View Full Version : North Weald.
Chuck Ellsworth
21st May 2015, 23:12
Anyone here know what happened to the two DC4's that were parked at North Weald to be used in a movie about the Berlin Airlift?
I was supposed to fly for that movie but it never happened.
Is North Weald even there anymore?
Chuck E.
4Screwaircrew
21st May 2015, 23:13
Still sitting at the edge of the airfield, and visible from the motorway.
North Weald is still active.
Chuck Ellsworth
21st May 2015, 23:27
Thanks!!!
I spent a lot of time at North Weald and would like to see it again someday.
Heston
22nd May 2015, 07:24
NW is an excellent airfield with good facilities and helpful staff. A great place to visit with all sorts of resident aircraft from microlights, through the usual GA stuff, WWII fighters to cold war jets.
I worked there up to a couple of years ago and used to park my car under the DC-4s :)
Manker
22nd May 2015, 11:21
I was told that they tried to put some fuel in one of the aircraft in order to do an engine run. Fuel came straight out of the bottom of the wing due corrosion. A pity.
Heliplane
22nd May 2015, 15:04
What Heston said. NW is a brilliant place with great people. I'd base my plane there if I lived a bit closer but I still have all my maintenance done there.
North Weald is my home base and I love it :)
Unusual Attitude
23rd May 2015, 09:18
I was there a couple of weeks ago doing some testing on one of our race aircraft, deffo still parked up looking very sorry for themselves.
As for N Weald, fantastic place, very accommodating to the odd spot of hooliganism ;-)
sunday driver
23rd May 2015, 12:44
used to park my car under the DC-4s
Can't recall which test pilot said "Fly it? I wouldn't stand under it"
SD
chevvron
23rd May 2015, 23:45
I raced at a couple of drag race meetings there in '85 and the runway surface was horrendous! Hopefully this has been rectified!!
Chuck Ellsworth
24th May 2015, 02:18
Do they still have the restaurant in the old WW2 Air Force building?
Who runs it now?
Is the M24 still a parking lot most of the time? :E
Heston
24th May 2015, 06:24
Yes they do.
Same people (The Squadron).
Yes (but its the M25, not that it matters :) ).
North Weald Airfield - Epping Forest District Council (http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/index.php/out-and-about/north-weald-airfield/north-weald-airfield)
sycamore
24th May 2015, 10:04
Chuck, you`re wecome anytime;we did try starting one of the -4s,but whilst they would turn and `chuff,fuel ran outwhen the pumps went on. A couple of yrs ago it ran for a while ,but the system was jury-rigged from a tank in the fuselage with pipes out along the wing to the engines,bypassing the mains.Nothing since. Other stuff you can find on the NW Thread on `Key publishing /Flypast site`.
India Four Two
24th May 2015, 14:03
Yes (but its the M25, not that it matters :) ).
Probably a change in magnetic variation since Chuck was there. :E
Chuck Ellsworth
24th May 2015, 14:20
Or my mind is slowly decaying and I can't remember a lot of things clearly.
I do vaguely recall a circular parking lot around London that could hold a lot of cars.
India Four Two
24th May 2015, 15:07
Soon after the motorway opened in 1986 traffic levels exceeded the maximum design capacity and in 1990 the Secretary of State for Transport announced plans to widen the whole of the M25 to four lanes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M25_motorway#cite_note-11)By 1993 the motorway, which was designed for a maximum of 88,000 vehicles per day, was carrying 200,000 vehicles per day.
Build it and they will come!
JW411
24th May 2015, 16:50
I can remember listening to a documentary on BBC about the M25. The gist of it was that when the original computer projections were done, the conclusion was that it should be built with four lanes all the way round. Then some comedian decided that with the huge increase in oil prices in the 1970s, they could get away with three lanes.
We all know what happened afterwards.
What did make me smile was the opening statement by the presenter of the programme.
"We are about to meet Mr Smith. Now not many of you out there will have heard of Mr Smith but he is the gentleman who is in charge of the M25. If you don't think that is important then consider this. He has the undivided attention of more people sitting and standing still than the Pope".
It made me smile.
As to the two DC-4s at North Weald; I haven't been up close to them for some years and one of them was leaking like a sieve even then. My very first co-pilot in the RAF in 1966 was a South African and we have been best friends ever since. He flew the SAA Historical Flight DC-4s (and DC-3s and Ju-52) until age defeated him. He came over to stay with me last year and we had a day at Duxford. On the way back I offered to take him into North Weald to look at the DC-4s. He declined; he reckoned that the sight would break his heart.
mikehallam
24th May 2015, 18:34
I was given a Fly-In sheet at Stow Maries (WWI airfield, Essex) a couple of weeks back when I landed.
If you are here to fly or drive, North Weald has a Vintage & Classic Fly-In run by Air-Britain 20th & 21st June. www.air-britain.com/flyin-about
PPR (free landings) 01992 524510.
By road - Vehicles with one driver £10, extra car pax £5 each.
mike hallam.
Rallye Driver
25th May 2015, 14:01
The man himself in the orange Cat
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/YakRider/Smiling_Chuck%20Lo_zps6uilnezs.jpg
A selection of pics of the DC-4 engine runs…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/YakRider/DC-4%201_zpsa5z6a7gy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/YakRider/DC-4%202_zpsnsgxypuf.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/YakRider/DC-4%203_zpsxzfxmb2a.jpg
North Weald is certainly still operational, with some interesting projects in progress!
RD :ok: