Fake Sealion, I doubt whether you would have seen me bashing the RAF Abingdon circuit in 1973 - in the 2 weeks of Summer Camp I was only allowed 5 flights as I'd already passed my PFB in 1972. Most of my flying was at RAF White Waltham - although I returned to instruct on the 'dog at RAF Abingdon in 1990.
Funny you should mention the weather in Aug 72, FL. I had only recently bought myself a 5 year old MG Midget, so set off one Saturday morning from RAF Newton to drive home down the A46 / Leicester (no M69 back then...) / Fosse way to Bath, then down to Somerset. Roof down, suitcase in the boot and aircrew holdall under the tonneau cover - although it wasn't very sunny. But as I drove down Pennsylvania Hill into bath, there was a traffic jam....and then the rain started. It poured down!
To de-rig the tonneau cover, remove and stow the tonneau bars, raise the hood and fiddle with the 'lift the dot' fingernail breaking fasteners wasn't a quick job on a 1967 Midget, so I had to sit there getting wetter and wetter until the jam reached a lay-by. By then it had stopped raining, so I just thought "Sod it" and kept going!
Summer of '76 was indeed a good time for aviators - I had 3 months flying Hunters with Standards Squadron at RAF Brawdy. It was hell, I tell thee! But I'd had to sell another Midget in June, as it had become increasingly difficult to move all my wordly possessions around the RAF stuffed into a little MG! Best summer in living memory and I no longer had a convertible - ah well.
RAF Abingdon, RAF Brawdy, RAF Newton and RAF White Waltham - days when we had a reasonable sized RAF. They might no longer be RAF stations (neither are other aerodromes from my ULAS days - RAF Andover, RAF Chivenor, RAF St. Mawgan, RAF Tangmere, RAF Thorney Island, RAF Watton and RAF West Malling), but at least the good old Chippy is still pottering amiably around the skies!