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Post by PB on Oct 6, 2024 7:06:35 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
06/10/23A perfect day yesterday for Spitfires and flying. Unfortunately a day where I was unable to spend time at Blackbushe, so I've borrowed some photos from yesterday....jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) Thanks to Mike Biddulph, Blackbushe yesterday caught at her environmental best surrounded by forest and, of course, the British Car Auctions mass of motors looking for new owners...jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) The heart of Blackbushe beating nicely! .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) The Blackbushe Heritage Trust 'tech team' were hard at work making great progress with the Viking restoration too!! ..and of course, the Spitfire returned!! A great day to be at Blackbushe and know what a great little airport she is!
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 7, 2024 11:19:13 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
07/10/24"POTD" somewhat hangar bound today due work on the premises. However...
Memories go back to 6th October 1962 when the airfield known as Blackbushe held an air display to celebrate the re-opening of this famed flying site. Her pages in the history books had already been written covering wartime action that was varied and decisive, moving onto to the advent of post-war commercial aviation and Blackbushe eventually becoming the second airport to London.
Deep in the vaults my precious official programme for the day rests, but the vaults are significantly over-subscribed and as of this moment the document would delay today's "POTD" even more if I were to go delving.
To recap what has been said before during the life of "POTD" on that October day in 1962.. The day started grey and very calm, the days before had seen significant activity with grass and newly developing scrub mowed across the whole airfield. Many hours of work had been completed in repairing the runway side drains that had bee filled with rubble and their covers destroyed by the government's destruction gang, a marquee's appearance confirming the airfield had something planned. Being at school I was limited in the amount of time I could devote to helping with the event preparation, but with such an exciting day in the offing I would have given as much time as I could. The bike ride's seven mile sortie to the airfield was largely uphill but going home was less demanding!
The day of the Re-opening Air Display was a good one for flying (Blackbushe has invariably has good weather for all our events since 1962), vis was good, wind very calm, it was a very still October day. Not much sunshine through the flat grey overhead that in itself was fairly high, possibly 7000ft, but it was along time ago! I know that leaving home on that morning I was gripped with excitement and couldn't wait to get back on the airfield very early. Sadly many of the small but great team behind the event have left us, I wish they could have seen how Blackbushe has not only survived but truly blossomed despite the contentions that have prevented the development necessary for an airfield that is able to sustain itself in the way its owners would perhaps have wished.
The great thing is that sixty-two years after that day in October, 1962, Blackbushe has survived and achieved high standing in the field of General Aviation and currently her prospects are looking perhaps better than they have at anytime since that October day...
My most outstanding memory of that October day is standing out in the mid airfield position by around 10.30-11.00. The airfield was quiet, no aircraft to speak of, but then it started to happen. The grey sky and good visibility yielded and gave way to what looked like small black dots in the distance. Lots of them, and seemingly coming from all directions. The team of aircraft marshallers formed thanks to the 'Blackbushe Aviation Group' and clad in white overalls would soon be busy! The distant black dots grew ever larger and as if by a miracle aircraft were streaming in to land and the silent Airport was once gain feeling the joy of Dunlops arriving on her long and hungry runway.
The afternoon flying display included historic types, modern types, and the sound of military jets from the United States Air Force...
When the day ended so did the joy of seeing Blackbushe so liberally covered in aircraft. The following day the grass was still nicely cut but a nagging ache was left seeing the airfield once again bereft of flying machines. Hope was strong for the future, but at that point nobody could have forecast that sixty-two years later the future of Blackbushe had not been cemented. Nonetheless, as any visitor to Blackbushe today will see, the airfield is very busy, is host to many resident aircraft, flying schools, the Blackbushe Heritage Trust's project restoring a Viking, and the fabulous Pathfinder Cafe... If AVM "Pathfinder" Bennett had not had the wisdom to purchase much of the Airport life might have been very different for many of us...and today's operational acres would have disappeared under the scrub that has taken over so much of the Airport's disused areas.
 .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) .jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) Above, just some of the images from my camera captured on an October day in 1962. An unforgettable day!
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 8, 2024 8:50:59 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
08/10/24Major work being carried out on the roof - and what does it do? Yep, rain and more rain...  For today, just one reach for old memories, Eagle's DC-6 G-APOM. The Control Tower on the right hand side, an RAF Whirlwind helicopter probably operating the Farnborough Air Show shuttle - it was Farnborough Week - some 'Farnborough' visitors to the left of the Tower, and to the far left the usual array of US Navy traffic adjacent to the Navy's huge hangar..That's it...
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 9, 2024 6:54:58 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
09/10/24Best part of an inch of rain over the last 24 hours, can't be much fun for grass aerodromes, happily Blackbushe has very solid runways and a main runway that as of this autumn boasts the most advanced and all new lighting system. Runway 25 ready for action!All we need now is the construction of hangars to protect precious aeroplanes from the elements. Who knows, the six decades of hope may soon have their wishes granted?
Perhaps you might care to stroll through the latest GAAC 'Aerodromes Update' to get the latest picture on the hopes or plights of our British airfields...
gaac.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AERODROMES-UPDATE-Q2-2024-1.pdf A wet day on Blackbushe 'south' way back in the 1950s.  Life goes on! Blackbushe on the other side of the A30, some 17 months ago... History reborn! The Blackbushe Heritage Trust's Viking arrives in Airfix kit style..PB
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Post by PB on Oct 10, 2024 6:26:39 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
10/10/24More rain, but spare a thought for the thousands caught up in the destruction being rained down on Florida at this very moment...our storm is brewing, the new government's budget at the end of the month. Need to raise £25 billion. An interesting gauge as to how big one billion is comes from a time measure. One million seconds would provide 11 days, a billion seconds would last 32 years.
 A distant memory, Farnborough Week during the Doug Arnold era, great to see passenger carrying flights into Blackbushe.. British Aerospace Dove with a Doug Arnold Dakota in the background. Charter flights from the Netherlands.. A fleet of business flights from the Netherlands.. Piston twins were so much in vogue back then. Some came minus propellers and pistons!Farnborough Weeks in the seventies and eighties were incredible weeks at Blackbushe, gave the impression of how things might be if the Airport had not bogged down by bureaucracy for so many years.
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 11, 2024 6:44:16 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
11/10/24Scraped in at +1C this morning, ice covered windscreen, mother nature seems to be on track with her seasonal temperature controls, a reminder that summer's brief visit is all but over. Did you see the aurora last night? I read that it was visible from Yateley...
Another fun day at "POTD" HQ, back to hospital for more 'research' up the nose that got smashed back in February, things are not what they used to be! Confirmed by the mirror..
Now, I have been lucky enough to have been given a bunch of photos to scan and include in our daily gathering... Photos originated from Martin Bradley, all are focused on Blackbushe's "Warbirds of Great Britain" operation in the seventies when Doug Arnold owned the Airport and formed the warbird operation in hopes of establishing a permanent museum. With his dedicated team Arnold produced a number of Spitfires, immaculate Spitfires, from old airframes he had acquired. This was during the happy time before British Car Auctions purchased the entire Airport from Doug and subsequently sold it to the current owners MINUS the north-west area that has become a vast park for used motors. Blackbushe continued to shrink as an airfield! Anyway, these photos give a reminder of the amazing warbird operation housed in new and purpose built hangars. Hangars that were subsequently not included when BCA decided to sell most the airfield, the company had lost its aviation drive..
 It was not always flying examples from the past that appeared at Blackbushe in the Arnold era... This Meteor, having been worked on a repainted at Blackbushe, confirmed it was not only prop driven warbirds that might be seen at Blackbushe.. The business end, cockpits have changed so much in the quest for low drag, but there's something about those jets from the fifties that will forever remind of those courageous days as Great Britain produced an array of new military jets, perhaps too many? Avro, de Havilland, English Electric, Hawker, Gloster, Saunders-Roe, Vickers Supermarine. I look forward to tomorrow and hopefully offering a few more images from Blackbushe's extraordinary past...
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 11, 2024 6:45:40 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
11/10/24Scraped in at +1C this morning, ice covered windscreen, mother nature seems to be on track with her seasonal temperature controls, a reminder that summer's brief visit is all but over. Did you see the aurora last night? I read that it was visible from Yateley...
Another fun day at "POTD" HQ, back to hospital for more 'research' up the nose that got smashed back in February, things are not what they used to be! Confirmed by the mirror..
Now, I have been lucky enough to have been given a bunch of photos to scan and include in our daily gathering... Photos originated from Martin Bradley, all are focused on Blackbushe's "Warbirds of Great Britain" operation in the seventies when Doug Arnold owned the Airport and formed the warbird operation in hopes of establishing a permanent museum. With his dedicated team Arnold produced a number of Spitfires, immaculate Spitfires, from old airframes he had acquired. This was during the happy time before British Car Auctions purchased the entire Airport from Doug and subsequently sold it to the current owners MINUS the north-west area that has become a vast park for used motors. Blackbushe continued to shrink as an airfield! Anyway, these photos give a reminder of the amazing warbird operation housed in new and purpose built hangars. Hangars that were subsequently not included when BCA decided to sell most the airfield, the company had lost its aviation drive..
It was not always flying examples from the past that appeared at Blackbushe in the Arnold era...This Meteor, having been worked on a repainted at Blackbushe, confirmed it was not only prop driven warbirds that might be seen at Blackbushe..The business end, cockpits have changed so much in the quest for low drag, but there's something about those jets from the fifties that will forever remind of those courageous days as Great Britain produced an array of new military jets, perhaps too many? Avro, de Havilland, English Electric, Hawker, Gloster, Saunders-Roe, Vickers Supermarine. I look forward to tomorrow and hopefully offering a few more images from Blackbushe's extraordinary past...
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 12, 2024 6:48:09 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
12/10/24Funny business getting older, one hospital door closes - and another opens! Hopefully the morning grey-cell stretch will continue for a while yet, hunched over the desk-top Scrooge like thinking-up some kind of content for another "POTD".... unlike Scrooge, I don't use a candle - my ghosts are of Blackbushe past wherein so much aviation history has been created, Blackbushe present where the airfield is busy and hopeful of a better future, and the ghost of Blackbushe future - the spectre we have waited so long for, bringing a new Blackbushe with it and creating the airfield that Blackbushe really wants to be and should be... Well, it's not far to Christmas, maybe Dicken's ghosts will be making an appearance, especially the last one?
Busy day here at POTD Towers, best get on with the show..
 A Sea Fury rests in one of the Warbird hangars. This is what it looks like to have aircraft in real permanent hangars at Blackbushe. It's full of used cars now. Warbirds of Great Britain's B-17 arrives from life on the other side of Channel. G-FORT stayed a while before finding new owners. The Flying Fortress's shape is no stranger to Blackbushe, the type was part of the 1977 Blackbushe Air Festival, carried out passenger flights after the war, and they made emergency landings or diversions during WW2 operations. G-FORT was an imposing sight on the Blackbushe apron for quite a while, it was sad to see her go. But that's warbirds for you... The building in the background is the old Aeromart Flying Club premises. Long gone, but the scene of much fun years ago!That's it, it's not raining, have a great weekend - (Yet)!!
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 13, 2024 6:52:58 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
13/10/24You can tell winter's journey is well on its way...Night flying at Blackbushe, Blackbushe Heritage Trust talks - there's one this week on Thursday, 17 October, "The RAF Joint Aircraft Recovery & Transportation Squadron". Venue-Pathfinder Cafe, tickets £10 and proceeds go 100% into the Trust's programme of restoring their Viking airliner... Not only that, yesterday one lined up with a long line of 'fifty shades of grey' ready to receive Covid in one arm and Flu in the other. The nurses usual assurance of just 'a small prick' was doubled, so far no reactions noted, thanks NHS we await next Spring to judge how effective they have been!
13th October recalls the day when the mighty L-1049 Super Constellation rose into the air for the fist time at Lockheed's Burbank facility in 1950.. The type was seen at Blackbushe during weather diversions, crew training, and the United States Navy's regular visits with the sinister looking 'Warning Star'. 55% of the Super Connies built were delivered to the U.S. Navy and Air Force...
 The 'Connies' "Farewell" to Blackbushe when Breitling gave us a couple of fly pasts on their way to the Farnborough Air Show. Four engines that stirred emotions as only aero engines can when coupled with memories of an earlier age..  Ahhhhh... Earlier at Duxford, the Super Connie was a big aeroplane.. A QANTAS Super Connie during a crew training visit to Blackbushe.. Navy days. A mighty "Warning Star" noses up to the huge Navy hangar at Blackbushe. More Blackbushe 'warbirds' tomorrow..
PB
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Post by PB on Oct 14, 2024 6:28:06 GMT
"Photo of the Day"
14/1024Pleasant weekend weather wise, but just half an inch of precipitation captured by my trusty weather station since midnight. October is proving to be a bit of a damp month to date. Looking at the Blackbushe weather cam this morning at 07.00 the runway lights look fantastic despite the heavy rain that continues to descend.Nice weather for ducks or perhaps Sea Furies? This morning some Sea Fury memories from the Arnold era. I can't for the life of me remember the details of this one, the three imported from Germany were two seat versions... Fabulous aeroplane, a real powerful beast.....ad what it's like to have five propeller blades and a hangar to keep then in! A hangar at Blackbushe................jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) Ormond Hayden-Baillie's beautiful Sea Fury was not an unusual sight at BB in the seventies. Some fantastic "fly-pasts" too!!! Another name greatly missed as aviation takes its toll..jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) ZZoooom......jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) One of the Arnold two-seat imports when given the Fleet Air Arm decor. Note how few aeroplanes are parked on the grass.. Not like today..jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) ..and how they looked on arrival from Germany. They were retired target tugs, seemingly without any shell holes in them...See you...
PB
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