Originally Posted by
lasernigel
Did an ATC camp there back in '67, bit too young to get the clap. Varsities and Hastings. Did a trip down to Thorney Island with some VIP on board in a Varsity. Highlight of the week was going up to Finningley to see the Vulcans.
Camp in 1965 for me. We drove past Finningley to go to Rossington Colliery where we went down t' pit.
Little did I know then that I would be based at Lindholme during most of '73 doing my (civil ATCO) Area Radar practical training at what was then called Northern Radar, a Joint Air Traffic Control Radar Unit (JATCRU). On my previous visit in 1965 it had been called 'Humber Radar' and prior to being ATC it was an air defence unit designed to spot attacking bombers and direct the Bloodhound SAMs at places like North Coates to hit them before they could hit our Thor ICBM sites eg Hemswell.
In '65 the Hastings had all been grounded due to some airframe problem (I think it was just after an accident at Colerne with a transport version dropping paras) so we only flew in the Varsities however by the time the airfield closed in '72 (the station didn't close until the radar unit did) it was also used for some maintenance on Victors, and one or two were still in one of the hangars in '73. The only unit still based on the airfield then was the bomb score unit, with the bombing school on the main camp.