Portsmouth Airfield
Rainboe et al,
I hope this is of interest, certainly confirms all the above comments re. this airfield.
I knew the ( now sadly gone ) daughter of Robin Milne, a wartime Test Pilot for Airspeed at Portsmouth.
One day he and Ron Clear had to collect a couple of Mosquitos and take them there, for some reason.
As Robin's merlins started to overheat, he abbreviated his checks and set off.
On takeoff the overhead escape hatch blew off, unsecured. He thought he'd better do some handling checks; nothing untoward, but he noticed right at the stall the suction tugged at his helmet strap.
On arrival at Portsmouth he had to go around a couple of times, eventually bringing it in right on the edge of stall using the helmet tugging as a guide.
Ron Clear had a hard time getting in, managed after quite a few tries, ending up much further along.
When Ron asked Robin ( ' Bob ' ) " how the hell did you do that ?! " the reply was " Oh, just sorts the men from the boys "...he kept quiet about the real reason for some time.
I have photo's somewhere of one of the Mosquito's there, Robin's late daughter Jenny gave me a lot of her Dad's stuff, as she always felt he never got the recognition he deserved ( the above is a fraction of a career ranging from Camel to Comet ( jet ), production testing over 2,000 Oxfords, and climbing the Eiger when he had a moment spare !
The Tartan Terror was extremely kind, and when I explained Jenny was ill he rushed a mention of Robin onto his Test Pilot tribute site; she was able to see it before she passed away.