RAF - how small?

[EJ Thribb]

By my reckoning the British Army is now using as many, if not more, airfields than the Royal Air Force. I merely raise this topic to highlight how small the RAF has become. The list is may be incomplete so feel free to correct me.

1. Abingdon
2. Ballykelly
3. Bassingbourn
4. Brawdy
5. Catterick
6. Chivenor
7. Colerne
8. Dishforth
9. Driffield
10. Gutersloh
11. Hullavington
12. Kirton Lindsay
13. Leconfield
14. North Luffenham
15. South Cerney
16. Spitalgate (Gratham)
17. St Athan
18. Swanton Morley
19. Thorney Island
20. Topcliffe
21. Waterbeach
22. Wattisham


This doesn't include Oakington which passed through British Army hands prior to becoming home to illegal immigrants or Bodney and Watton which now form part of Stanford training area.

In these modern enlightened times when we are all equal (bean-bags, open-toed sandals, etc) does this mean that all members of the RAF can now claim to be one of the 'few'?

[The Apprentice]

Knock Wattisham off your list, became light blue (Army) years ago

[The Apprentice]

Oops, know I have bothered to read it properly I see what you mean, I think your right they are all ex RAF fields now Army. Though few have anything to do with there former use.

[Dr Schlong]

Not sure if Driffield is still being used... feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though! ;)

[Sven Sixtoo]

Amendment

Add

Line 1 "and Royal Marines"

Add

1.1 Arbroath
6.1 Colchester

Are we allowed to delete Wattisham, Chivenor and Leconfield (Crabs in paraffin canaries still in residence)?

Sven

[Man-on-the-fence]

St Athan is still Crab albeit of the Privatised variety.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Chivenor is the base of the Commando Logistics Regiment, Royal Marines, and a couple of related Army units.

But the RAF are stll there, in the form of SAR Sea Kings from 22 squadron.

[EJ Thribb]

Yes, there may still be a small RAF Det but they are not running the station, are they?

[Flt Lt Spry]

Driffield is an Army driving course, I believe.

Netheravon...?

Bruggen.

Erm

That's it.

[Tiger_mate]

Therewas some politics a few years ago that whilst Dishforth domestic site (inc hangars) was AAC, the airfield remained RAF c/o Linton on Ouse. Dont know if said politics still exist.

The Army seemed to do well for Dishforth unlike Gutersloh which they f***ed up in spades.

Royal Air "Force"?

Royal Air "Flight"?

Still the most exclusive airline in the world, Doh.... even indulgence is run by the Army!

Promote someone, lets all be the Royal Flying Corps:) :)

[Sloppy Link]

Dear Flt Lt Spry

You are right that the AAC took over at Netheravon in the late sixties (it was the RAFP Dog training depot) but I think it worth mentioning that it was originally a RFC field before the Great War and therefore was an Army Airfield before it became RAF! I can not think of any others that have that distinction.
Upavon is not on the list unless you class the RAF GSA as a controlling authority and also mustn't forget Middle Wallop, a major airfield during the Battle of Britain for you chaps. Does Cosford come into the equation as I think that is now a Joint Services Training centre for technical trades?
There are others;
1. Templeton (part of the Castlemartin Training areas)
2. Credenhill
3. Blandford Forum
4. Jurby (I think it is an Adventure Training Centre)
5. Ouston
6. Two airfields on Thetford training area, (names forgotten)
7. Kingsfield, Dhekalia

There have been other uses as well, RAF York is now the Clifton Moor shopping complex,RAF Croft and many others are now racing curcuits, RAF Inskip is an antenna farm, Londonderry is now the home of the DuPont chemical factory (sneaking suspicion that it may have been a Naval Station), RAF Long Kesh, Magheraberry, Full Sutton and others are Prisons and RAF South Marston is the Honda car factory. Anyone else got an unusual use for disused airfields? Giving them to the AAC does not count.

(edited because I thought of another one)

[BEagle]

Yes - regrettably many of our best bases have been taken over by the pongos. Why the hell couldn't we have let them have Ice Station Kilo and the v-word instead of the places we've now lost. They've trashed Abingdon, idiots have f*cked up RW26 totally.

But, at the end of the day, they're still only army....

[Mike RO'Channel]

In many respects its not Army/AAC per se that steals these airfields - its more the Movers and Stackers/Really Large Corps/Pussers looking for somewhere to store the things they over-ordered/hoarded/can't find a use for - hangars are ready-made stores! (And normally, in the jolly pleasant Cotswolds). Hullavington, Colerne, Upavon, South Cerney, Bicester, Aston Down etc etc and some might even argue that they have taken over Brize Norton, Lyneham and Northolt. These 'professional' logisticians (glorified store-keepers)are a Global Threat!:mad:

[CSRO]

Don't forget Middle Wallop and duty rumour is Apache to Yeovilton???

Also we have now lost Newton to the immigrants.

[izod tester]

Little Rissington was taken over by the Army although I don't know whether they still use it. The bits of St Athan not being used by DARA are soon to become home to the Welsh Guards.

[EESDL]

Let's face it, Lyneham will be a Pongo Palace soon.

[Art Field]

And now Newton and maybe Bicester are going to the immigrants!.

[RAF]

driffield is little more than a sports field. just the greens driving there trucks around!!

[St Johns Wort]

Greens...whats a green...do you mean the Brown Jobs? Is that Beverly still at Driffield?

[1.3VStall]

And don't forget Upavon - one of the oldest RAF stations - yes, "stations", I can't abide the current vogue of calling them "bases", leave that to the Spams.

[Art Field]

I think the Beverly may have left some years ago, its just coasting out over Seaford.

[Muff Coupling]

CSRO,

Really...AH to Yeovilton....mmm, that will be a"Ship" then..Apache not cleared for operations on HM Ships..that deals with that one.
Altough, the concept has merit..think of the transit time saved as the airframes can hop over to Wastelands and return for rectification of manufacturers faults as the begin to appear!:D

[Dr Schlong]

Isn't the Beverley at Beverley?!

[PlasticCabDriver]

Don't forget Ternhill.
Airfield is still RAF but station became Brown many years ago.

"Can you not hover so near the tower, we're trying to have band practice...". I kid you not!

[BEagle]

Like "Please don't break overhead the Saddle Club - it scares the horses". Tough - we did. They're probably so many tins of Doggiemeat Chunks now.......

[STANDTO]

Jurby is , in its first incarnation, now an industrial site though still with a preserved runway

In its second (bombing range), the tower is a private residence.

[A Grey Man]

This is torture, watching us all beat ourselves up over what was and what could have been........lets just stop handbagging around, accept the inevitable and do this Joint thing properly. Hey, who knows it may even improve our Operational Capability after the teething problems that those above Cdr, Lt Col and Wg Cdr are bound to have because of their own selfish, career orientated hidden agendas!

[Chinese Vic]

RAF Debden is now a sad lonely piece of runway next to Carver Barracks (RE unit near Saffron Walden)....

[high spirits]

RAF Mount Pleasant (not on a mountain nor pleasant) is now some poxy 'FI garrison', dress it up in any pompous pongo name and it's still a crap way to spend June. J1- J9....J-What!

[Mr C Hinecap]

Leconfield is the Defense School of Transport (read Really Large Corps School of Shouting & Driving) and Driffienld is a sub-site of theirs. Really sad to see.
What is impressive is Wattisham etc Officer's Messes - a classic RAF designed mess, but looks much better stuffed full of the impressive silverware etc the Army has 'liberated' from Johnny F-chap.

[Sideshow Bob]

Driffield airfield is used as a Leconfield driver training area, the Hangers are used for grain storage. The domestic site was under the control of RAF Staxton Wold, Leconfield did use two blocks for over-flow accomadation, it has now been closed and sold off, I think some of the quarters are still under the control of DHE, but the majority of the quarters were sold off.

[sparkie]

now I know why I PVR,d .....I remeber saying to the AOC at my departure interview (short and not so sweet)

When I joined in 62 we had a strength of over 150,000, now you couldn,t half fill Wembley stadium with the RAF !!

Of course you couldn,t fill Wembely stadium with anything now except more rubble

next stop give all branches of the Armed Forces the same uniform just different cap badges hmmmm didnt the Canucks do that sometime ago and it didnt work



send three and fourpence the enemies confused :( :(

[madasacow]

STANDTO

I have fond memories of Jurby a few years back.
A night sortie out of Bruggen, the rest of the continent and UK was ****ty but we needed to night fly for hours/currency/etc. High-low-high into the Irish sea, descending on the gloom on TFR through the 1000 ft cloudbase into the inky blackness over the sea, a quick fix off the ‘point’ on the Isle of Man (just). Only 14Kgs loaded on the CBLS; 30 secs of TFR before a TF-Loft-TF manoeuvre. We had flown for 1 hour 20 mins of quiet transit followed by 5 mins of such hectic ‘heads-on-fire’ and then home.
‘How’s it looking?’ says the front seat. ‘It’s black as a witches t*t out there’.
I couldn’t see a thing; it was blowing a force 4 and the raft was bobbing up and down out of sync with the sweep of my GR1 radar. The green ‘porridge’ looked like ‘Speckled Jim’. Time seemed to be slowing down. 20 secs to the pull (up) … nothing…15 secs to the ‘pull’…still nothing!!! I’ve had one fix in the last 500 miles and I am praying that ‘Mr Kalman’ is on my side.
Suddenly with 10 secs to go before the ‘pull’ I got a ‘paint’. Slew, slew, insert. Another sweep and ‘it’ had gone again. Had I got the raft of was it a figment of my imagination. No. There it is again. Slew, Insert… 2… 1… pull.
Bombs gone. “RECOVER!”. Roll 135 (Klaxons in the ears) continue the pull. “TOP 3700 ON THE WAY DOWN”, “3500”, “3000”, 90 at the horizon, “2500”, 60 at 10 degrees nose down. “2000 FEET 1000 TO SAFETY ALTITUDE ARE YOU HAPPY”.
Good noises from the front seat “Happy, heads up cross checks, time to go home”. Chicken (bingo) fuel already! We’re on the way back up through the cloud again.

20 seconds later the man in the tower reported Delta Hotel so all 2 hours 35 were worth it!

Some things just stick in your mind!

[Tiger_mate]

Madasacow quoted:

2000 FEET 1000 TO SAFETY ALTITUDE ARE YOU HAPPY”.

Interestingly I chose very similar [identical] words (Are you happy) recently as we were about to create the third cat 5 in as many months:

Must be one of those surreal moment things:

Anyone else been there?

PS We were lucky, and the kudos due is not coming or so it seems. Shame because 5h1t hits in record breaking time.

[STANDTO]

madasacow

One of many tales from that range. The old station itself still has happy memories for those who went through IOT there

In real terms, it was ideal for anything that required commitment and lack of distractions - I still say they should move an FTS there

[Zoom]

Madasacow

Liked your post. It took me back to even earlier days: same base (sorry, station), same weather, different seat, no TF in the R and not-exactly-cutting-edge nav kit, but mighty similar fear/thrills/gung-ho mix - and the nice, warm feeling that we had plenty of thrust to get us out if we got it all wrong!

[FJJP]

Stradishall is now High Point prison, and I believe Acklington also went to the prison service.

[SP30]

A couple of unconfirmed and probably untrue rumours about Abingdon:

1. When the RLC asked for funding to put inspection pits into the hangers the response was "Aircraft hangers dont have inspection pits."

2. Most damage to the runways and lights (none remain) was done before the army found the piece of paper that said: The condition of the runways at the time of the hand over is this! Here is the service schedule. You're responsible for repair. Next SSO "No vehicles on the runways."

3. To be fair to the army alot of the damage to 26 was probably done by West Mids Finest skid training car.

Give thanks to the Army. Without them we'd have to stay on the ground.

Yours,
Denying all knowledge

SP30

[Grimweasel]

Cheers RAF!

I would feel rather out of place these days on an Army camp if were not to have a control tower and a few 'C' type hangers!

I look forward to Lyneham becoming the home of 16AA Bdge! Seems sensible to me! Dearth of real estate in Colchester.....big (bent) runway at Lyneham with blocks and a spread of MQ's!

Rumour of course, but who knows? Now they have nearly finished Fairford they are bound to sell that as a Refugee camp too!:) :D

[Flatus Veteranus]

The airships seem not yet to have perceived that the threat no longer comes largely from the North East. So we still shut down the more pleasant and historic stations in the South and West - and then panic about recruitment and retention. Presumably the thinking is that the grunts have bigger recruiting problems than the RAF - so give them the plum sites. :(

[Fox_4]

I would suppose joe public might prefer the army to take over the old, fun places rather than a ship full of immigrants.

Only a thought......

[Mike RO'Channel]

Now that Grimweasel has brought it up - what of the future of Lyneham/Brize/SMG?

Someone told me that because of the way in which Brize/Lyneham were commisioned in the 1930s, then this had a huge impact on their 'potential'.
Brize opened pre-war and is MOD property through and through, therefore MOD can sell it at a big profit to Branson et al. Lyneham, on the other hand, was built during WWII on requisitioned land and should be handed back to the original owners, - therefore, not much profit to be made. In either case, there is a lot of concrete to be put down to house C17, J Model, A 400M, FSTA and probably Tri*, VC10 and K Hercs which will probably be life-extended to cater for the c0ck-up that is Smart Procurement!
Selling St Mawgan on the other hand, would really cheese off President Bush so that's not going to happen either!

My bet is on Northolt - such a useful station that is!

[WorkingHard]

What would you do if you retained all the stations listed? There are not enough aircraft to go round. Still you could always spread a few air rank about since they seem far more numerous than aircraft!!!!!

[supermunk]

Don't forget Catterick, home of the Rocks. Now Percy Pongo is trying to get rid of the last RAF presence, even if it is an Air Cadet Gliding School

[madasacow]

Flatus Veteranus

As you say, where is the threat coming from? That's why they can't sell Northolt. They need somewhere to launch the Q from when they close Conningsby ;-)) (VBG)

[Jackonicko]

The Jockistanis and Taffs will doubtless want independence soon, so why leave any assets there. The threat doesn't come from that direction any more, so close Leuchars and retain Coltishall, close Kinloss and retain St Mawgan, and close Lossie and retain (say) Odiham. Oh, and bin Valley and replace it with Yeovilton or ......... Chivenor!

[Mike RO'Channel]

I would think that the Viet Taff and the Talibjocks would actually oppose that on commercial grounds - many taffs and jocks actually work there and gawd knows, over the years, the rest of us have spent a fortune in Joannas and the Octopig, not to mention bars and curry houses various! :p :p

[Mike RO'Channel]

Quite right Ragspanner! But isn't Snathan going civvy/brown?:( :(

[Jackonicko]

Glamorgan's hardly even Wales - it's Welsh Wales and (I refuse to even attempt to spell it properly) Innis Mon that we need to be rid of.

[Mike RO'Channel]

Careful Boyo - they know where you live!