Jump to content
 

Please use M,M&M only for topics that do not fit within other forum areas. All topics posted here await admin team approval to ensure they don't belong elsewhere.

The Night Mail


Recommended Posts

I went to cadet camp at Raf Newton it was Rare because it had a grass airstrip. It was still Hq air cadets and at the time was the Raf police school. They took us to the Black museum there was allsorts we were shown from investigation into The Great Escapees murders which was not as shown in the film one was carried out on what is now the runway at Ramstein AFB. To transvestite that had been arrested in Singapore.

We did a night ex at Syerston.  I returned there for glider training a couple of years later on Grob vigilant gliders.

 

Passing Raf Wittering was 96 miles from home on the A1 before the roundabouts were removed between Blyth and Black Cat

  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

John - I bet it was the same bend - after the Muston Gap there's a left hander that gets tighter until it's about 90 degrees - pouring rain on a Saturday morning in a maroon Morris 1100 I went in too fast and when I got to the 90, I lost it, hit the grass verge and slowly rolled over in the ditch. Most of the damage was done by the recovery crew from the Manthorpe Road garage back in Grantham as they put chains around the car and rolled it back onto its wheels - by then the four doors had been crushed and the whole car was half the height it was before.

  • Friendly/supportive 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The rain has arrived and thunder can be heard in the far distance. Strangely enough the police helicopter is buzzing around, that must be a fun ride when the thunder and lightening starts.

  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Sounds familiar, Mike.  The Vogue was rear wheel drive and I lost the back end as the bend tightened.  Spun through best part of 720 degrees without hitting anything, although I think the heart didn’t slow down for about a week!

 

John

 

  • Like 4
  • Friendly/supportive 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Back in 1986/7 the Air Experience Flight at RAF Newton was short of pilots so several,of us from operational stations (I was stationed at Coningsby) would go on the odd weekend to help out flying the Chipmunks. When I went there, Jill would often drop me off then go shopping in Nottingham for a few hours before picking me up and we'd go to the Muston Gap for something to eat and drink on the way home. I know the bend referred to by Mike and John and can vouch for the fact that it is a trap for the unwary, particularly in the rain, and although I never got caught out there were more than a few who did.

 

Dave

  • Like 11
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

There are two 'bends like that' on Fraggle Rock, took me years to learn to enter them more slowly!  Conversely, there is a bend on the TT course that looks tight but is just a kink on entry then opens to a fast left - where us locals leave the visitors who think they're fast in the dust, come TT week.... ;)

  • Like 10
  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Ah, TT week. When I was a nipper Mum, Dad, Mum's parents and I would go to Fraggle Rock every TT week and every GP week, staying in Douglas at the same hotel as the Dunlop and Ferodo race support teams so we could get into the pits with them during practice sessions. My Grandad knew the owner of the Creg-ny-Baa hotel so we could often get seats on the balcony there to watch the races and it was from there that I saw Bob McIntyre during his record breaking first 100 mph lap in 1957. He'd started behind John Surtees but after a couple of laps had caught him up and as they approached Creg-ny- Baa was right behind him. Surtees obviously realised that Mac was on the way to the record and just before the bend pulled over and waved him through; a sportsmanlike gesture that got him a standing ovation from the spectators.

 

Dave

  • Like 14
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Ah, TT week. When I was a nipper Mum, Dad, Mum's parents and I would go to Fraggle Rock every TT week and every GP week, staying in Douglas at the same hotel as the Dunlop and Ferodo race support teams so we could get into the pits with them during practice sessions. My Grandad knew the owner of the Creg-ny-Baa hotel so we could often get seats on the balcony there to watch the races and it was from there that I saw Bob McIntyre during his record breaking first 100 mph lap in 1957. He'd started behind John Surtees but after a couple of laps had caught him up and as they approached Creg-ny- Baa was right behind him. Surtees obviously realised that Mac was on the way to the record and just before the bend pulled over and waved him through; a sportsmanlike gesture that got him a standing ovation from the spectators.

 

Dave

 

So Mr Hunt,the Doctor said, you're saying that it was your maternal Grandfather who got you addicted to speed are you? That's very interesting and we will be definitely something that we will be exploring in our next session but now your time is up. The Good Doctor gets up from his chair and waves to Mr Hunt to rise from the psychoanalysist's couch where he has been for the past hour. Now Mr Hunt, says the Doctor I would like to see you again next week please. Mr Hunt goes out the door thinking about why he was seeing the doctor after all there's not many people who can claim to have driven round the isle of man during  TT week in a C5 are there and none of those bikes hit him did they.

  • Funny 12
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Them's funny people on that Fraggle Rock...

 

Creg-ny-Baa

Creg-ny-Baa (rock of the cow) [kreg no bæ:] is situated between the 35th Milestone and 36th Milestone on the primary A18 road and the road junction with the secondary B12 `Creg-ny-Baa Back-Road` in the parish of Onchan in the Isle of Man. The area is dominated by the Keppel Hotel or Creg-ny-Baa Public House. 

  • Informative/Useful 9
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just had a call from Oscar at Microsoft about my computer.  "Is it switched on?"  "Yes, and I also have my Acme Thunderer beside me?"  "What's that?"  "Put the phone down or you will find out!"  He didn't; I blew.  Bill

  • Like 1
  • Round of applause 4
  • Funny 14
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
11 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Just had a call from Oscar at Microsoft about my computer.  "Is it switched on?"  "Yes, and I also have my Acme Thunderer beside me?"  "What's that?"  "Put the phone down or you will find out!"  He didn't; I blew.  Bill

I like your style Bill.  

 

Anyway if any of you have seen my layout thread.  I have now gently captured 3 fledgling  Black Redstarts in the shed and placed them outside on the windowsill below their nest  entrance. The parents now seem to be calli g for them outside.  Gently captured with an old kitchen seive and a pool net.

 

Jamie

  • Like 13
  • Friendly/supportive 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Most of my and my Dads service in the RAF has Gone..

Aden,  handed over to locals who are blowing each other up,

Ballykelly, Army barracks

Colerne , Army

Driffield , abandoned,

Neatishead, reduced in status from an RAF  station to a Remote Radar Head  just 25 people instead of 600, part of it is the RAF radar Museum

Wittering  still open!!!

Benbecula reduced in status from an RAF  station to a Remote Radar Head  just 25 people from 100

Staxton Wold reduced in status from an RAF  station of 600 people to a Remote Radar Head  just 50 people.

Buchan reduced in status from an RAF  station to a Remote Radar Head  just 50 people from 600, the officers mess is now a hotel.

West Drayton now a housing estate 

Locking  now a  housing estate

Swinderby now a housing estate

Scampton mostly abandoned just a few buildings in use, but probably not for much longer

Uxbridge a tiny part still in use, mostly housing estate

Akrotiri still open!!

Boulmer my last station it's bigger!!! mostly because the scopey training school moved up from West Drayton 

 

 

 

  • Like 7
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Like Q most of the RAF stations I've spent time at are no more:

South Cerney - basic training - now I think an army camp.

Leeming - basic flying training - closed

Valley - advanced flying training and later air to air missile test unit - still open.

Chivenor - Hunter Operational Conversion Unit - now Royal Marines I think.

Tengah (Singapore) - now Singaporean Air Force.

Coningsby - lots of times on Phantom OCU, Squadron, Tornado F3 units various - still open

Coltishall - Lightning OCU - closed

Bruggen (Germany) strike attack Phantoms - closed

Wildenrath (Germany) air defence Phantoms - now a mixture of national park and Siemens test track

Brawdy - Hawk tactical weapons unit - closed

Akrotiri (Cyprus) - armament practice camps - still open

 

That's not including RAF stations I've been to on detachments such as Kinloss, Lossiemouth, Leuchars, Wittering, Cottesmore, St. Mawgan etc. , most of which are also now closed.

 

Other places I've worked at with the Americans and Italians and/or been to on detachmentius in all sorts of countries were not RAF stations so don't count.

 

A bit depressing really when I come to think of it.

 

Dave

  • Informative/Useful 7
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
  • Friendly/supportive 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

South Cerney is now the Joint Air Mounting Centre, which I presume is something to do with air trooping in bulk and it's sole purpose it to probably keep large numbers of Pongos out of RAF Brize Norton until the last possible moment.

 

Brawdy became the home of 14 Signal Regt when they returned from BAOR.

 

Our local barracks at Donnington where I was once the Bn Adjt is going to be sold off in the next few years.  The married quarters have either been sold off or are overflow housing for other military units in Shropshire and the West Midlands.

 

With the exception of the Vehicle Depot at Ashchurch, all the other Logistic units I've served with have gone, units disbanded and the sites sold off or returned to the original owners.

  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I forgot Coltishall where I lived for a while, the airfield is solar panels, the hangers an industrial estate. The single accommodation a prison, the married quarters sold off.

Funny how what is perfectly acceptable as accommodation for servicemen and families has to be done up for sale or even for a prison as it's not good enough..

  • Like 3
  • Agree 5
  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Brawdy - Hawk tactical weapons unit - closed

 

You didn't get to know a chap called "Scruph" Oliver (think he was in the SAR squadron) while you were there?  I went to school with his daughter; he once arrived at the school sports day...... in a Sea King.

  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I knew a Sea King pilot by the name of Oliver.  He went on to fly the Police helicopter based at Cosford.  However, I'm pretty sure he was ex RN, as he's been in charge of a squadron at Yeovilton before he retired.

  • Informative/Useful 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I did know a chap called Scruff Oliver but he was a Lightning and F4 pilot in the 70s so unless he changed over to rotary wing later on it can't be the same bloke. When was the one you knew at Brawdy?

 

The Scruff Oliver I knew was famous for the time he was flying a Lightning and working with one of the radar stations that Q kept operational. The controller was a female and when she said, "Be advised Firebird two you are entering my dark area, " replied, "Don't worry dear, I'll be gentle."

 

Dave   

  • Like 1
  • Funny 11
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
3 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

I was expecting to find Cranwell on that list . . . . ?

 

You are right that I should have added Sleaford Tech (as it is disparagingly known in the RAF) although the only time I darkened Cranwell's doors was three years before I retired when I did a course there on the little Tutor trainer that I instructed on at the University Air Squadron at Cosford (which I also missed off - old age strikes I think....). When I joined in 1966 there were two ways of entering as an aircrew officer; one was to do a three year course at Cranwell , during which you would do basic flying training, that got you what was called a General List commission to age 55 and supposedly gave you a better chance of getting promotion to  the higher ranks; the other was called Direct Entry that started with six months at South Cerney then a move to a basic flying training station (Leeming, Syerston or Acklington) for about a year, which gave a Supplementary List commission for either eight or twelve years with a possibility of extending to age 38. The latter, of course, meant that you got on to advanced flying training about eighteen months earlier than a Cranwellian. I started out with a Cranwell cadetship but then had a medical problem before actually joining and by the time it was resolved I'd missed the entry so was offered either a twelve month wait for the next entry or a DE starting the following week - I took the latter then after my first tour applied for, and got, transfer to the General List following my boss's recommendation. Hence, I effectively gained eighteen months of operational flying due to my medical issue.

 

Dave    

  • Like 14
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I have decided that once all the various domestic tasking has been completed, I am going to revisit 'Pantmawr Sidings'. Originally an entry into the GoG small Layout competition, I have decided to take the track off the existing baseboards, and make some new, wider boards using the same foamboard core and thin ply sides.  The track was laid on a 3 mm ply sub base, so lifting it and the ballast where applied will not be too difficult.

 

Freed from the 20 sq ft constraint of the original competition rules, it will allow me to add a further scenic board and effectively create the Rhech Capel style layout, the concept I floated some time earlier on these pages.

 

However, the new design must allow me to fit the complete layout into the back of the car, which was another reason for the original PS design.

 

I will have to build another curved turnout on the new board, but I have probably got enough  bull head rail components lying around in the track box to achieve this.

  • Like 7
  • Friendly/supportive 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...