Caravan dwellers busy in Suffolk.

[Guzlin Adnams]

Looks like the diddies have been busy. Honingtons approach lights and ILS hut have been knicked. Nothing on e-bay yet or on offer in the local pubs from people with Irish accents. Keep your eyes peeled!;)

[taxydual]

OK, I'll accept nicking the bulbs out of the approach lights (he says, banging his head against the wall), but, how on earth do you steal an ILS hut? Guzlin, we need more gen.

I suppose, that pikey caravans are generally single story, the old joke about 'leaving the landing lights on' won't count.

All the same, unbelievable, and sad, news.

[green granite]

Isn't that the place that houses the people and equipment responsible for the security of operational airfields? :rolleyes:

[taxydual]

Yes, the Rocks are at Honington.

I wonder if they will take this lying down?

[NutLoose]

Well they should be easy to find, just go out after dark and look for a caravan with its lights on that you can see 10 miles away full of pikeys wearing sunglasses and topping up their tan.

They probably misread ILS as If Left Steal.

[Colevans]

I Lose Sleep...If they switch them on....

[brakedwell]

Why not select the Honington ILS frequency, carry out an approach. (preferably in the early hours) and then call in the Plods.

[Gainesy]

Guzlin, you sure? From memory the ILS Localiser building (off the airfield to the west) was brick built. Or do you mean the localiser aerial array which would fetch a few quid as scrap metal?

I don't fancy the pikey's chances if the Rocks caught them on that particular airfield.:suspect:

[Wensleydale]

If you promise him (her?) a few votes, I am sure that the MP for the Honington constituency could declare the ILS hut as a second home and claim for a new aerial and specialised garden lighting with no questions asked?

Military funding crisis solved.

[Guzlin Adnams]

Localiser building demolished and fenced compound removed. The array was removed a couple of years ago or so. All approach lights and poles gone. I dare say that as the runway is no longer maintained it was felt that removal of said structures was necessary on grounds of health and safety as they're condition was getting worse. Although, you never know with pikeys around do you.....

[downziser]

Yes, the Rocks are at Honington.

I wonder if they will take this lying down?

"Right lads somebody has stolen the ILS".

"Okay sir it was I was with you right up until you said ILS. Is that a new type of gun?"

[Navy_Adversary]

Not Del Boy and Rodney is it?:)

[Wiley]

It's not just the Oirish pikeys who indulge in early bulk copper wire recovery. For many years, at the old KL airport (Subang), the outer locator was notamed as 'out of service' on the main runway. The real story was a couple of local lads, (said to be Chinese, but how did they know that?), turned up in a truck one night and took the whole beacon for its copper wire and other 'scrap' metal.

The ILS would have been deemed uncertifiable without an outer locator, so no one ever officially admitted that it was physically missing. The ILS remained operational with the notam for many years with the locator listed as 'out of service'.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

The GAV VOR in SA went the same way. It was listed as U/S a few times when the entire thing went missing and eventually moved to a more secure location.

[Doctor Cruces]

I remember during my time at Holbeach, the nice American came out and renewed all the cabling between the strafe panels and the scoring system in the tower. Took him about two weeks all told.

Oddly enough, it only took the locals one week end to nick the lot once they knew it was completed. We discovered it when we called him back on Monday, as we weren't best impressed that the whole lot had packed in so soon. When he explained that all of the cabling had gone (he took longer, with more words, mostly unprintable, but that's the gist) we understood.

Maybe the Rocks should check and see if anyone has moved from Gedney Drove End to Euston recently and take it from there.

Doc C

[BEagle]

Before it was reactivated, Merryfield was trashed by 'travellers':

1. All the drain covers were stolen, leaving dangerous pits around the peri-track for people driving round the aerodrome to fall into.

2. The lights were smashed. Then a truck would be connected up to the cables and the cables dragged from the ground. They then took the cables to one of the old huts, connected them to a few stolen truck batteries and waited for the insulation to burn off. Then they flogged the wire for scrap.

3. Anything made of metal was ripped out of the old control tower and any old huts still remaining.

When the local council built a travellers' area on the old Westlands site, they were going to use metal fixtures, fittings and plumbing. They were told that this would probably last about a day, so they changed the plan and used wooden window frames and alkathene piping.

[Double Zero]

I don't like jumping to conclusions and possibly laying blame in the wrong direction, but ' caravan dwellers ' - not the holidaying kind - have proven another matter; before experience proved otherwise I might have even had a slight romantic sympathy !

At the airfield I worked on mainly, there is an ' official ' camp just outside, whose residents caused a great deal of trouble including use of attack dogs and shotguns.

A cleaner we had once was from a rival tribe; she remarked " you'll have to watch that lot, they'll be in to pinch all the lead off the aeroplanes " !

[622]

..And if you hit one of the dogs/kids playing in the road driving in....god help you...:eek:

[Double Zero]

Well certain ' forces of the law ' wouldn't go near their camp without what ammounted to near military backup; of course I only found that one out the hard way, scrabbling up a water tower ladder as dogs were set on us, my chum calling on his radio, then finding all the rungs had been cut to less than 1mm.

I only had one ' hairy ' flight from there in over 14 years - and that was by a non resident pilot - I had plenty of frights & grey hairs from works engineering, be it at high roof level or subterainian, but the worst by far were the encounters with the unmentionables.

[adminblunty]

At High Wycombe (2 site) a couple of years ago some caravan dwellers blagged there way on. They unhinged the locked and unmanned rear access gate and made off with nine caravans.

[Razor61]

Beagle,
The pikeys are still in residence right 'next' to Merryfield. They have a little settlement the other side of the hedge and apparently MF still have troubles with them/their animals going onto the airfield.
Police often raid the place and most of their caravans now have smashed up windows by the police raiding the place to get in.
Apparently some were quite nasty there and used to shine lasers and high powered torches at the crews training at night too... not good when you have NVG on.

[BEagle]

The travellers' site at Merryfield was set up during the time the aerodrome was 'disused'. Local councils have an obligation to provide such sites and the abandoned Westlands site was selected. A reasonable choice at the time.

They probably get a bit annoyed with night flying, but that doesn't excuse any criminal or life-endangering acts such as you describe. Is there a liaison process? I'd be astonished if Zumzett Plod had stooped to breaking windows, although I do recall a local copper in Ilton once saying "A few years ago we'd just sling a straw bale under their caravans and tell them to leave before someone dropped a match....".

50 years ago we had 'real' gypsies on Brook Common - they never caused any problems and were very friendly if people were half decent to them - don't forget that only 5 years earlier many of their relatives were in Hitler's concentration camps.