Halfpenny Green 10/28 u/s

[paperHanger]

More GA related than commercial, but the somewhat flaky 10/28 strip at EGBO got a bit worse with the departure of a DH Vampire on Sunday ..

10/28 has had poor surface condition for a while, and it seems that the jetwash from the Vampire was the last straw. NOTAM's show it as closed for at least a month ... it's been needing re-surfacing for a while already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX3_mQZ4gY8

[Nightstop]

Very lucky guy. FOD from the runway could have jammed the elevator resulting in loss of control. Any risk assessment at all done pre take-off?

[paperHanger]

Oh .. and, the completely unsubstantiated rumour to go with this little tale ... a while ago McAlpine (of construction fame) had a couple of twin squirrels at the airport, paying a minimal parking fee and daily sucking up significant amounts of (highly profitable) fuel ... when the new airport manager took over he wanted to up their parking fees by a significant amount ... what I heard was that McAlpine offered to re-surface the runways in exchange for parking/hangarage ... and were turned down :(

The twinstars are no longer based at EGBO ... and the runways are deteriorating.

[PPRuNe Towers]

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/594142-vampire-rips-up-runway.html