Secret new Shropshire Tucano base

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Rumour heard today on the airwaves is that a secret new Tucano base has opened up at Sleap airfield.

[WASALOADIE]

Yes! had a chuckle at that one also today, reminded us of the Dan Air into Langford Lodge back in 88/89

[BEagle]

Back in 1974, a student was flying a GCA into Shawbury in a Valley Gnat. Bloke in the back got exasparated at Bloggs' efforts and with a "Can't you see the airfield, idiot, IHC!" took control and landed.

On roll out, he was surprised to see an unknown type of car chasing him down the runway. "What is that ar$e doing?" he muttered, stopped the jet and opened the canopy.....

"WTF are you doing here?" asked the occupant of the then-secret new type of Ford car. Cortina Mk IV or somesuch.

"WTF are you doing chasing me down the runway. Wait until I get hold of SATCO....." said the QFI

"WTF is a SATCO?" asked the car's driver....

Then the truth dawned....

"This is Shawbury?"

"No it's b£oody not. It's Sleap and we're doing important test work!"

"Aaaaaah. Oh, bug.ger........"

The studes at Valley were about to make a "Welcome to RAF St Mawgan" sign for the tower, but the CI suggested that it wouldn't be a terribly good idea!

[Captain Gadget]

BEags

He did a GCA? (Sorry, PPRuNers, GCA = Ground Controlled Approach: this is an old thing that was also once called a Precision Radar Approach, aka talkdown). And he landed at the wrong airfield? Either I am missing something or some ATC wallah is in urgent need of sacrificing at the next Summer Solstice?

Wow!

Gadget :ok:

PS: We appear to live so close to each other that I am surprised we haven't yet debated the relative merits of the Cogges Link versus Shores Green slip roads thing in Waitrose! Or have we?

[WASALOADIE]

follow the following links for airfield recce:

http://multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?scale=25000&icon=x&lat=%2052.7981&lon=-2.66806&mapsize=big

http://multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?scale=25000&icon=x&lat=%2052.8339&lon=-2.77167&mapsize=big

[6foottanker]

Sounds like some wizz-kid FJ stude doing another low level entry at Sally' Tits,and realising that they're rubbish to let down on (snigger snigger).

"Erm I'm not quite sure why the turning point isn' t there sir....."

[BEagle]

Captain Gadget, I think they were on a diversion and the QFI was letting the student fly until he became impatient, took control and landed. At the wrong aerodrome!

(Cogges Link? Been involved with the whole sorry farce for 21 years now. Glad to see the Local Plan Enquiry Inspector came to the same conclusion I've been advocating for years!)

[brakedwell]

BEagle
This thread has jogged my memory of an incident that happened when I was at 6 FTS Ternhill in 1956. One of the students on our course mistook Shawbury for Ternhill despite the hangars etc being on the wrong side of the airfield. Shortly before he was about to touch down the corporal in the caravan fired a red verey to warn off the Piston Provost. It must have been an excellent shot as the pyrotechnic lodged inside the cowling, causing a spectacular if short lived fire during the overshoot. The student dived at the runway and landed at what he now knew to be Shawbury. A couple of months later he was chopped for illegal dog fighting in full view of the CFI when he and his oppo inadvertedly drifted overhead Ternhill courtesy of a strong north westerly.
Multimap Ternhill http://multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=364000&Y=331000&gride=363667.858294192&gridn=332307.215771021&scale=25000&coordsys=gb&db=freegaz&lang=&mapsize=big

[Spacer]

I think I know the guys responsible.... its an easy mistake to make round those neck of the woods though !;) Is 5Fwd about??!!

[TheOddOne]

...and it works the other way, too.

We run an aerobatic competition at Sleap every year. A few years ago, a newbie took off, for the airborne hold. When called into the box, he went in the wrong direction and did his sequence in the Shawbury overhead. Irate phone call from Shawbury, 'nil point' for the hapless pilot!

Cheers,
The Odd One

ps that was in the days of the Snoopy Bash at Sleap, basically a sit-down dinner, at least half of which was ammunition for the warring factions on different tables. Not allowed any more, we're very sober-sides these days! Still a great venue for the Golding-Barrett trophy meeting, though.

[JNo]

Was airborne on Shawbs Tower at the time, along with prob 20+ other choppers.

"Lema XXX, finals gear down"

"Lema XXX, er, confirm you approaching Shawbury"

"Lema XXX affirm"

"Lema XXX, Shawbury bearing 140 range 6 miles"


Spacer I do know the guys involved yesterday. PM me if you need confirmation!

[XFTroop]

Reminds me of UAS Summer Camp, Bicester early/mid 60's. As one of the senior studes on DH's finest Chippfunbuggies, was selected to demonstrate the extent of our QFI's instructional prowess on a sortie with a Rissi Trapper.
At end of fairly uneventfull trip, friendly "RT" says, " Bloggs, take us back to base and do a Run-in and-Break",.
No problem thought I, and duly did all the right stuff up to the turning finals call. At this point "RT" takes control; " OK Bloggs that was fine, but lets go back to Bicester now and try it there, that was Weston-On -The-Green"!!!!:\ :ooh:

[On_The_Top_Bunk]

Ah memories.

Had to assist in the recovery of a Lightning from Swinderby whilst I was at binbrook.

He was a lucky chap.
Everywhere fogged out and he saw a runway, otherwise it was that well known Lightning airfield RAF Dogger bank.

[Gainesy]

Not forgeting the [Colorado?] Air National Guard RF-4 pair that mistook Horsham St. Faith (Narch Airport) for Colt.

Lead landed, wingman overshot to Colt. On a TransLant so maybe just busting for a pee. Believe he was the Wing Colonel.

[BEagle]

I think it was USAFE who gave a display at Rattlesden rather than Wattisham once.....

Rattlesden certainly received an airfield attack from a FAF Mirage IV during a Wattisham ADEX in the '80s!

[Spacer]

JNo: It won't let me send you a PM! I'm pretty sure the guy's last initial is W, as I had lunch with him on the fateful day, and he did indeed let slip of his "tour" of Shropshire ;)

[Need for Speed!]

Was it not a USAF B-52 that flew all the way from the states to display at Farnborough ’04 and ended up giving a treat to a car boot sale on a disused field about 5 miles away?

I bet that wasn’t the nicest of trips back across ‘the pond’ for the nav!!

NFS

PS I stand to be well corrected if wrong!! :ok:

[Fox3snapshot]

Nope you are correct, don't know my UK airfields but I was at Farnborough on the trade day when it occurred.....and the B52 display wasn't!

I seem to remember the commentators having a field day with it and the UK press likewise.

So how did they get to Baghdad??????

:p

[TheOddOne]

'twas actually Blackbushe, by no means disused! But it is about 5 miles down the road.

TOO

[5 Forward 6 Back]

Well, they did say that "when you roll out, airfield is in your 12 o'clock..." :)

... unfortunately it wasn't quite the right airfield. We did think it was a bit quiet for a families day, and a bit odd that the QDM was about 30 degrees out, but there you go! In our defence, it would have been nice for the controller to maybe mention that "the airfield's in your 12 o'clock; five miles in your 12 o'clock, and don't bother landing at the one immediately in your 12 o'clock."

Still, you live and learn... it was only trip 2 :(

[Spacer]

Hey, 5Fwd.... you got my text then! I hope you got back ok :)

[5 Forward 6 Back]

Thanks for the warning!

Luckily, I still sort of know my way around back here, so didn't wind up landing at Dishforth. Or the A1. Or the middle of York....

[Spacer]

Fear not.... recently I strugled to find England on a trip :( ;)

[ICT_SLB]

Actually have the errant BUFF on video taken from our company's four star restaurant - sorry, trade chalet. (Sometimes it's worth it to take along your ex- Director of Flight Test). Thought he was going to come on round but just did one very distant pass & left....

[young_lad]

Baron, baron, baron. You really aren't doing the Greenback name any favours!!!!
:=

[1.3VStall]

In the '80s I was flying a gliding competetition at Lasham. We were towing the gliders out to the grid one morning when a Blackburn Brown Banana appeared with no warning at not a lot of feet and doing warp snot. After reefing the beast round in a 270 degree turn the crew then disappeared five miles up the road to complete the rest of their practice display at RAF Odiham.

It was very impressive, but it was fortunate that we were not winch launching at the time!

[teeteringhead]

Remember being at Odiham in the early 70s and being dragged out onto Northern dispersal by our exchange RN guy (whose triplet daughters must now be in their 30s!!) to see the "steely" arrival of a 6 ship of Wessi Vs from 845 or 848 .....

..... we think Lasham appreciated that performance also.....;)

[Pontius Navigator]

Given the mauling we give the foreign crews for attacking the wrong airfield I wonder what they write about us?

We've done airfields in France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Greece etc and that was after the war. Seen Hunters scrambling (on the strike camera film) and also RF84s. Did we always hit the right airfield?

[KPax]

Don't know how many Jag's called 'Finals gear down only to be told by the Bruggen controller, 'not at this airfield' back came the reply 'roger overshooting Wildenrath'.

[JNo]

It is a "fairly" common mistake to make over here in Shropshire and not only for airfields either.

A certain (Shrek-like) member of my MEARW course managed to mis-identify RAF Staffs HLS (despite there being a Sea-King refuelling there at the time!) and after overflying it, shot an approach to the Staffordshire Constabulary main car park a few miles away on his FNT. Idiot.

[M609]

It can be hard some times

Back in the seventies (pre-radar here) a flight of Dutch F-5s calles my current SATCO, then young and novice approach controller for a airfield attack at Bardufoss. (Hint: c/s Redskin)

.....some time later when my boss start to wonder why the requested 5 mile call does not happen, he recives a irrate call from Evenes (50nm south) TWR controller which had to untangle a SAS DC-9 from the 6 F-5s passing the field kicking up snow just as the DC-9 departed..........

[Capt Pit Bull]

1988ish.

I'd picked up a long hold post IOT and pre BFTS and was sent of to RAF Newton to take up the vital role of SLJO.

Said task included being the commentator for the families day airshow. This included a planned flyby courtesy of an F-111 from Upper Heyford.

So, he calls inbound and I duly pick up the mike and give it my best "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look to your right we'll be receiving a flyby from an F-111 of the 832,245th tactical fighter wing."

Peering into the distance I saw an F-111 pop up from terrain, briefly appear above the horizon (in plan form!) and then drop back into terrain.

After that, nothing. Not a sausage. Not evan a small chipolatoe.

2 minutes later the phone rings. Its Langar, the parachuting sight a few miles down the road. It seems the F-111 went steaming through their overhead, neatly zipping though a gaggle of descending parachutist. Understandably, they were a little bit miffed.

Still, Newton - grass runways. Langar - a more coventional airfield. Won't be the first time somebodies mis IDed an airfield.

What gave me a chuckle though was I heard a little later that the parachutists had a quick whip round and bought one of those 'compass on a sucker' things for a car, packed it up and sent it down to the crew in question :D

CPB

[ACW418]

Using up hours on the constant thrust variable noise Jet Provost in order to get enough hours in to be awarded my wings I flew down to St Mawgan in absolutely rubbish weather. Very proud of getting us below cloud but my day was spoiled by my Instructor, a Master Pilot, who took control and joined the circuit at St Eval. When challenged by St Mawgan about the chicken huts on the runway he said "Sorry it was my student" Lying sod. Good trip though.

ACW

Further cock up, I blame my BFTS Instructor for showing me how to do it. When on my final handling test on the Vampire. Top of a loop he says your engine has failed, so I did all the right things including calling on 121.5 who told me I was 10 nautical miles from Middleton St George and gave a southerly bearing. Nice day with terrific vis so I see an airfied on the horizon and make for it. Much radio work with no replies and getting lower and lower. Finally realise I am at Leeming and made a cross wind approach on the out of use runway - the only one I could reach actually. Jet Provost zooming out of the way in all directions. Very spectacular. Very good he says you\'ve failed. Bugger. Did it again the next day without the drama.

ACW

[idle stop]

What about Leeming and Dishforth? Both have main runways obligingly parallel to the A1!

[BEagle]

Rule of thumb for that:

If you can get another runway between the A1 and the aerodrome - it's Dishforth.

If you can get another aerodrome between the A1 and the aerodrome - it's Leeming.

Gatenby lane, cow $hit corner....memories, memories...

Oh, and while we we're at it, I do admit to joining at 500 ft and 420 KIAS at........Withybush, not Brawdy. But a tweak on the stick and some mumbling over the R/T and nobody ever found out :)