Originally Posted by
Planemike
<br /> Ahhhh..... IDN, I remember her well from those days. I worked part-time/was a "hangar rat" at Hampshire Aero Club. Never managed a flight, but thought I was close on one occasion!! Remember taxying down for fuel with Jersey bound holiday makers as spectators.... The 86 was just before my time, sadly never saw her. PM<br />
When I started to fly in to SH (the 80's) I seem to recall that the outside of the then terminal looked fairy modern but inside there were signs of a Belfast shed.
Is it my imagination or am I correct. Certainly there were Belfasts pre war so did some survive. Spotters will know.
I nearly diverted into SH in the 70's having been caught out by early morning fog en route to Cornwall from RHill. In fact I was 'properly' caught out as the fog condensed faster than my 1200cc Turbulent could run, so I had to resort to a low level dash along the railway line until it went into a tunnel. Oh dear, a quick 180 and then a sports field flashed past and some rugby posts made a reference point. A couple of turns, and there was just enough vis to drop down across the ground and I had arrived at an Army base (just). This turned to be part of the Camp that had been Worthy Down Airfield so I was given a very nice breakfast and given a well attended send off a few hours later when it cleared. In fact WD had been the original test field for Supermarines at Eastleigh so not too much thread creep here.
Supermarine moved their testing to High Post eventually.