Wonderful story, Danny. It seems that wifely unauthorised runway incursions were by no means unknown at Thorney, witness yours and Frosty's. It reminds me of a local incident when a railway line was blocked by a car because the driver was instructed by her in car navigation to, "at the level crossing turn left", so she did
I have a bit of a "thing" about railway level crossings and the annual cost in serious accidents that they incur. I guess that airfield level crossings are similarly a problem. The solution would appear to be tunnels (a la LHR) or diversions (a la the A23 at LGW). The TI solution (reinforcing the traffic lights with barriers) didn't really do the trick as if the lights weren't activated then likely the barriers weren't anyway. They also had quite a high toll in windscreens as they slammed down without fear or favour.
BTW LGW has once again raised the threat of a new parallel runway, in which case the Mole River will lose its way if diverted yet again, never mind motorists on the A23.
Your idle salad days in the late 50s are about to be rudely interrupted, I'm afraid. Those dreadful truckies of 242 OCU are on their way; so noisy, so demanding. Thank goodness at least that their night flying will not be tolerated by the local retired Admirals!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 29th Sep 2013 at 10:35.