spekesoftly * and xtp,
You may well have me on the ropes here ! (I plead Senile Dementia and 45 years is a long time).
As for the barrier, my recollection is that they left it down (the Mk.IIIs being [I was told] no balls of fire) on take-offs; Local watched the landings and whipped it up when it looked necessary. (xtp- ?) - and exMudmover, MPN11 and HughGw01 might come in on this to settle the question.
Runway direction ? 30 or 31 ? - and the length ? (I've no Flip Card). Thinking hard, and having a look through Wiki, I reckon: the wartime field would have had the standard issue - 2000 (16/34), 1600 (04/22) and 1400 (12/30) yds. By the time we came on the scene, the 2000 had been stretched to 2500, I'm not sure we were still using the 1600, and 12/30 would be 1400 yds. So spekesoftly, your 4200 ft is right. The puzzle is the extension - how much longer was that ?
All I recall is that having to backtrack to the end for takeoff was a nuisance on a busy AFS, so they didn't do it - but started to do so after this affair.
All in all, this illustrates perfectly what I told Chugalug many moons ago - I am absolutely not to be regarded as an authority on anything . Danny
PS: (Note *) We Liverpudlians seem to get in everywhere !
Last edited by Danny42C; 5th Jan 2014 at 18:55.
Reason: Add u/line.