Match Day Thread versus Forest Green Rovers

The Vulcan was always a favourite: the ground shook when it took off and at certain speeds and attitudes it made that eerie howl:

Best of all was of course the English Electric Lightning. There's an arcane measure: Height Over Boundary Fence which is what it sounds: how high a aircraft taking off is when it crosses the airfield boundary fence. It's usually used in safety and noise abatement considerations but as the Lightning could stand on its tail and climb vertically at supersonic speed, it holds the record for altitude achieved without actually leaving the airfield which is I think between 30 and 40 thousand feet.

I saw a history documentary recently in which Lightning pilots were interviewed. One told the story of a Saudi Arabian test pilot who came to assess the aircraft for the Saudi air force. He was told NOT to use full power on take-off as firstly, on rotation, the exhaust would burn the tarmac and secondly, the aircraft might "get away from him a bit". Obviously he took as an insult to his virility and he did use full power on take-off. He established a new record of his own as he was at 35,000 feet before he managed to retract the undercarriage.

 

Whilst out in Aden my job was doing stats and drawing charts to show the efficiency of the Maintainance Unit in getting out stock orders within there time limit......the most important of these were VoG....which meant V-Bomber- on -Ground awaiting parts.....over Aden and the whole of the Arabian Peninsula 24/7 a V-bomber was always on patrol in the air....so a grounded V-Bomber was the highest priority....parts had to be out of the Maintainance Unit within 2hrs of receiving the order......so staff were on stand-by 24/7 in case needed.

My charts would show the efficency of parts being supplied within their time limit....I had to have collated the orders of the previous day and show them on charts by 10am so that the CO would be able to see them on his morning rounds......So the VoG chart was the most important one.

 

You lost out. As far as I can tell, all my Dad did was play various sports.

 

So V-bombers is Aden would have been doing .. what? Support for UK forces with conventional weapons or nuclear deterrence from Russia's southern flank?

 

1961/62.....not sure....but it could have been nuclear deterrent.....they where based at RAF Khormakser.....we where the other end of the colony at RAF Steamer Point....at 21/22 It didn't cross my mind.....sport or on the beach 12 months of the year was more important.

 

I used to live in Pershore and there used to be a air show at a very old airfield nearby called throckmorton and they had The Vulcan fly over possibly 2014 or 2015.A most amazing sight and sound.

 

We used to play league cricket out there....Navy, Army, RAF & Civil Service.....two leagues each of 12 teams,

The pitches were volcanic ash with either coconut matting or rubber linked matting bowling strips....I got short listed to represent Aden in a tour of East Africa.....but as the tour neared the officers found their cricket whites and all seemed to get selected ahead of the peasants.

 

Who turned this thread into an episode of Dad's Army? As my Ole Cox'n used to say "I spent more time on one wave than you lot have spent serving". Or was it "It Ain't Half Hot Mum"...........

 

Just to keep sensible up to speed on the Brabazon....we'll finish off with a few facts.

The Brabazon was an..... eight engined 2,360 HP, 18 cylinder two row, air cooled sleeve valved Bristol Centaurus 57 piston radials.

Pilot...Arthur 'Bill' Pegg and his nine test crew interviewed after how the huge machine handled in the air... he laconically replied......"We just fly the cockpit and the rest of it trails along behind".

It was never going to be commercially usable.

The only bigger aircraft of that era was the.....Hughes Hercules.....better known as the "Spruce Goose" and that was a Flying Boat.

 

Not a lot out there about RAF Pershore.

QinetiQ Pershore is a Business Park and Trials Centre operated by QinetiQ. The site is located near the village of Throckmorton, Worcestershire, England.

History[edit]
The site was created during 1933/4 for use by the Royal Air Force as a training station under the name of RAF Pershore.

The following units were posted here at some point:

• No. 1 Aircraft Preparation Unit RAF[1]
• No. 1 Ferry Unit RAF[1]
• No. 10 (Advanced) Flying Training School RAF[1]
• No. 23 Operational Training Unit RAF[1] with Vickers Wellingtons.
• No. 50 Gliding School RAF[1]
• No. 1516 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF[1]
• No. 1681 (Bomber) Defence Training Flight RAF[1]
• Radar Research Flying Unit RAF (RRFU).[1] - previously at RAF Defford

The RAF station closed down during 1978.

Current use[edit]
The site is currently a Business Park and Trials Centre.[2]

It has occasionally been opened as an aerodrome, hosting an airshow. The last such event was scheduled for 11 June 2016.[3]

The last comment isn't right.. there was an airshow last year.

https://throckmortonairshow.co.uk/

 

When I was growing up, RAF St Mawgan was the base for a think 3 squadrons of Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft, 2 operational squadrons and a training squadron. The Shackleton was the grandchild of the Lancaster bomber. It had 4 of the Rolls Royce Griffon engines that powered later models of the Spitfire but turning contra-rotating propellors. Since we were more or less on the glidepath for St Mawgan's north-easterly runway, we heard plenty of it, 24 hours a day, but we'll never hear it again as the last airworthy Shackleton, belonging to the South African Air Force, crashed on it's way to the UK for an air show in 1994.

What we didn't know at the time was that a stock of American nuclear depth charges was kept at St Mawgan so presumably some of the aircraft bumbling over our rooves were carrying nuclear weapons. Less threateningly, the aircraft took part in search & rescue operations, acting as a mobile control centre for lifeboats, helicopters & so on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Shackleton

It was so heavily loaded for long missions far out in the Atlantic tracking Russian submarines that some were also fitted with small jet engines just to get the things off the ground. My uncle worked as a civilian contractor maintaining Shackletons. He told the story that when the aircraft was coming to (or more likely had gone beyond) the end of its working life, they left one on lifting frames overnight during undercarriage tests only to find it on the floor in the morning. The wings had come off at the roots.

Later the Shacks were replaced by rather less characterful Nimrod, itself a derivative of the Comet airliner. The Nimrod cane to an ignominious end when a project to develop a new MR4 version was cancelled in 2010, If I say it had originally been intended to come into service in 2003 and was £0.8 billion over budget, you can tell it was a pretty standard MOD cock-up.

St Mawgan has a 9,000 foot runway and it acted as a master divertor airfield for Heathrow and other large airports to allow incoming trans-Atlantic flights to land in emergencies. It's now Cornwall's only civilian airport - Newquay Airport - and the base for the Virgin Orbit horizontal satellite launch project, which is now on hold following the failure of the first launch in January this year, when the rocket failed to ignite and fell into the Atlantic..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_St_Mawgan

 

Blimey notDistant are you trying to give sensible a touch of blood pressure.....with all that info.

I suggest we swap over to the otherstuff link.

Who would have thought the FGR match thread would have been so long.

 

Ah well, with the family connections, it's a something I remember fondly.

 

Right that's it you are both banned for a week. This thread is locked. Well it would be if I knew what I was doing so just pretend it is.

 

Next week, Paint I Have Watched Dry.

 

I would prefer betting on rain drops running down the window.....I don't paint anything anymore.