Back in the day, the RAF Hercules fleet used Manston for practicing three-engine take-offs.

Back in the day the CAA insisted Heavylift use Manston to practice some landings before putting a widebody A300 in to SEN's narrow runway.

And the AN124 filming of 'Die Another Day' was done at Manston courtesy of Air Foyle Heavylift

My limited piloting experience includes three landings - the first was a greaser at Manston, difficult to miss! Second was at Headcorn, apparently I landed in the big rut on the runway, well, that's my excuse for the thump that tested the sprung steel to its limits...

Did you have to pay for it?
Controllers at units other than Manston had strict instructions not to mention to pilots they would be charged for the use of the foam carpet unless the pilot specifically asked.

Hi Chevron good point !! They did not mention to me about any charge -- However when the Insurance Guys came round they pointed out that there was a charge of 4,000 pounds for the foam which was not covered !! The gear failure was the forward link rod shearing so as it settled into the foam the nose gear pushed back into the bay. I put the two bladed props horizontal, so after the Guys washed all the foam off, I pulled the nose gear down, pinned it down and l flew the aircraft back to Biggin. So I pointed out to the Insurance guy that damage without the foam the repair bill would have been considerable more than 4k. They accepted the foam charge !!

Does anyone remember the Arax Airlines Dc4 Which belly landed on the foam runway must of been 77/78 . This was on test flight from Southend the pilot was either ex AirFerry or Invicta

A Valiant did a wheels up on Manston's foam runway back in the sixties. One of the mainwheels wouldn't go down so they went through the procedure and selected emergency lowering on the wheel that wouldn't go down. On the Valiant you could select either wheel and the system would blow the outer door lock and the door would open followed by the undercarriage being lowered with the emergency actuators.

That didn't work so they cleaned up and carried out a belly landing.

At the wash up they found that the individual emergency undercarriage lowering circuits had been cross wired since manufacture. They didn't hear the bang on the wrong side.

Last time I saw Arax Airlines at manston it was 1990 they had aDc8 also Flash airlines Dc8 came in and Turkish cargo airlines Golden Horn 707 was at modern jet support.

5N-ARC (42941) on 28th February 1979.

arax dc4 yep i was there it was just about dusk when it came back from the test flt i should remember the captain? anyway we (in the hangar) heard there was a prob so everyone went out and he came in over ramsgate with 1 & 4 shutdown then it went quite wen he shutdow n the other two then a strange swishing sound as the aeroplane was in the foam!, vic surridge was flying it, the monkey on the stick had got on the wrong side of the hook all the linkage was worn and mankey!the raf wanted the runway back in something like 30 mins which was not pos so they came out with two iron fairys and put steel cables around the wings in between the engines and lifted!!! the cables cut through the leading edge and the flaps and falsework to the spar caps then dumped the thing on a bomb trolly very sad as the landing damage was very slight happy days at invictas we had the arax dc3 there as well then later i worked for them with the dc8 till they lost it in cairo



gs

Any idea when the Arax Dc4 left .I am sure I saw it still at Manston in August 79 On jacks .

Pic of her here on the trolley.

treadi, many thanks for that! shame it dosent show the cable damage which took a team from atel several months to repair, i seem to remember all four spar caps where damaged


gs

Attachment 4433

View of the runway taken sometime in the 1990s - I'd guess we had been involved in resurfacing or repairing it, too long ago for me to recall now!

i think that pic is much older, there is no flying club which would appear bottom right and the prospect area seems to still have the isolation hospital i`m pretty sure that was knocked down early eighties just after i moved here! a lifetime ago!


gs

You could very well be right. I was given the pic to accompany a tender around 1994 or 5 I think. The work could well have predated that by 10 years or more I suppose. Never had a project data sheet for the airfield; we certainly did some work for the RAF fire school.

When I landed there, I recall going into the flying club for a coffee and a pee; must have been 1989. It wasn't far from the runway, that I do know!

It was 84 the runway was resurfessed .Could have been Laings who done this .Watched the Saturday BAF Jersey flight have to use part of runway not being worked on and the taxi way to Depart.

As I have not made 10 postings I'm not allowed to post a URL link, however, searching G for "G-ANCG EMERGENCY LANDING MANSTON APRIL 20th 1967" should find a video of the British Eagle Britannia landing on the foam carpet. I worked in ATC at Manston from November 66 to August 67, posted on promotion.

Foam carpets aren't used in the UK anymore. Wonder why?:hmm:

tcinbg


lotus1, that would probably be right; the PSA Airfields Branch would have been the design authority, Laings could well have been the contractor. I joined PSA in '85.