RAF Wyton

[red 5]

Live right next to Wyton and a Tornado, Jaguar & harrier landed there at 10.00am this morning then departed at 15.30. Nice to see some real aircraft there for a change. Just wondered why they were there today, something to do with the MOD i guess.

[Chris Kebab]

SAOEU Day out.

[BEagle]

That's a day out ?? Mmmm - lucky chaps!

Wonder whether it woke up all the desk-sucking blotter-jotter chair-polishers in the Bull$hit Pavilions? At least it may have reminded them that the RAF does actually have some aeroplanes!

[the funky munky]

Quite right, Wyton is the pimple on the backside of the planet!

[Double Hush]

Heard a story that a Harrier mate who was posted to the 'Great Pavillion' in the mid 90's used to open his meetings there with a fellow Bona-mate from up the road doing an IP-TGT run, the TOT being the appointed start time for the meeting. The opening sentance went along the lines of - "That, Gentlemen, is what the RAF is really about". Is that why a NOTAM went out about this time trying to dissuade fast-jets from overflying Wyton?

[Sumpy]

Harsh Comments Beagle! Please never forget that without the hard working civil servants at MOD Wyton the RAF would rapidly grind to a halt. In fact how do you manage at weekends without us all????

(Disgruntled of Wyton - and yes, they really believe that Bull$hit here).

P.S. Nice to get a chance to sniff exhausts close up again:)

[FJJP]

DH - disturbing the poor blanket-stackers had nothing to do with stopping the use of Wyton as a tgt. That's when the Cambridgeshire Police Helicopter Support Unit was formed and based on the airfield - before the UASs and AEF moved in.

[Nopax,thanx]

Whoever, whatever and whyever it was......don't care really, just keep doing it, chaps!! At least that way the airfield will be kept properly open, 'cause once it stops, it can stop for good!

Hope they managed to upset all the numpty nimbys in the surrounding villages who constantly gripe on about a few tupperware trainers flying over their houses at weekends - they should have been there in the old days!

You can't beat the howl of a J79 at 4am as another RF-4 lobs into Alconbury off an exercise - my house was right underneath the approach - and I loved it!!!

[red 5]

I also live under the approach path to Alconbury and remember very well the RF-4C's going over day & night, a noise that most people could never forget. However i find it amazing the amount of letters in the local papers from people complaining about the noise of the Grobs flying over the local area, they soon forget.

[canberra]

just why did the yanks fly at such stupid times? i can remember ang f4s doing cloud breaks at leuchars at 3 in the morning and anyone remember when lakenheath went low lying on boxing day? yes it did hit the fan!

[maxburner]

All this talk of F4s is making me quite nostalgic. Does anyone remember the Aggressor detachments to Alconbury, with long nights in the Red Bear bar. The aggressor work up was still the best DACT training the RAF ever had.

Ah, the good old days when the threat was from the east.

[FJJP]

He fellas! lay off the local population! I are one, and apart from ONE letter in the local papers, there have been no grumblings from surrounding villages. Au contraire, everybody is happy that there is activity continuing at Wyton. A mate on the Parish Council confirms that the villagers have no beefs with the RAF.

[Beeayeate]

Not only Alconbury's Phants but also Wyton's 543Sqd PR Victors doing full-bore engine runs at night. And 51Sqd's Comet at all hours of the night, and 39Sqd's PR.9s, EWETU's Canberras, the occasional Varsity . . . oh, and a couple or three Chipmunks.

I remember down in St Ives market, people would just stop talking for a minute while a Phant turned onto approach overhead.

But never encountered any real hostility or grumbling about the noise, only about the fact that TV reception would go all "wooly" with an F4 or Victor flying over on approach.

Sound of freedom gents.

[Double Hush]

Or the 0600 wake up call with the daily(nightly?) U2/TR 1 flight on finals for Rwy 30.

[Dukeyboy]

Have a couple of mates based at Wyton on the AEF and I am reliably informed that the Fast Jet-fest on the afforementioned date was part of a Families day for the Direct Entry Flight. Furthermore, Several Fast Jets recently LANDED (Gasp) at Wyton and it was used earlier in July as the FOB for the Apache evaluation. Finally, anybody see the F-86 that flew through a few days ago? Stirring stuff.

[BluntM8]

Afirm - the FJ's were there on the invitation of the DE flight for a families day. Local residents may be aware that on graduation the DE flight usually arranges a fly-past, the last one comprising F3's, GR4's, a Dominie etc....
Stiring stuff for those of us in the vicinity.

Also can recall a very low and fast flypast by the new Marham Stn Cdr, taking a break from his display practice....magic!

And yes, the Sabre was cool, although I bet it was fun trying to integrate that into the Circuit!!!!!!!

[Reheat On]

Sadly, as a St Ivian I also remember the Canberra assymetric on finals onto Oxmoor [~ 1972] and the two SR2 Victor nasties, the second at night. very numbing when a V Bomber misbehaves esp. in sight of the airfield. The crews IIRC are buried at Houghton.

The SR2 had some outrageous angle of climb - 70 odd degrees - to keep the speed down while the gear came in, and whenever you saw one on air test, it was worth stopping for.

Blown flaps on the Rf4Cs - many a boy learnt to whistle to those :). Seeing the night formation landings with the electro luminenscent strips was wierd at first. I remember the RB66's. Sigh. Age.

I see they have finally flogged the underground secret complex over the road from the pen pushers. Last of the great cold war recce relics.
What news on Alconbury and its 'Aerial freight hub' ambitions?

[skua]

Remember a UAS summer camp at Wyton when we were converting onto the 'Dog. One afternoon a huge fireball went up at Alconbury. It was explained to us that this was a F4 that had inadvertently dropped a tank, presumably whilst in a (tight) circuit. Sounds a bit implausible, but it was certainly spectacular.
Also recall a large bit of burnt grass (tho it might have been at Marham) which was said to be the location of one of those SR2 disasters mentioned above.

Nimbys in E Anglia must also have forgotten the pleasures of A10's by now....

[Baldie Man]

Remember the Tankbusters very well. Used to get them doing low level exercises over my house! Our next door neighbour flew them too - boy was his son the "in kid" at school! It was around the time of Top Gun and he was Maverick to us youngsters!! lol

BM.

[red 5]

More activity at wyton again today, a Nimrod made a approach on 09 this morning at 09.15Z pulling up and banking steeply over St Ives! beautifull sight. Shortly followed by several FJ's making high speed passes over the field, keep it up guys it's great to see real a/c at wyton.:)

[BluntM8]

Well done to London DE flight then, I'd imagine.....

sounds rather like a graduation flypast to me...

[aw ditor]

Rumour control' has it that Marshalls looked at moving to Alconbury (from Cambridge) but decided
against it due to the potential cost of Runway refurbishment.No news of any decision on the rail freight
terminal as yet, the local road infrastructure (A14) needs a major upgrade to cope wih current traffic let alone any future increases!!

[Reheat On]

Back from the costa courtesy a 737-800. Wonder if the Mighty Hunter referred to above was a 'no name, no squadron' MADless model revisiting old hunting ground.

skua posted 11th August 2002 16:43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also recall a large bit of burnt grass (tho it might have been at Marham) which was said to be the location of one of those SR2 disasters mentioned above
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually a K2 with full load [guess 75 ish] which IIRC had a major bird strike just short of V1, they managed to stop it in the overshoot - all crew departed safely AIR but airframe caught fire, and in that case, a lot of fule burns well. Big fuss over the quality of the overshoot ensued - the gardener had been short changing MoD or summat!

The Wyton one would have a been a large patch of grass about 3000' along 27 just to North side - a sobering reminder for all wannabes for many a moon.

Now like the sound of 4 Conways at full tilt, as BEags will tell. Stuff of legend, lad. The distant sounds of Artouste APUs revealing the pre flights under way.

Don't forget that Alconbury [and Wyton] ops were governed by Ivan and his lack of respect for UK Public Hols!! You could forgive the Yanks anything once you got in the PX :)

[Oscar Duece]

Marshalls turned down Alconbury due to runway costs ???

I may not have been there in a while. But didn't the yanks re-surface the mainstrip for the U2's only shortly before leaving.

Last time I flew past though it was covered in cars.

[skua]

Thanks for that reheat.

And another thing about Alconbury....
I recall that on the East side of the A1 there was a filling station near the approach for Alconbury's Easterly runway. Strange thing was it was owned by a Soviet oil company, and I never noticed any other branches in the UK. Useful location or what?

[Nopax,thanx]

Oscar Deuce....

"I may not have been there in a while. But didn't the yanks re-surface the mainstrip for the U2's only shortly before leaving."

Could well be - the shelters that were under construction at the time were certainly completed after the aircraft had left - it was cheaper than cancelling them!

No.1 son's been working on the airfield this summer, in one of the industrial units - fantastic place, so much potential - let's see it used sooner rather than later, before it goes to seed!

Reheat on...

Another St. Ivian???? I thought I was the only one!!!!!!


:cool: :) :D

[Beeayeate]

Reheat :

" The Wyton one would have a been a large patch of grass about 3000' along 27 just to North side - a sobering reminder for all wannabes for many a moon. "

Would that be the 543Sqd Victor you're talking about? Nasty incident that.
Also, I seem to remember an F-4 going down onto the grass just outside the fence on the airfield side of the old crossroads [pre-roundabout days], just up from Burges & Son's garage. Cleared away by Alconbury in a few short hours.

[Reheat On]

Beeayeate - yep, that'll be the one. I woke up to hear it on the news - still recall that nauseous feeling and many will have experienced it more than once.

When you read the accident stats its amazing how many Vulcans were lost over the years.

The Alconbury F4 was where the crew banged out and the a/c just as luck would not have it landed just off the end of Wyton 27 and went straight through the then un modded crossroads - you used to have lights for the traffic for a/c on 09 finals. After that, the moved the cross roads about 1/4 mile to the west.

I always thought than when the F15s arrived on a visit, you could sense the arrogance from the aircraft attitude!!!

John Burge at Burges has only just retired [in last few yars] having sold motors to 'er majestys finest for many a year. Last of a breed.

So - it's official- St Ivians could take over the world :)

Gawd, I played Table Tennis AND hockey for the place. Used to have one of the highest pubs per capita ratios in England. In my day, there was a train service on to March and Kings Lynn, and the Huntingdon link was still open too until Beeching put his report in.