Alconbury Airport
 

Hi.

Does anyone have any idea if the proposal to turn Alconbury into the new international airport will include a study of how the heavy trafic can be made to integrate with traffic at nearby RAF Wyton?
I can imagine a situation not unlike that at RAF St Athan, which is situated only about 3 miles away from Cardiff international, and must suffer from a wide range of em******ances when the traffic conflicts!
Any clues?

Alconbury and Wyton worked together operationally for donkeys years, with a USAF controller in the tower at Wyton.

Was funny though when an F15 landed at Wyton and said, "Alconbury Tower, Eagle 51, left or right at the end".

Sad that I still remember the c/s!

I recall the same or perhaps a similar incident at Wyton, probably around 1979, when an F15 with an engine problem saw the runway and assumed it was Alconbury. The one thing that sticks in my mind was the highly excited state of the SATCO.

When Wyton was on Rwy 27, Alconbury had to be on 30 and the same with 09–12. From what I recall Wyton only had a visual circuit on Rwy 27 RH, all Alconbury aircraft came in for a straight in approach either GCA or TACAN to visual. Wyton couldn’t release aircraft to depart with Alconbury traffic within 10 miles to land.

Had some fun times over at Alconbury, but don’t mention “Corby Commandos.”

It was even more fun getting out of Oakington in Varsi-Pig days - up the twin canals at 500' dual or solo and hope those on approach to Wyton or Alconbury didn't come down too low. The only place you needed to learn low level nav before you could get out of the circuit.

Come to think of it, some of the circuits we see these days..........

Shackman:
so that's what they call low level nav in Shropshire - following canals at 500 ft!! ;)

And not forgetting Topcliffe

The West Tanfield departure along disused railways was fine when Beeching had just shut them down, but becoming ever more hard to find by 1992! Especially to s bloke with 20 hrs tt

The Corby Commandos - were the the three-baggers that used to arrive on the Corby halftrack?

The “ladies” of Corby use to descend on Alconbury every Friday and Saturday night, with the express intention of cornering a Yank. Many managed to get rings on their fingers and the delightful Corby accent could be heard on USAF bases around the world. There were some language difficulties, evidently the term “Gobble” isn’t universally understood by the Spam’s.

teeteringhead

Okay, so I'll bite - 500ft - medium level please, and preferably with oxygen.

To return to the original question, apart from a copper chopper and. I believe, a UAS, there's nothing based at Wyton so the risk of conflict is low.

Reg

Theres 2 UAS's, the Camb police (helicopter) support flight and DPA, who occasionally get some FJ traffic, plus there seems to be intermittent visiting by other FJ's from time to time. I'm sure theres a whole bunch of UAS stude's who _love_ to be refered to as nothing.

BluntM8

The message read:

"apart from a copper chopper and, I believe, a UAS, there's nothing based at Wyton so the risk of conflict is low. "

I didn't describe the UAS as nothing. The point is that if there were still a couple of squadrons of Canberras and a Nimrod squadron at Wyton plus the occasional overshoot by an SR-71 then things would be different. The amount of FJ traffic at the base is negligible.

Reg