RAF Henlow

[chevvron]

Sadly the airfield was closed on 12 Mar 2020 and alll based aircraft moved out.

[kenparry]

Do you mean permanently? What will happen to the airfield and base?

[Willard Whyte]

Do you mean permanently? What will happen to the airfield and base?

Housing redevelopment. Assuming there are enough people alive to need extra houses.

CAM is due to move to Cranwell.

[chevvron]

Station is due to close in 2023 however there's a rumour the airfield alone may re-open after some 'risk management' has taken place; let 'em build the houses on the domestic site, plenty of room there..
Some of the hangars are 'listed' so cannot be demolished; the T2 on the eastside which housed some aircraft in store for the RAF Museum has already gone as has the large hangar which used to be near the 25 yd range on the west side. The 'listed' control tower (made from Hurricane packing cases) has gone too.
Only visited once; lovely long grass runways but with the demise of the gliding school (see 'Air Cadets Grounded' thread) there was only the flying club abd some privately owned aircraft.

[NutLoose]

Nothing like giving advance notice.

A flying club has been told it can no longer train pilots or offer recreational flights from an RAF base.

Henlow Flying Club was told by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it could not fly from the airfield at RAF Henlow from Thursday.

The club said it would have "no option but to close" unless the issue was resolved.

A spokesperson said the government "remains committed to the phased drawdown and disposal" of the base.

The club, which was informed of the move three weeks ago, will be able to remain on the site but not to fly aircraft from it.

The decision came as the airfield's manager stepped down. The role will not be replaced and the MoD said "all civilian flying" must cease.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-51840411

[Sandy Parts]

Shame - enjoyed a stroll around the grass airfield perimeter watching a tiger moth carrying out touch and goes while I was visiting for an aviation medical. Sadly, I expect the gain from housing development will prevent any future owner keeping the airstrip (and golf-course?) open. Guess my next visit to RAFCAM will be to Cranwell. (Lets not mention the never-occupied centrifuge hall at Henlow that is still sitting there...rumour was it was built too small for the equipment?)

[Helena Handbasket]

RAF Henlow?? More like HMP Henlow. I spent a year there in the 60's. It felt like a lifetime. Couldn't get out fast enough. It was a real throwback place. I'm amazed that we were not required to wear puttees and pith helmets.

[ShyTorque]

I underwent my RAF IOT training there, over winter of 1976-77. I didn't enjoy it much. On arrival I was one of the fastest runners on the station but I was later criticised due to my not matching their expectations of physical improvement (which in fairness, in my case was due to the RAF physical training being less regular and less strenuous than my previous job)!

Our course project was to polish (with Duraglit!) one of the Lightning prototypes (P1A and P1B) parked adjacent to the parade square, prior to the graduation of a senior course. The night before the grad parade, it was somehow decided the Lightnings needed some company. The old Vampire from the other side of the camp by the hangars was "borrowed" for the occasion. I was one of the more sober ones there and remember having to hold up the traffic around midnight while it was manhandled across the main road. Obviously, the next morning, before breakfast, the SWO, having inspected his parade square decided he might just like it moved back again - ASAP! It seemed to take a lot more pushing, by a lot more people, to get it back to its previous resting place, even though the return trip was downhill. Only then did we notice all the tyres were totally flat (and probably had been for years).

[possel]

I was at Henlow 78-80, and I recall one IOT course pushing the Vampire up the road towards the parade ground. However, they never got to the parade ground and instead pushed it tail first off the road between some trees. In fact it might even have been the last course when IOT moved to Cranwell (79?) to join the graduates.

[GWYN]

As this is a Henlow thread: with the currently indefinite closure of the airfield and apparent demise of Henlow Flying Club, does anyone have any recommendations of other clubs / places to fly in the reasonable locality? Thanks for any suggestions.

[chevvron]

As this is a Henlow thread: with the currently indefinite closure of the airfield and apparent demise of Henlow Flying Club, does anyone have any recommendations of other clubs / places to fly in the reasonable locality? Thanks for any suggestions.
Try Meppershall about 3nm west.

[Idle Reverse]

. . . or even the Pathfinder Flying Club at RAF Wyton; once they get their aircraft back from (would you believe ?) RAF Henlow !! :ok:
Actually, I believe they were flown out of Henlow about a week ago and are in maintenance at Turweston; awaiting a return to RAF Wyton once the grass strip there is opened up again.

[GWYN]

Many thanks for the suggestions, although I don't think there are any aircraft for rental at Meppershall. There seem to be two or three possibly based there and registered to the owner / engineering company and others which fly in for maintenance. Still worth an exploratory visit though.

The Pathfinder Flying Club states that it is for "regular Service personnel" -which I am not! So presumably not available to me. Thanks for the suggestion though and probably still worth a call.

Does anyone have any knowledge of operations at Rush Green? I did investigate that but about 12 years ago, so I guess things have probably changed.

Thanks for the responses.

[sycamore]

Rush Green is really `owners only`,and the hangar is pretty full,but really `sporadic`,ie w/ends.....

[VictorGolf]

There's a 3-axis microlight school at Little Gransden and also at Sandy near Old Warden. Classic Wings also do training at Duxford on Cessnas.

[Auster Fan]

Try Meppershall about 3nm west.
From the website for Brinkley Aircraft Services who own the airfield:
"The airfield is only licensed for aircraft operations related to maintenance and repair at our associated companies"

[Whopity]

ShyTorque
Were you on Blue Sqn? This is the P1A being moved to the parade square.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1000x627/henlow_77_45_8c9054e1c8c541b32db5ac90c6e56652ad115757.jpg
English Electric P1A RAF Henlow 1976

[chevvron]

From the website for Brinkley Aircraft Services who own the airfield:
"The airfield is only licensed for aircraft operations related to maintenance and repair at our associated companies"
Meppershall is unlicensed (thus PPR) and not listed in the AIP in AD or in ENR 5.5 so what that statement means I don't know; if there is a planning condtion from the local planning authority prohibiting aircraft other than those requiring maintenance it should say so.
I'm sure there is a group there and a look at ZoomEarth satellite image shows 9 aircraft parked there.
A friend of mine had a share in a Luscombe based at Henlow; don't know where he's gone now but I doubt if it's Cranfield with the present attitude of the university management.

[Whopity]

Brinkley own Mepershall Aerodrome not Henlow. To fly into Henlow you need PPR obtainable from gavin nicholson on an mod email. Details on the MOD website: https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/raf-henlow/flying-info/

[ShyTorque]

ShyTorque
Were you on Blue Sqn? This is the P1A being moved to the parade square.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1000x627/henlow_77_45_8c9054e1c8c541b32db5ac90c6e56652ad115757.jpg
English Electric P1A RAF Henlow 1976

No, I was a member of Red Sqn.

Do you have a date for the photo? The P1A and P1B were already in place by the parade square when I arrived.

[NutLoose]

I remember doing similar at Saints in 76 for the B of B day, we got to the mess and were foiled by road signs and lights, angle grinder sorted those and welder tacked them back upright, later after a return the other direction the welder did a full job on the sign bases.

Is that the one now at Cosford?

[Whopity]

ShyTorque
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.

[wub]

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x481/tsr_2_2be87957c2e69df3c740b3cc5ac9a2dcada38ed1.jpg
I was stationed at Henlow in 1975. I came home from work one afternoon, looked out of my window and saw this. It is now at Cosford.

[Whopity]

Another Blue Sqn flight project to clean and polish it, 1975 I think. It was transported across the airfield from the black hangar on a hovercraft. There was part of a Valiant in that hangar and I believe a Comet.

[wub]

There was also a V2 rocket in there. The building was known as ‘The Pickle Factory’. Folklore has it that it was built back to front with the large doors facing away from the airfield, and so the foreman in charge of the project was ‘in a pickle’.

[ShyTorque]

ShyTorque
Moving the P1A was a Blue Sqn flight project on 307 course between July and October 76. Photo must be about Sept 76. They had to remove the flight controls to get it through the trees. Apparently, some years earlier the other one had been moved by students back to the airfield and nobody removed anything. WG760 is at Cosford which was also at Henlow, WG763 is at Manchester.

I was 310 Course, we arrived mid November.

[Whopity]

Shytorque:
I was the Training Officer on 311 Blue running 4 weeks behind you. My office was in the same barack block my father had lived in when he trained there in the 1930s
wub:
Re the Pickle Factory, it was named the pickle fatctory when it was first built in the 1930s because it was built on the wrong airfield, should have been Hendon. My father in law had been there on the Parachute Trials Unit in 1933. My wife's grandfather had been the SWO when the Station Commander took the parade on his horse! The black hangar where the TSR2 had been stored was on the Henlow road near the farm.

[VX275]

Another Blue Sqn flight project to clean and polish it, 1975 I think. It was transported across the airfield from the black hangar on a hovercraft. There was part of a Valiant in that hangar and I believe a Comet.

The Comet left Henlow to become RAF Lyneham's gate guardian and now only its nose section survives at Old Sarum. The RAFM also stored their ex South African Lockheed Ventura there before moving it up to Cosford. I followed the Ventura through Arlesey on its way from the A1 to Henlow making me a few minutes late for work at RAFSEE.

[wub]

wub:
Re the Pickle Factory, it was named the pickle fatctory when it was first built in the 1930s because it was built on the wrong airfield, should have been Hendon.

Well I suppose that is marginally more serious than building it back to front!

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Lucky me - I was 306 Entry (Red Sqn), the only stupid pushing we had to do was an old fire-cart (the type which, as a squaddie, I used to practice heaving around Templer Barracks in Ashford when part of the Fire Picquet); hadn't realised we were among the last to see the P1 on-site.

Can sympathise with the traffic around Arlesey - our family lived in Ickleford, were still there when I went through OCTU. Oh, and I used to see the Comet nose-section when heading into Old Sarum for a refuel in my final job - had no idea I'd been following it around.

[alwayslookingup]

There was also a V2 rocket in there. The building was known as ‘The Pickle Factory’. Folklore has it that it was built back to front with the large doors facing away from the airfield, and so the foreman in charge of the project was ‘in a pickle’.
I remember the Hangar being called the TSR2 Hangar, late 78/early 79. Rumours were it contained a TSR2. Now I know they were true!!

[wub]

I remember the Hangar being called the TSR2 Hangar, late 78/early 79. Rumours were it contained a TSR2. Now I know they were true!!

I never heard it called that but I left in 1975. The TSR-2 in my photo was being moved to Cosford, so 1975 was when it left.

[Radley]

I completed OCC at Henlow in 95. Largest mess bill in my career. All I’ve got to say about the place really.

[Whopity]

I did OCC there in 75; I was criticised for not living in the Mess; I wasn't allowed to as I lived in a quarter there! None of the OCTU Flight Commanders did very well on OCC, we had a better job than the OCC instructors and got a hard time as a result. Sadly, the guy who sat behind me was killed in a Canberra a week later.

[ShyTorque]

Two of my 310 course colleagues didn’t survive their first tours.

RIP Steve Belcher (Nimrod multiple bird strike and triple engine failure on takeoff).

RIP John Cathie (Jaguar/Jaguar mid air, formation run and break)