Hatfield HTF (Closed)
Hi,
I was lucky enough to be based in Hatfield for the final year of Operations right up until the 17/4/1994 when the last official departure was made. Although, even after the airfield was closed, it was common for Flying school light singles to pitch up with puzzled looking QFIs and students - despite the huge 'X' on the runway and the various NOTAMS
The final few months were very interesting with lots of visits from all kinds of Executive Aviation up to and including private 727s. There were always lots of 146s and variants in for maintenance and painting. I awoke most mornings to the sound of RR Darts being spooled up as the BAe Woodford shuttle HS748 was warmed up and departed as 'Avro99'.
I also woke up a couple of years after the airfield closed to the sound of full reversers being applied but couldn't get down to the airfield to find out what had arrived; it was reputedly Spielberg's jet that had tipped in to work on the filming of 'Saving Private Ryan' - never had that confirmed though ! seems a tad unlikely - but something had landed !
One of my favourite memories was watching an A300-B4 Freighter lumbering down the ILS to 24 and with about 2d to go, a slightly nervous pilot asks:
A300: 'Ah could you confirm landing length available?'
ATC: '6000ft'
A300: 'Well, ok, If you say so'
Cheers