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Greenham Common memories

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Greenham Common memories

Old 26th Oct 2011, 17:51
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Lukeafb1 and Wycombe,



Greenham a major airport? I think not. Look at a map. Off one end of the main runway you have Newbury, off the other end you have the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, and the whole place is built on a quite delightful common. It would be a ghastly place to have any kind of airport.

As far as the AWRE goes, I do recall in the early to mid seventies when they were considering holding a jet aerobatic competition there the rush from Eastern European teams to enter was a tad embarrassing!
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Old 26th Oct 2011, 18:53
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pr00ne

Actually the bulk of Newbury lies to the NW of the runway line. When the Americans moved out, there was only Tescos and the Hilton Hotel which were fairly recent developments then. All the development since then has been since the place closed for good. The nearest housing was a mile and a half away at the top of Andover Road where Wash Common starts and whilst there is housing there, neither is a particularly heavily built up area. All the land to the right of an aircraft then landing along the Monk's Lane axis was open countryside to the south of Monk's Lane. The bulk of housing to the east of Heathrow is far worse. Whilst there is an argument about Aldermaston, it is four to five miles away, not "off the end of the runway".

Last edited by KeMac; 27th Oct 2011 at 15:00.
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Old 27th Oct 2011, 08:57
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Thank you KeMac.

It saved me writing almost the same reply to Pr00ne.

Greenham was the subject of (I believe) a Green Paper by the Government some 20 years ago, when the possibility of converting Greenham was very real indeed.

As an afterthought KeMac, I think that Aldermaston is about 6 or 7 miles away!!

Last edited by Lukeafb1; 28th Oct 2011 at 09:50.
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Old 27th Oct 2011, 09:28
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I recall the 1979 IAT (no R then I think) which was indeed the 25th Anniversary of the Herc. Although a display pilot, I was "staticking" only for that one - which meant no flying from Friday to Monday ...

Hercs from 25 different Air Forces, including Israel - who brought one of their Entebbe aircraft (complete with BDR!); RNZAF who won the Concour d'Elegance (unsurprisingly - I've never seen polished brake pipes before or since) and a Middle Eastern country (Iran? Iraq?) whose crew and many families/hangers on/groupies - departed for London in a fleet of hire cars on Friday to return on Monday....

And then there was the midnight swimming in Hungerford with Harriet the barmaid (aka Mad Hattie) from the hotel we were in. Never did work out whether it was in the River (Kennet? Dun?) or the Canal (Kennet & Avon?) - but it was just behind the hotel .....

Happy days on the display circuit ......
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Old 17th Nov 2011, 11:20
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Enjoy it all whilst you can folks, it may not be around for much longer.
Agree with that unfortunate sentiment Bob

Unless of course HM Government privatise it !! Now there's a thought.

Hike up the entrance prices big-time, give the RAFBF nothing, slap a £2 tax on every burger (Making them close to £7), entice people with flash advertising (through tiers of agencies of course), once they're in, tell 'em all they're going to see a couple of Cherokees and a Cessna or 2. Job done !

Imagine how many tiers of middle-men and lawyers you could pay. And if they really got it right, they'd be left with a few million of debt !

Keep smiling !
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Old 17th Nov 2011, 11:56
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I fly over it quite regularly, and have done ever since it closed.

I agree that it would be a poor site for an international airport. Putting a small - say 800x30m runway in the middle of there however would make a fantastic local flying club airfield.

Until that happy day, all the local flying clubs will keep using it for PFLs and navexes !

G
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Old 19th Nov 2011, 23:17
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Indeed so Genghis and I recall a couple of years back during Farnborough/Fairford week, observing a B1 transitting between the two taking a fairly close look at Greenham.

Take the point made by others re. AWE, it is 4nm E right on the extended centreline of the westerly runway

Leaving that aside, the number of logistics/distribution operations that have and will set up on Greenham Park (the industrial site based on the south-side of the old airfield) testify to it's good transport links. Part of the place looks like a dockside at the moment, with stacked shipping containers covering quite a large area.
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Old 8th Oct 2014, 10:40
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I know it is an old thread... but I was just telling someone about my trips to Greenham - the first being during the '83 tattoo - and why I had to stay there for a while longer thanks to the army and yank SP failing to stop some silly doris from chucking paint all over the nice kite - so I thought I'd look it up - and found this thread. As far as I am aware we (a detachment of RAF Police doghandlers from various units around the country) were only going to be there over the air tattoo weekend. This stay was extended thanks to the feeble security provided by the hosts and the army personnel. I ended up underneath the SR-71 for a few nights which weren't the most exciting times of my life. I also got struck by lightning whilst on patrol later that month on the main drag whoopee...
It's nice to read the viewpoints of the jockeys...
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 16:17
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Having been to a couple of previous Tattoos as a regular visitor, I had the pleasure of visiting the '83 event by air on the Friday. I was doing a week's work experience at NEA at Manchester, and spent most of the week helping out a guy who had recently joined as pilot/marketing bod. He was assigned to take the boss and his wife down to Greenham for the day, and kindly asked them if they minded me tagging along, which they didn't. I assume that Friday was validation day, as most things seemed to display while we were there, which I watched from a marquee on the active side of the runway. Arrival there was an experience - bumbling along on finals in an Aztec with a C130 bearing down on us, and something small and fast behind that.

My brother wasn't best pleased - he had gone down on the train at stupid o'clock in the morning to get there, while I hadn't intended going at all - I only found out I was when I got to work at 9 that morning. I still got there before he did, though being before mobile phones I wasn't able to tell him until he got home late that night!
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 21:00
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Ah, Greenham Common.

My first visit on the 29th August 1970.

Having attended the "Armed Forces Day" at Upper Heyford, it transpired that some interesting a/c were to be seen at EGVI.

O/S map No.158 appeared to show a very minor road north of the runway which I approached from the Newbury end. A very obvious "no through road" sign did not deter me and I was pleased to see two MC-130.E Hercules from Det.2/!.SOW, Pope AFB, North Carolina, five C-123.K Providers from 319SOS/1.SOW, Hurlburt Field, Florida and a U-10.A Super Courier also from 319SOS/1.SOW. To complete the day a C-47.A Skytrain from 7ACS, Sembach(I think), FRG.

At the end of the long road north of the runway another "no through road" sign, which was clearly intended to deter the curious onlookers as the road was clearly not a no through road!

Kieron.
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Old 28th Oct 2014, 15:06
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Greenham memories

The winning Herc at the 25th anniversary was the Australian Herc which was on its delivery flight from Lockheeds to Aussie which is why it was in such good nick, a little unfair I always thought. The most poular Herc at that display was the 47 Sqn Herc as through their link with Guiness ( 47 have a Toucan as part of the Squadron badge and Guiness have long used a Toucan as part of their advertising) A place for refreshment ( BAR )was set up in the back of their aircraft open to all the Herc establishment. And how do I know this, because at the time of that show I was a Herc ground Engineer and was invited in to partake by the crew.
I helped with the IAT at Greenham from the first one where I helped another SNCO from Lyneham, Sam Salter, lay out the aircraft parking aid for the display, this consisted of a big, and I mean big, sheet of metal hung on a wall in the control room painted to scale with the runways, taxiways and dispersals to which were attached by magnets scale aircraft so the parking plan could be worked out. All very high tech but this was rather a long time ago.
After that I worked as part of an aircraft handling party for the period of the show, very interesting working with all the different aircraft operators with far too many stories to relate here, although taxying a F111 from the side of a sloping dispersal where its tail was pointed at some display tents which it promptly blew into the air as a hefty application of throttle was applied to get it moving was one of the more repeatable!
I still have the IAT tie that all the helpers were given at the end of that weekend, it was a great time , a good time was had by all.
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Old 29th Oct 2014, 16:47
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LM, Were you flying a JP5?
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Old 30th Oct 2014, 04:40
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One year, the theme at Greenham IAT was the Hunter. As we had several at Farnborough, one was detailed to go there. A Wessex was to take ground locks and engine blanks etc and I scrounged a ride along with some of the Farnborough aircrew.
On arrival, we were parked on a pan with other helicopters and one of the Farnborough pilots explained what our 'cargo' was to one of the USAF ground handlers; his reaction was to call out 'hey Hank, y'wanna take this pile of **** over to the green Hunter.'
I wandered around the parked aircraft with a couple of Farnborough pilots and we came across an S3 with a message written on the nose in felt tip 'make this aircraft nice and pretty for the limeys'. One of my companions had a felt tip, and he wrote 'this aircraft will never look pretty'.
PS. He later became OC Flying at Boscombe Down.

Last edited by chevvron; 1st Nov 2014 at 07:39.
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Old 31st Oct 2014, 21:40
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Nostalgia rules...

As the wind now whistles over Greenham's empty acres and echoes round the big open spaces so forlorn and neglected, it's impossible for those who were not present to know the magical qualities of the IATs once held there. Memory often flushes away the ordinary just leaving the exceptional but I don't think anything will ever come near to replicating the pleasure of those amazing air displays. For a couple of quid extra we used to sit all day in the stands right next to the runway and revel in all the sights, sounds and smells of those fantastic events. The noise was like the clap of doom, and with just a bag of sandwiches and a few cans of pop, we used to go home after eight hours or so of flying, with ears ringing. And the static lines were amazing, you could get so close and talk to the aircrews. Others have referred to the C130 Hercules and Hunter meets. Fantastic! The commercial side alone was worth the entrance fee, but often we just didn't have time to see that much of it. We tried Fairfird and Farnborough a couple of times later but they were never the same.
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Old 1st Nov 2014, 08:48
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There was a time in the 1970s, before it became a Peace Camp, when Greenham Common was used as a circuit for car sprints. It was a very fast course.
We used the East end of the airfield starting on the southern taxiway heading West to a rightangle right-hander into a cross-taxiway - both were so wide the corner was on at 100 m.p.h. in a fast car, then another 100 m.p.h. rightangle turn onto the runway heading East followed by the 80 m.p.h. hairpin bend back onto the slightly swerving taxiway back to the start. Those speeds were for Maurice Gates in his TVR Tuscan - I and my friends in our Daimler SP250s were a bit slower, but I still saw over 120 m.p.h. on the main runway.
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Old 8th Jul 2015, 22:03
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Somewhat sad

I was the USAF Communications Squadron Commander from 1985 to 1988 at RAF Greenham and considered it the best assignment of a 26yr career. Greenham also is a very fond memory for my father who was a B-47 pilot who was there several times during the 50's and 60's. The picture of the control tower is somewhat sad in its condition especially since the facility came under my squadron and the air traffic controllers worked for me. I am happy to see it is listed as a historical facility and is up for sale with the hope that some group or individual obtains it and restores it to represent the long history and partnership between the US and Great Britain at this wonderful location.
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Old 9th Jul 2015, 00:21
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Originally Posted by Allan Lupton
There was a time in the 1970s, before it became a Peace Camp, when Greenham Common was used as a circuit for car sprints. It was a very fast course.
We used the East end of the airfield starting on the southern taxiway heading West to a rightangle right-hander into a cross-taxiway - both were so wide the corner was on at 100 m.p.h. in a fast car, then another 100 m.p.h. rightangle turn onto the runway heading East followed by the 80 m.p.h. hairpin bend back onto the slightly swerving taxiway back to the start. Those speeds were for Maurice Gates in his TVR Tuscan - I and my friends in our Daimler SP250s were a bit slower, but I still saw over 120 m.p.h. on the main runway.
Got a feeling either Sydney Allard in his dragster or Alfie Hagon on his drag bike did record attempts there in the mid '60s.
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Old 9th Jul 2015, 00:29
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Originally Posted by vanleeuh
I was the USAF Communications Squadron Commander from 1985 to 1988 at RAF Greenham and considered it the best assignment of a 26yr career. Greenham also is a very fond memory for my father who was a B-47 pilot who was there several times during the 50's and 60's. The picture of the control tower is somewhat sad in its condition especially since the facility came under my squadron and the air traffic controllers worked for me. I am happy to see it is listed as a historical facility and is up for sale with the hope that some group or individual obtains it and restores it to represent the long history and partnership between the US and Great Britain at this wonderful location.
I can remember vectoring C23 Sherpas into Greenham in the '80s, although Farnborough wasn't the designated unit to do that, Boscombe Down were.
Then there was the time we handled 2 x C141s inbound. One said to the other 'is the TACAN operating yet?'
'Nope' said the other one.
'How'd ya know that?' said the first one.
'Cos I got it in the back of me' said the second one!!
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