Not Dar Es Salaam, sorry.

Merlinxx, you might like to have a look at Kenya and Uganda 1952 to 1962 (where, I must admit, I erm, 'borrowed' the picture of Embakasi :uhoh:

Rgds
AAO

The old terminal at Tamanrasset??

Tamanrasset? It certainly looks high enough and dry enough (in my imagination: never had to go there, thank goodness, but always called them en-passant just in case...).

Since it wont waste any extra space (why is that?): we didn't get a date on the Embakasi pic, merlinxx, so it could have been 1956/7, and BUA didn't start till 1960. Predecessors Airwork and Hunting Clan would have been working it regularly, though. My memories of its early days are of transit stops as a boy pax; then later (in the 70s) as BCAL crew. Yes, used to stay at the Norfolk and occasionally eat/drink with some hard cases at the Thorn Tree and Long Bar, and rarely to the Pan Afric (the white-gloved inhabited it). Tusker and White Cap and Laterite ring a Bells. Never heard of Suzie's or the Sombrero, though... "Strange Folks": do you mean night-fighters?

Does anyone remember the plague of stray cats at the old Eastleigh in 1955? Fed by the catering manager, apparently.

Thats an interesting link on Kenya and Uganda AfgAirOps. I remember a 27 hour delay to our flight (EAA VC 10) from Embakasi once.

Sorry, nope.

Not too far away though :ok: (+/- 1,000nm)

Rgds
AAO

Ghardaia?

[In the unlikely event this guess is correct, it'll have to be Open House.]

Sorry, nope....

The city this airport serves is on both rail & river links.

Rgds
AAO

Bamako, Mali?

Marrakesh (Menara International)?

Sorry, not Marrakesh nor Bamako.

Rgds
AAO

Running out of ideas. Have found somewhere with air, rail and river links which is within 1000 miles of Tamanrasset but not sure about the ex-capital bit;

Bobo-Dioulasso?

Dave

Sorry, nope.

A give-away, non-aviation clue..... it could belong to Rene from Allo-Allo.

Rgds
AAO

I never heard of an airfield called 'The picture of the fallen Madonna with the big boobies by Van Clump'.

I also give up, AAO.

Just can't find any city that matches all your criteria, as I understand them.

:{

Just before binning this one & calling open-house a roundup of clues etc;

+/- (i.e. about) 1,000nm from Tamanrasset (ok.. 1,080nm, according to Great Circle Mapper)
The city it serves is on rail & river
It could belong to Rene from Allo Allo (or rather the person who played him)
It's a former capital (of a colony which no longer exists) (also, sorry if this has confused anyone, current 'capital' of an 'administrative region'). Think Continent Foncé

Rgds
AAO

Kayes, in Western Mali?

Phew! Over to you.....

Rgds
AAO

Excellent challenge. I don't think that we'd have got it without the clues. Probably not many of us been there!

OPEN HOUSE

Where is this?

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ntheWater2.jpg

Barrow-on-Humber?

Rgds
AAO

Not Barrow-on-Humber

How about Eastleigh?

Cowes, I.O.W?

Rgds
AAO

Weston-Super-Mare?

Am i missing something here - how would those things allow it to land on water? Are we looking at ice - or just a low approach?

Looks like Frensham Ponds?

Not Easteigh or Weston-Super-Mare. Although there is a Weston -Super-Mare connection that I'll reveal later.

Neither is it Cowes, but AAO is warm.

Take-off actually.

...and its not Frensham Ponds either.

Yes, it crashed in W-S-M

I'll try Calshot then.

Close enough for it to be East Cowes instead?

Rgds
AAO

Not Calshot

Not East Cowes, but very near - around 5½ miles distant

It is a waterdrome/aerodrome we are looking for, is it not?

Water looks very calm - maybe Hamble?

Looks like a beach to me. Could it be Ryde?

It is a waterdrome/aerodrome we are looking for, is it not?
 

Good question, Bri!

Ryde it is. So over to you Chris.

It shows Auster J/5g Autocar G-AMZV fitted with Saunders-Roe hydro-skis taking off from mud-flats at Ryde (Isle of Wight). Geoff Tyson was the pilot.
Saunders-Roe's works at East Cowes were five miles along the north coast of the Isle of Wight and I can only assume the nearest suitable mud-flats for tests were at Ryde, which is why the tests were done there.

The National Archives at Kew has a copy of an Auster Aircraft Company file held in the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office describing the trials of the hydro-skis and similar unusual undercarriage attachments made by Saunders-Roe as fitted to Auster aircraft.

A report quotes: "On water, buoyancy is achieved by lift from the pressure on the skis when planing. This is achieved at “an acceptable taxiing speed,” and a distance of only three to four times the Auster’s own length is all that is needed to reach a safe enough speed for entering the water. Successful take-offs have been made starting from sand, shingle and short concrete slipways—the remainder of the run to become airborne being on the surface of the water. During early low-speed trials on water, buoyancy-tanks were fitted under the wing-tips as a precautionary measure, but were soon removed."

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ontheWater.jpg


Sadly Auster Autocar G-AMZV came to a tragic end in August 1966 as this contemporary press cutting shows:


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...tWestonSup.jpg

"... —the remainder of the run to become airborne being on the surface of the water. During early low-speed trials on water, buoyancy-tanks were fitted under the wing-tips as a precautionary measure, but were soon removed."

Sounds distinctly dodgy to me. Engine failure on take-off, at low speed, would lead to the loss of the aeroplane? Or was it a hydroplane? [Never did understand why the term "landplane" was abandoned, yet "seaplane" retained. ;) ]

Fascinating, Warmtoast, thank you. In the absence of the necessary wherewithal:

OPEN HOUSE.

Warmtoast, thanks for an interesting challenge!!

Mind if I throw in an easy one to keep things moving;

http://i38.tinypic.com/se6dte.jpg

Oh My God! An aerodrome! I thought this was becoming 'What Fen/Bog/Marsh/Tidal Flat?' Given the half-moon, I do hope the earlier tidal thread drift has ebbed.

Not Khormaksar perchance?

evansb

As the term Aerodrome has largely been replaced by Airfield or Airport I looked up the definition Airfield in my dictionary. It states "An area of land where aircraft (aeroplanes?) take off and land, are maintained etc".

Mud flats at Ryde fall in to that category I reckon.

In the absence of describing it possibly as an "Alighting Area" sorry if I upset the purists!

And what is the term to describe getting airborne from an alighting area?