Originally Posted by
planesandthings
Yes but having friends who fly there, they are continuing to have issues with people on the airfield that shouldn't be! Anyone that's been to Kenley knows how unsecure the site is. And as we know, the RAF would not dare risk that until the threat is quite rightly mitigated with better fencing.
There have always been challenges with flying at Kenley! There is a public footpath that runs across the middle of the airfield.
When I was a lowly staff cadet in the 60's launching was delayed by a person walking across the airfield (the footpath went conveniently from near the Officers' Mess to the Wattenden Arms on the other side of the airfield). I was dispatched with my yellow RAF Land Rover to warn him of his error! When I told him that he had just walked across the cables on an active airfield, he responded, with a certain arrogance, "Do you know who I am?" - (Oh dear first signs of dementia in VSOs!) I responded that irrespective of who he was he should still respect the warning signs at an active airfield. Turned out that he was JJ, the CO of the Kenley Wing during the war.
When RAF Kenley was operational and in the care of the MoD very little was done to repair the fence around the airfield, although the general public respected the airfield as MoD property and little public trespassing occurred. When the RAF left and 615 Gliding School was continuing to operate at weekends, the public felt it was their right to walk freely on the airfield! We suggested that if the MoD was not going to repair the fencing they should plant some Pyracantha Hedging around the boundary! Pyracantha is known for thorns which can easily puncture human skin, and when successful, the piercing causes a slight inflammation and severe pain. Their dense thorny structure makes them particularly valued in situations where an impenetrable barrier is required.
This would have solved the problem, but I suspect that now snowflake H&S would have ripped them out!
Good luck to those trying to get the cadets back into the air.