While we're in a 'Halton' mood

[Motormouse]

here's some more from flypast forums,

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=33662

a little after my time, (1979) but several of those airframes (JP,Gnat,Hunters and Sea Vixen)
are the same ones I learnt on, I know Nazca Steve will find the reading
interesting.

And some more from airliners.net

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... entry=true

The Spitfire was still there while I was there, 'twas used as the centrepiece
for passing out parades, it got manhandled all the way up to the 'Henderson' side of camp from the airfield, (uphill all the way, for those that don't know Halton) then back down again. A privileged few on the full Appo's course would get to run the engine,while everyone else on airfield detail would be green with envy!

ttfn

Pete

[Trev Clark]

I set fire to one of those JPs, after a battery change!! U/T riggers had replaced the nose compartment cover and chaffed the insulation off the emergency loom. As I closed up the nose, a huge cloud of smoke starts erupting from the battery bay! Instructors races forward (reading the instructions on the extinguisher, as he runs) and deals with it!
Staff guys were a bit miffed as a new loom fit was quite a big job, even on a JP.
Thanks for those links, brings back many memories, specially the NAAFI break cheese and onion wads, eaten in the sunshine watching JPs trundle around the grass.

[Keith Jones]

I'm amazed by some of the aircraft they managed to fly into Halton: Vulcan, Comet, Argosy, etc. as I think I'm right in thinking that the runways a very short?

[Trev Clark]

I think I'm right in thinking that the runways a very short?

Just a grass strip!! The Hotel Califonia of airfields, you can land anytime you want....BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE

[Motormouse]

I'm amazed by some of the aircraft they managed to fly into Halton: Vulcan, Comet, Argosy, etc. as I think I'm right in thinking that the runways a very short?

about 3,700ft was available, if you went from hedge to hedge on 02/20,
(take a look in 'google maps'; Wendover is nearest), and I managed to use most of that first time I landed in the Sedbarge.

Getting 'airborne' with the Aero Club in our spare time (what there was of it we didn't spend in the NAAFI or the many pubs of Wendover) was encouraged, to make us beter engineers', and had been encouraged from the early days
see here --->

http://www.unrealaircraft.com/wings/hac3_meteor.php

ttfn

Pete

[nazca_steve]

here's some more from flypast forums,


I know Nazca Steve will find the reading
interesting.

Pete

Lovely pics, thanks for posting them, very interesting to see some hangar queens lined up like that. It all looks very 'instructional' right down to the cutaways on the Jet Provost. Good repaint material there if anyone wanted it.

No Cranberries though :sad:

[Motormouse]

here's some more from flypast forums,


I know Nazca Steve will find the reading
interesting.

Pete

No Cranberries though :sad:

Not in the New Workshops (where those pics were taken),Canberra's
lived in the airfield hangar; were used for advanced training.

Just to put things into context, after a spell metal bashing in old workshops, we first got let loose on the JP's; then back to more metal bashing; then worked our way around the new Workshops from JP's (again) to Gnats, then Whirlwind helicopters, back to Gnats,then Hunters and finally the Sea Vixen before heading off to airfield section for Canberra's, Gnats, and Argosy, with marshalling practice and 'live' engine work in JP's

ttfn

Pete