar watches in silence.. Finals in 1963 to today's main runway, magnetically known as 08 then. Shows the extent of "Blackbushe south", on the 'other side of the road'. This may be Black Friday, that was bleak winter 1962-63...No hangars, no shelter, hell descended for the freak bleak weeks, we ran up the engines regularly to keep the oil slightly viscous! Prop swinging was dicey..ICEY!
 Black moods at Blackbushe as 'they' continued to destroy the east end of the airfield; the apron's final days, a terrible scene from both the air and on the ground. "They" couldn't get it all, but if not for Don Bennett's intervention Blackbushe would by now be a fully forgotten aviation enterprise, the hyenas of Hampshire were after Blackbushe blood... Disfigurement complete. Blackbushe's crumpled east end lies dead, her runways, taxiways, and apron destroyed...to some a triumph, to others sabotage of a national asset. Wasted resources.. Blackbushe 'east'..gone west. Words fail..
 Why? Terminal.. What's the point?? Half a century ago...the sting's bards still hurt. Lost employment opportunities, lost benefit to the local economy. The council was offered thousands for a slice of the east end of the Terminal and a portion of the land involved.. All rejected, all destroyed, despite being offered a land exchange as well as £££££££'s!!BUT, half a century later things are not so black. Hopes for development revived, details are on the Blackbushe Airport website under "Visions" - perhaps an instrument approach procedure too!  Rays of hope at last? Can't wait another half century..
 This year we celebrated 75 years of Blackbushe's life, the team proved beyond doubt that despite the efforts of others, Blackbushe is alive and well as she looks to a brighter future. Just don't paint it black!!Enjoy Black Friday!! £££ $$$ £££  PB
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Post by PB on Nov 25, 2017 8:07:22 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
25/11/17Yesterday, Black Friday, we took a black look at the cancerous waste land that has spread across parts of Blackbushe Airport, a needless waste incurred at public expense. Today, I won't use the term black sabbath, black Saturday perhaps, for a quick and further look at some of the injustices served upon Blackbushe. Returning momentarily, if I may, to the young teen who had cycled many times to spend peaceful interludes watching with endless fascination a fully functioning Blackbushe Airport, an airport considered to be London's "number two" airport by many...  All shapes and sizes provided endless satisfaction for the air minded visitor to Blackbushe..In May, 1960, all this came to an end. Thousands lost their jobs, some airlines collapsed as a result of the government refusing to support Blackbushe as their bets had been firmly placed on Gatwick, the newly rising second airport for London being built on a notoriously foggy stretch of West Sussex. The speed at which Blackbushe was destroyed was nothing but staggering. The incentive to remove it from the map was tangible. There were options, the government could have been more lenient, but they leaned on the common land story as a prop to support closure. A prop that still suits some to this day. A number of Blackbushe's resident airlines formed a users' association, a club to purchase Blackbushe outright and operate it as an independent airport for London. Funnily enough, the government took a dim view of such enterprise. Imagine the dismay on my face, and the faces of many others when confronted with the sight beneath...  Airwork's technical area reduced to rubble. Standing on the A30's grass verge, a 14 year old with his bike could not stop the tears that freely flowed as he surveyed the death of a friend.. Airwork's complex a few years before armageddon descended.. Gone.. Gone Gone, no more getting near the action..Indeed, a very bleak time, especially for all those whose careers were lost in the process. From that time I was determined to do 'something' if at all possible toward a revived Blackbushe, but obviously a 14 year old with a bike could not do much. Happily, the ensuing years provided a degree of luck and numerous opportunities to get involved from humping rubble in the sixties (1960's that is...) to more ambitious activities many years later.  Sadly the "Common", or Blackbushe 'east' as I call it, still carries the scars of local council funded desecration...55 years later. The FIDO fog dispersal system was removed long ago, but today's "Fido's" leave their footprints in the Blackbushe 'east' squelch - that's not all they leave!
While the govenment placed their bets on Gatwick and sacrificed Blackbushe in the process, Blackbushe had proven to be a mighty usefully placed airfield for those whose bets were more equine in nature. With race courses at Ascot, Kempton Park, Sandown, Epsom, and Goodwood many horses arrived and departed Blackbushe aboard venerable Bristol Freighters or Dakotas.. For horses coming some distance, Blackbushe was - and is - well geographically located for all.  Apart from horses, a load of bulls would sometimes arrive by air, but their duties probably did not involve much racing... No connection with bulls, but a reminder that Blackbushe is the only airport on the planet to have witnessed a serving Prime Minister arrive on a Vulcan V Bomber...Sir Anthony Eden. 6th September, 1955Finally, another swing past Blackbushe 'east'...  There's a lot of dead wood lying around.. Fires on Yateley Common are a concern to wildlife, and others..  The mystical Vigo Lane boundary brings the Common's scrub rather close to the Airport's rightful residents..PB
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Post by PB on Nov 26, 2017 7:52:01 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
26/11/17Despite the intent of government and locally fuelled bureaucracy, Blackbushe has not only 'flown on' for 57 years, she has also hosted a number of air events.... The east end of the airfield may have been reduced to rubble courtesy of alien forces, but...  The Red Arrows 'salute' the whole of Blackbushe during a sixties air show with their Folland Gnats!  Yateley Council's badly spelled sign ironically banned the removal of soil, and gravel having dug the place up themselves, didn't mention low fly pasts.. The A30 has always been a part of Blackbushe..seen here in the 80's, the 2 mile ruler straight road reminds of the US military's plan in the 50's to take over Blackbushe and rebuild as a strategic bomber base, complete with two new runways. 10,000 ft and a shorter one of 7,000 ft.. You will have noticed it didn't happen. Drag racing weekend in the sixties.. The above shows Blackbushe at the conclusion of one of the high decibel drag race weekends. Returning from France where some of us had escaped from the airfield's weekend closure the runways were far from cleared as they were scheduled to be by Sunday evening. We diverted to Lasham where en route our engine completely lost the will to live overhead Odiham village. Not the best prospects to end a great weekend, but application of carb heat restored service at the front end in a suitably timely fashion - one of those interesting moments, but remarkable how fast carb ice can strike.  Last one today, snapped from a VC10 on New Year's Eve, 1971. Farnborough below, Blackbushe to the right, the main line to Waterloo intersects the scene..positioning to Rome for the evening courtesy of BOAC. Looking at today's OAT, think a spot of flight sim at home is called for.. See you on the ground! PB
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Post by PB on Nov 27, 2017 7:34:08 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
27/11/17Over the years since 1960 and the government's blunt axe crunching Blackbushe into a pulp unusual sights have now and again presented themselves. For example...  Yesterday we had the Red Arrows over Blackbushe "east", or Yateley Common as it's become known..Here are the RAF's Red Pelicans arriving over the same bit of land. A retired Navy Sea Hawk slipped by on the A30 without stopping, caught on camera by the time he got to Blackwater a couple of miles down the road..1960 something? "Perhaps slightly earlier on the round-out next time, Hoskins?"The late Maurice Robinson (left) whose company rebuilt an aged Percival Proctor for the movie business. Rex Coates assists. The metamorphosis had begun..   When is a Proctor not a Proctor?? When it's a Stuka..Long ago, back in the sixties, I recall the "Proctuka" never flew although that had been the ambition. The film in question was "The Battle of Britain" where the Blackbushe Proctukas (there were two) stood in for the Luftwaffe JU-87 of which there were few to be found..  An interesting sight, from which ever angle you choose to view it..The JAP power plant attached to Aeronca's aerodynmic marvel, the Aeronca 100. A recent "Photo of the Day" accounted briefly the fun of flying just behind this power plant, a device that produced 45hp on a good day. Warm air rising from Blackbushe's surrounding forests provided an enhancement to our initial climb out where circuit height was a reasonable objective.. One particular departure from runway 01 comes to mind, (runway now closed, north to south direction, used to cross the A30 in WW2)it necessarily involved going over/above the A30 initially, no doubt the exchanged glances between aeroplane and passing motorists had a similar degree of fascination as they slipped beneath the valve clattering tones of our jolly JAP. Quite sure that few had seen an airborne (?) Aeronca from such close quarters, no doubt we rarely saw Morris Minors from such an angle either.. As I said, the decades of devotion to Blackbushe have yielded a few interesting sights. Stay tuned.. PB
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Post by PB on Nov 28, 2017 8:34:20 GMT
Photo of the Day"
28/11/17Photo of the Day recently ended with a quiz, a quiz that in true Agatha Christie style offered a body in a field - the challenge being to identify the hideous corpse. As expected, it was too tough, no entries have yet been received. Sadly, the competition is now closed, so we can reveal all...  Turns out there was life there after all, the body in the grass being that of POTD's future Editorial Staff relaxing in the company of Three Counties Aero Club's fleet during a busy day in the late sixties..days when there was no such thing as the "net", the thing you used when fishing, or the "web" was a thing that caught flies, and the prospect of a 'mobile phone' such as we have today would have defied the imagination. The nearest to a phone from home was the smelly red box with a clunky black phone where pressing buttons "A" and "B" was required to lose your money or perhaps get a connection. How things change. Light aircraft were changing as the fleet photo testifies. All metal air frames were becoming the norm, avionics that helped you get lost scientifically were to be found, flat four engines that rotated the 'other way' to our beloved DH engines, while the high wing vv low wing debate continued, and more corridors in the sky appeared over our fair isle making it ever easier for wing tips to clank against those invisible fences. The days with Three Counties Aero Club were probably some of the best I can recall. Under CFI Derek Johnson and his wife Elsie, the 'temporary' premises that now house the Bushe Cafe and Blackbushe Aviation were erected for Three Counties, it becoming one of the first stand alone structures of which there are now a number in the Terminal vicinity.. Great days, lots of flying, fantastic social life, parties every Friday backed by sixties music ("I got you Babe"...Sonny & Cher...), made even jollier when the Blackbushe resident parachute club joined in!! Another era embossed on your scribes Blackbushe based memories...  Our Prentice, G-AOPL "Pretty Louise". To me she was a single engined Lancaster, spent many weekend selling pleasure flight tickets and doing the necessary boarding of and strapping down of our clients..Dave Lowe was our Commercial Pilot, flew Freighters for his other job. Another Three Counties treasure, the Rapide, para dropper and fun machine. Could not see the point of jumping out of a servicable aeroplane, especially one of these..enjoyed watching them disappear out the door while enjoying the flight. Respect!! Club outing. The Austers, G-ARGB and G-ARKC, SNB was a visitor from the Lasham tug fleet, the lovely rugged Auster 6's. I used to wash them at the weekend in exchange for free flying lessons, made a change from school lessons during the week... white canvas is not the easiest to clean where engine 'produce' has been involved. 'GB racing a dragster on the taxiway... Not TC by any chance??? Strictly formation practise, the Three Counties formation team under going a little evening 'polish-up' ready for the display season.. The Club Comanche 250. G-ARIN, en route to RNAS Culdrose, 1966...  There's a story behind those concrete posts. RIN poses in glorious colour, Blackbushe 'south' across the A30 still to become overgrown... "The body" in the top photo heading for Blackbushe in a Tiger from the Isle of Wight. My photo of the Three Counties Terrier, G-ARXL, from which the above Tiger Moth photo had been taken - both over Portsmouth. One of the gang, PXP proved a good cross Channel machine.. We manned a Three Counties exhibit at an event on Wisley aerodrome long ago. Details vague now, but recall Dick Emery pranging his Tiger Moth during the day.. Ooops. We all can have trouble with the wind... The best 'til last, the Chipmunk!On a Sunday evening after a busy day at Three Counties, Derek Johnson and I would leap aboard old 'XL and head out west to 7,000ft. Derek being an accomplished aerobatic pilot would proceed to turn the world inside out, upside down and round about for the most wonderful way to pass Sunday evening. No need to go to chuch, these were truly religious experiences. There is something so special as dead moths, bits of peoples shoes, the occasional passing biro, and other assorted items all share the joy of negative G as they float around your head in just the way things float around on the ISS, but perhaps for not such long periods of time.. I will always be grateful to Blackbushe for these and the many other life experiences I've been so fortunate to enjoy over the past umpteen decades. Still time for more, and perhaps at last enjoying the long hoped for "better Blackbushe" emerging over the next couple of years... Watch this space. PB
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