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View Full Version : St Mawgan - The time has finally come


Razor61
30th Jul 2008, 00:01
Notam is out for the ceasing of all military flying operations tomorrow.
Very sad day and no send off either.... :mad:

RAF ST MAWGAN CEASES MILITARY FLYING OPERATIONS ON 31 JULY 2008.
FROM 01 AUGUST 2008 NO MILITARY HANDLING SERVICES WHATSOEVER WILL BE AVBL. MIL ACFT WISHING TO USE ST MAWGAN FROM 01 AUGUST 2008 REQUIRE 24HRS PPR AND MUST CONTACT MID WEST EXECUTIVE TEL NO 01637 860551.

I heard a rumour that the MoD were still to keep hold of the Treloy area and HAS complex but hearing further rumours that 'all' exercises will be transfered to either Culdrose or elsewhere, what would the MoD still want the Treloy area for?

Also, now that JMF have moved from their bunker to the USA, does the MoD still own the bunker or has this been sold off or given for usage to the civilian owners?

chopper2004
30th Jul 2008, 09:40
So where will the SERE TC and 203 Sqn move to?

If JMF has moved back to CONUS, will they come back and re locate in Uk in the near future?

Wigglyamps
30th Jul 2008, 12:13
Very sad news, spent two happy tours at StMawgan in the Tower. Fantastic posting for a singly. What will happen to all the accomodation blocks etc?

ninefromten
30th Jul 2008, 12:24
Chooper2004, 203(R) Sqn moved to RAF Valley back in May, but currently on tour around the country. SERE remain at St Mawgan using the domestic side and part of Treloy.

shandyman
30th Jul 2008, 12:52
JMF are staying at Mawgan until early next year.

chopper2004
30th Jul 2008, 12:56
Shandyman

Thanks for that but take it JMf will still be in its enclave protected by Marine Corps and Mod Police?

Will it go to Culdrose or Yeovilton or go?

BluntM8
30th Jul 2008, 14:41
What a sad end to flying at a cracking little station. I've only had the pleasure of visiting recently but on both occasions I've had a fantastic time - even though I was in the Shakleton mess, which is a bit ropey!

Raven30
30th Jul 2008, 15:17
JMF status quo remains as is until next year. No MOD Police at Mawgan though......

Treloy and HAS site included in land sale with the airfield - Trebelsue will remain as MOD property.

A sad day indeed. I hope the new airport succeeds as many jobs will be dependent on the venture. Still think its a short sighted decision to close it as a military airfield though.

buoy15
30th Jul 2008, 17:54
Hoorah!
The best decision ever was the demise of Forty Who, which rang the death knell for that holiday camp
No more delayed briefings and SAR Handovers waiting for some 4th Division South Tosser, who had a full dining room at breakfast time:ok:

Will be gladly missed :p

Small Spinner
30th Jul 2008, 18:21
Sounds like a jealous man, and at a guess one who never did a tour there :=
It would be interesting to see the stats on SAR handovers, as the dedicated Sqn groundcrew we had were rarely bettered when it came to Aird Wyte trophies and alike.
Just my opinion but having been posted to both stations, there was a flexibility about 42 Sqn crews, freed from the GSU breathing down your neck in the next hangar.
In my time at Kinloss there was greater emphasis in chasing numbers on the stats board, than there was in actually being adaptable to the ever changing ASW world.
Time to move on my friend and just accept that the best has sadly gone :sad:

You can pull me up now the bite has been taken :ok:

Small Spinner
30th Jul 2008, 18:40
The Old Fat One

I must work on not going for the worm early, sit back and take your approach.:D

For me it was also the best time in the RAF, some great crews, great people and great laughs. Just a shame I missed the last 'Round the World' year 42 had before goin norf.

Specaircrew
30th Jul 2008, 20:52
Had a very happy six years at St Mawgan and flew the last Nimrod out of there when 42(TB) Sqn disbanded. Fantastic location for a posting and such a relaxed station with only one flying Sqn, it's a great shame that it's closing.

Razor61
30th Jul 2008, 21:59
From what i have read so far (and previously on other threads) it seems St Mawgan was one of the best stations to be based at and blessed by everyone who has been stationed there.
For what reasons do you guys make it being a great place to live and work, was it the proximity to Newquay for the night life or was it just generally a good'un all round? As the weather, like Culdrose can be a bit sh1t at times.

It seems even those who have just been detached there for a week or two have gone home having enjoyed the place.

How would you compare it to stations like Chivenor? Both now of course having no flying units apart from two Seakings at Chivenor.

Just seems complete and utter madness that it is now closed to military flying. The local residents around the vicinity of the air station moaning even about a week of Typhoons flying. Yet i bet the oldies who lived with the Nimrods based there probably wanted the opposite, to get it flying again and seeing more active service there.

Living in the south west and not far south of Chivenor, this part of the country is now becoming a very quiet place.
Now the Shars have gone, hawks from Chivenor and so on, not even the Tonkas, Harriers or Eagles are using the area much now. I bet the horseys are loving it.

:{

Also, although most of the exercises around the south west will now disappear (as St Mawgan supported most of these) can and will St Mawgan support any type of military exercise in the future like other civil airports such as Carlisle?

Not being in the military myself, i'm completely gutted it has closed to mil flying, just like i was Chivenor.

L1A2 discharged
30th Jul 2008, 22:56
One of the widest runways in the UK at 9000 feet +, only 300 long using that direction tho :E

Did 2 tours, late 70s to early 80s - young simple and single, had a marvellous time. Second tour when we lost the jets to the politicians in jockistan. :(

Airdays, blowing up stuff for the attack runs by Buccanneers. Huge AOCs parades. Freedoms of Newquay, Truro, St Columb etc, all good days out with free beer flowing.

The closure decision was a major factor in my career change - could not envisage staying in MQs any longer and own our house in sunny (not today) Newquay.

Good place for many of the best reasons - people, job to do, work and play hard, banter with the crews, competing to be galley rat, SAROPs, Fastnet race response, strong rugby club, ex cpls end in the mess bar :) Having my 'own' little tanks to play with.

All over now. Turn the page and walk on.

Yellow Sun
31st Jul 2008, 07:28
Served my time at both St Mawgan and Kinloss. Because of the posts I filled I had some insight into the way the operations organisations at both stations functioned. There is a natural tendency to load the blame on another agency if this is a possibility, but the readiness by some a Kinloss to do so was quite noticeable.

However when all was said and done Kinloss deserved its title as:

"The Crossroads Of ASW"

'tis such a pity that it had a cast of similar calibre;)

YS

Gainesy
31st Jul 2008, 08:17
Is there some miserable git who specialises in closing down all the popular places, like Chiv, Colt and Mawgan while retaining dumps like St Athan?

BEagle
31st Jul 2008, 08:29
Gainesy, you can add Thorney Island, Tangmere and West Malling to that list! And even Abingdon.... Brawdy too. And Wattisham.

St Mawgan air days were excellent! As were our UAS Summer Camps (when the RAF could still afford such things...:hmm:) - although 'the weather can be a bit sh1t at times' is something of an understatement.

Yes, Speccers, you will no doubt have good reason to remember one particuar ULAS camp....;)

A great shame that another excellent station has closed; the fun detecting bean counters have struck again.

Buoy 15, your spiteful comments are unworthy. Grow up or bugger off.

1.3VStall
31st Jul 2008, 11:42
Beags,

You can add Little Riss, Gaydon and Bassingbourn to your list!

meag197
31st Jul 2008, 12:00
There seems to be a trend of wherever I went on summer camp with the UAS, the station later gets closed... First Coltishall and now St. Mawgan! Both awesome stations and yes, the weather can be crap at St. Mawgan! Clag on deck on the airfield but perfect conditions on the beach just below! Fantastic summer... Shame no-one else will get to experience it!:ugh:

Gainesy
31st Jul 2008, 12:02
Let's face it, the list is practically endless.

wub
31st Jul 2008, 12:20
How would you compare it to stations like Chivenor?

Having served at both during the 1970s, I would say that St Mawgan had a more cosmopolitan feel to it since it was frequently visited by Dutch, Canadians, Americans (who were also based there) and by many detachments of RAF Squadrons. It was a fabulous place, had a great little gliding club, a good radio station and some of the best scenery in the UK on the doorstep (when you could see it, someone here referred to 'gale force fog'). The Air Days were superb. 'Sevenair' (7 Sqn Canberras) would take you for a trip almost whenever you wanted. Newquay was fun, especially when it filled with tottie in the summer and dinner in the Red Lion was always a treat.

Chivenor on the other hand was much smaller and operated at a more frenetic pace, generating many more sorties per day than St. Mawgan. Station facilities were pretty basic, which pulled people together and made for excellent camaraderie. Barnstaple had good night life and some nice eateries.

Both fondly remembered and sadly missed.

Could be the last?
31st Jul 2008, 17:47
Very sad!

The closure is on a par with Finningley.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

Lima Juliet
31st Jul 2008, 18:45
...and Bentley Priory :(:mad:

31st Jul 2008, 18:57
And Chivenor had (and still has) a far better weather factor than St Mawgan or Valley. It's great foresight from our leaders - close all the good bases where people like to work and post them (or try to) to all the sh*tholes and then wonder why we have recruitment and retention problems.

Raven30
31st Jul 2008, 19:29
Since when have the bean counters known anything about weather factors??

1771 DELETE
31st Jul 2008, 21:22
Had 2 tours at St Mawgan in the eighties and nineties and four tours at ISK in the seventies and 00, just a shame i didnt do more time down south. Some of the enjoyment was down to some very good sqn commanders, some the location and the fact that there was only one op sqn.
All the people on the station new that the mission was to get the aircraft airborne when required, storemen, atc, admin all played a part in making it a very happy station.
As for 3rd division south, i do remember flying north to help out ISK when it all got too difficult and busy, and hanging around on SAR because ISK could not get an aircraft serviceable.
I also remember that all the aircraft on the line where fit to fly, they were all turned round, fixed and fueled for the next day regardless of the flying program demands, therefore, there was always a backup and sometimes a third available.

If the RAF was still working in that fashion, i would still be in.

Mr-Burns
1st Aug 2008, 09:55
I've heard that the Defence SERE Training Centre is forming at St Mawgan by the end of the year so I think those of us with SERE courses planned will still be able to sample the delights of Newquay / Bodmin Moor for some time to come.

bayete
1st Aug 2008, 11:18
Sad news for the Mil guys,
I have enjoyed quite a few exercises there and used to stay in the O's mess for long weekends to go surfing.
Luckily still get to night-stop there occasionally in my little BizJet, only the accommodation is a little better, Watergate Bay Hotel :ok: or downtown Newquay.

buoy15
1st Aug 2008, 20:28
Beags
I'm not being spiteful
During the holiday season, when sat in the ac waiting for a 0900(L) SAR handover via landline, MHQ and ARCC on 5680 HF, and the response from the other end was - "programme didn't indicate 0900 Zulu or Local, but they are on the way" Handover eventually completed about 1100 (L) - one tends to wonder if we were in a joined up Air Force -"small" things like that pissed people off when they were waiting to hump across to the next bay to go on an 8hr Ops trip
My comments about the Dining Room being full at breakfast are true and there are many other similar stories - former members of Forty Who who were later stationed at ISK still boast about them

I suspect at this time, you were in shirt sleeves flying your FunBus to the next 4* hotel in the States, and you were using Zulu time - and ASCOT Ops were using Local time to ensure you had a lie in? Yeh!

covec
1st Aug 2008, 23:42
Having served - and still serving frontline MR2 - at both St Mawgan & ISK I would say that ISK has better scenery but are still up themselves half the time. As they were in the 80s / 90s.....

PingDit
2nd Aug 2008, 00:19
I did 1978 to disbandment on the fine Forty Who, with an odd 3 years in London in between. Had a ball. I think the main difference was that as we only had the one squadron (aside from the OCU who used the same airframes), it was effectively a return to squadron servicing - something else that used to work well.....

Ping

P.S. The breakfasts are still good!;)

fixinflyback
4th Aug 2008, 06:26
Couldn't agree more with all the comments about the great times at St Mawgan. I was lucky enough to spend two tours on 42 Sqn, one on the OCU, and a little bit of time in MAAU, and still managed some Scottish time. Although I enjoyed my tour at Kinloss, the Cornish Air Force will always hold a special place in my heart. During the 70/80s we had some great bosses on 42 Sqn, and it was such a fun place to work with a great bunch of people. I was recently down at St Mawgan visiting an old Nimrod Buddy and it was interesting to see the changes taking place. The airfield now has a brand new security fence surrounding it, probably better than anything that was there when it was a military base. Hate to think what it must have cost to erect, but guess the local council can afford it with the £5 airport development tax to leave Cornwall. Does anybody know what is happening to the 'Shackleton Gate Guardian' that was down by the Atlantic Club. Know a lot of the ex -Shack guys put a lot of time and effort into getting it in place including Billy Margarson (god bless him). Anyway just getting my Sonobuoy Loading Tool to insert into Buoy 15.

EESDL
4th Aug 2008, 10:24
Atleast Gaydon is now covered in Aston Martins and heritage Museum - rather than 1000s of japcars in storage....

Beags
- send me postal address and I'll post you some grass - landing there later this month for something Boss has organised.

Moldioldi
5th Aug 2008, 12:14
Any chance someone will write a station history? Being an aged civvy who only flew in and out courtesey of 'SKYWAYS' (DC3, DC4 and Viscount!!) I would dearly love to read about the early days. I remember Lancs and Shacks of Coastal Command doing circuits over Porth not to mention Vulcans earth shaking departures. One of my friends Dads who was staioned there said it was a great place for duty free. Shacks would come in fully laden, slow down out of sight over the hill to toss everything out to be collected later. I am also old enough to remember St. Eval and standing on the A39 at the end of the runway whilst BOAC was using it as a B707 training base. Great days for spotting the rare visiting aircraft too. As previous posts I thought it would be a great posting but a couple of friend I knew detested it.

pmills575
5th Aug 2008, 12:48
Having spent nearly 7 years there the first time I can recall it being a mixture of good and bad. The good, the location and the great summers, the girls the weather, (always sunny I seem to recall !) the parties, oh yes, work was OK too. The bad, poor station masters and an awful SWO, in fact most of the admin was bad.

Returned later, mid seventies to find it changed to a committed to task place, intelligent SWO (funny too, Mr. McNaught) and a lot less frenetic than the sixties, it had lost something, mind you so had I, believe it's called yoof. Still and excellent posting and away from the rule setters and stiff necked arrses at Deadloss! It just seems to illogical to close this place with its huge runway, excellent location and good services, the madness goes on.

P Mills

Wee Weasley Welshman
5th Aug 2008, 14:57
The glorious Summer of '94 when UBAS went to St Mawgan for summer camp.

Definitely the fondest memories of any RAF station for me. The only PT Flight with surfboards was what I was told at the time and believed. It was a long summer that year.

WWW

Razor61
5th Aug 2008, 14:58
Does anyone know why St Mawgans runway was constructed so wide compared to other airfields in the UK? Why did they need 300ft width?

Wee Weasley Welshman
5th Aug 2008, 15:02
Filton is the same - 100 yards. Perhaps they just reflected our once great imperial measurements combined with our imperial ambitions..

WWW

Rossian
5th Aug 2008, 15:42
I believe (and if I'm wrong there'll be someone with more/better gen along dreckly) that the runaway was built to accept the larger American aircraft as they were ferried in during the second half of WW2.
The Ancient Mariner

AR1
6th Aug 2008, 12:08
I remember stepping off the train in June '79 with a kitbag full of dreams, blue skys, heavenly beaches and heavenly(er) bodies on display.

So different to my smog covered Lancashire home, I couldnt believe I was getting paid to live and work there.

God I feel old.

bluesilk
6th Aug 2008, 13:57
I really am old. First in the sixties on Shackair with the best people imaginable to work and play with.
Lucky enough to have known the likes of Sam Gamble, Horse Freer and the Master Baloonatics, who took us young lads under their wings.
Later on with that other aircraft but still the same Sqdn.
But I suppose times change and "progress" is made.
The bean counters know not what they do!!

The Ferret
7th Aug 2008, 03:29
What is the world coming to - I first served at Culdrose in 79 and the practise diversion to St Mawgan became a regular event - where will they go now? I left Cornwall in 05 and have fond memories of St Mawgan and it's friendly Crabs. A sad day!
The Ferret!:(

Vim_Fuego
7th Aug 2008, 06:55
I'm not as old as some of you but I arrived at St Mawgan laiden with kitbags etc on a warm September in 86 evening barely knowing where I was (being a Northerner) although I'd been told enough about the place by my instructors who for some reason (at that point) were extremely envious of me...

I was down there for some SERE action last July and I sat on the same stone wall under the welcome sign outside the main gate that I'd sat on 21 years ago waiting for a cab to take me to party town...

This closure as a flying base really annoys and yes, hurts me.

NorthSouth
8th Aug 2008, 14:36
The Ferret:I first served at Culdrose in 79 and the practise diversion to St Mawgan became a regular event - where will they go now?St Mawgan of course! They'll just have to remember to call it something different.
NS

Chough
11th Aug 2008, 13:34
Someone enquired a few days ago what is happening to the Shackleton gate guard at RAF St. Mawgan. A small team from the Cornish Aviation Society to give it tlc - long may it continue.

SCAFLounger
29th Oct 2009, 02:42
Hi

A blanket-stacker, I arrived at St Mawgan in May/June 1979. Seemed more of a 'home' somehow than Wyton.

Plenty happy memories there, especially the International Air Days. Even more - recently with the anniversary of the Fastnet Boat Race disaster of '79, and the part we played saving lives that night.

Working in the Priority Progression Cell, getting the panicking techies their bits at the last moment was probably the best job I had.

Heady days.......

Paul H
(SCAF Bod)

brakedwell
29th Oct 2009, 14:14
I am even older! Almost fifty years ago, while on Coastal Command Comm Flight, Bovingdon - St Mawgan - Bovingdon (1h.35m each way) was a regular run for our Ansons. I can still hear those mighty Armstrong Siddeley Cheetahs powering us towards a splendid lunch of fresh mackerel in mustard sauce, followed a relaxing hour or so picking mushroom on the airfield while we waited for our Staff Officer passengers to complete their devilish work. Happy days!

bluesilk
29th Oct 2009, 17:42
Went to see the Old Grey Lady a couple of weeks ago when having a few days down in Cornwall.
The chaps looking after her are doing a quite fantastic job and she looks really well.
Apart from having to get past the grunts at the gate which was easy because I had told the Shack team leader I would like to come, it nearly felt like going home.
Well done the Cornish Aviation Society, long may you be allowed to continue.:ok:

bluesilk
30th Oct 2009, 09:53
Just seen Moldioldi post of 5th August.
I have a book in the "Britain in old Photographs" series.
Title is RAF ST MAWGAN by Keith A Saunders
It has an ISBN number 0-7509-1030-5
From Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd
Found mine in a second hand bookshop.
Not sure if it is still around.

green granite
30th Oct 2009, 10:49
There are a couple available through Amazon second hand, one in good condition @ £17.25 and one in "acceptable" condition @ £54.05 :confused:

UpShutter
30th Oct 2009, 13:57
There's some photos of the 1976 St Mawgan International Air Day here. (http://oldforums.airshows.co.uk/cgi-bin/ukarboard/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=35;t=25778;st=0)