Scampton And Linton-on-Ouse Closure
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I'm sure Leeming was mooted as the new home of the Reds some years ago, and killed off due to safety concerns for all those distracted HGV drivers on the A1(M) causing accidents that would then be blamed on the RAF.
Avoid imitations
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Bob, You need a pretty serious crash cat for a transport aircraft full of pax, so getting the appropriate number of fire engines to your runway at an army base would be n issue. The other reason ( excuse) they always quoted was passenger and baggage handling equipment , ie steps, conveyor belts and things.. Oh yes and PCN/ LCN.
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BV, on tactical AT ac it used to be standard policy for us to collect/ drop off via a unit’s home base but this changed a number of years ago probably due to airfield fire cover etc as described above. For the larger AT which carry most pax it was probably always the case. I can remember flying to Brize many years ago to collect freight for Lossiemouth that had come in on a Tristar as that ac couldn’t land there.
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BV, not a bad question.
Sometimes the legal fire and rescue cover couldn't be achieved nearer to passengers' ultimate destination. Some aerodromes had limited taxiway width etc., also it wasn't so much the crew duty time which might be limiting but the aircraft's next allocated task.
Things improved a little during my (fortunately brief) exposure to the world of trucking and we certainly collected and returned passengers to their ultimate destination whenever possible. But we were often up against the blinkered stupidity of Ascot Ops, I regret to say. Airlines use their cleverest people for schedule planning, whereas the RAF did not.
It was different if returning FJ crews and support personnel to the UK on an AAR trail as we were then under the delegated control of an AARC. Most of whom would agree to approval to land at places such as Marham, Wittering, Leeming and Leuchars even if it meant burning more fuel. But that wasn't always possible, also the MT for passengers might be at the mercy of their own station. This one time (not at band camp!) when I brought some FJ folk back to the UK it hadn't been possible to arrange to fly them direct from ASI to Wattisham but they were hugely glad not to be going back deafened and starved in the bowels of an Albert. One of their number told me that their MT Ops wouldn't send a bus until they'd been told that the VC10 was about to land at Brize; I'd faced the same in my short time on 56 so was very sympathetic. An HF phonepatch to Wattisham off the sticky-out bit of Africa and a little white lie did mean though that the Wattisham bus arrived at the precise moment the passengers had cleared customs and the movers. Which probably saved them about 5 hours of frustration.
But you wouldn't believe the opposition we often faced from some jumped-up 'Unit Mobility Officers' when we'd offered to fly passengers home when we had the opportunity.
My favourite RTB with pax was flying a pairs VRIAB at Wittering with the first GR5 when we came back from Dubai via Akrotiri. We broke first, extended downwind whilst the Harrier landed, then dropped off the pax and were UK customs cleared by the SDO!
Sometimes the legal fire and rescue cover couldn't be achieved nearer to passengers' ultimate destination. Some aerodromes had limited taxiway width etc., also it wasn't so much the crew duty time which might be limiting but the aircraft's next allocated task.
Things improved a little during my (fortunately brief) exposure to the world of trucking and we certainly collected and returned passengers to their ultimate destination whenever possible. But we were often up against the blinkered stupidity of Ascot Ops, I regret to say. Airlines use their cleverest people for schedule planning, whereas the RAF did not.
It was different if returning FJ crews and support personnel to the UK on an AAR trail as we were then under the delegated control of an AARC. Most of whom would agree to approval to land at places such as Marham, Wittering, Leeming and Leuchars even if it meant burning more fuel. But that wasn't always possible, also the MT for passengers might be at the mercy of their own station. This one time (not at band camp!) when I brought some FJ folk back to the UK it hadn't been possible to arrange to fly them direct from ASI to Wattisham but they were hugely glad not to be going back deafened and starved in the bowels of an Albert. One of their number told me that their MT Ops wouldn't send a bus until they'd been told that the VC10 was about to land at Brize; I'd faced the same in my short time on 56 so was very sympathetic. An HF phonepatch to Wattisham off the sticky-out bit of Africa and a little white lie did mean though that the Wattisham bus arrived at the precise moment the passengers had cleared customs and the movers. Which probably saved them about 5 hours of frustration.
But you wouldn't believe the opposition we often faced from some jumped-up 'Unit Mobility Officers' when we'd offered to fly passengers home when we had the opportunity.
My favourite RTB with pax was flying a pairs VRIAB at Wittering with the first GR5 when we came back from Dubai via Akrotiri. We broke first, extended downwind whilst the Harrier landed, then dropped off the pax and were UK customs cleared by the SDO!
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But in practice, not since they became a 'hybrid' unit, by taking on the static role of the previous CRC Scampton in addition to their mobile capability.
BV, not a bad question.
Sometimes the legal fire and rescue cover couldn't be achieved nearer to passengers' ultimate destination. Some aerodromes had limited taxiway width etc., also it wasn't so much the crew duty time which might be limiting but the aircraft's next allocated task.
Things improved a little during my (fortunately brief) exposure to the world of trucking and we certainly collected and returned passengers to their ultimate destination whenever possible. But we were often up against the blinkered stupidity of Ascot Ops, I regret to say. Airlines use their cleverest people for schedule planning, whereas the RAF did not.
It was different if returning FJ crews and support personnel to the UK on an AAR trail as we were then under the delegated control of an AARC. Most of whom would agree to approval to land at places such as Marham, Wittering, Leeming and Leuchars even if it meant burning more fuel. But that wasn't always possible, also the MT for passengers might be at the mercy of their own station. This one time (not at band camp!) when I brought some FJ folk back to the UK it hadn't been possible to arrange to fly them direct from ASI to Wattisham but they were hugely glad not to be going back deafened and starved in the bowels of an Albert. One of their number told me that their MT Ops wouldn't send a bus until they'd been told that the VC10 was about to land at Brize; I'd faced the same in my short time on 56 so was very sympathetic. An HF phonepatch to Wattisham off the sticky-out bit of Africa and a little white lie did mean though that the Wattisham bus arrived at the precise moment the passengers had cleared customs and the movers. Which probably saved them about 5 hours of frustration.
But you wouldn't believe the opposition we often faced from some jumped-up 'Unit Mobility Officers' when we'd offered to fly passengers home when we had the opportunity.
My favourite RTB with pax was flying a pairs VRIAB at Wittering with the first GR5 when we came back from Dubai via Akrotiri. We broke first, extended downwind whilst the Harrier landed, then dropped off the pax and were UK customs cleared by the SDO!
Sometimes the legal fire and rescue cover couldn't be achieved nearer to passengers' ultimate destination. Some aerodromes had limited taxiway width etc., also it wasn't so much the crew duty time which might be limiting but the aircraft's next allocated task.
Things improved a little during my (fortunately brief) exposure to the world of trucking and we certainly collected and returned passengers to their ultimate destination whenever possible. But we were often up against the blinkered stupidity of Ascot Ops, I regret to say. Airlines use their cleverest people for schedule planning, whereas the RAF did not.
It was different if returning FJ crews and support personnel to the UK on an AAR trail as we were then under the delegated control of an AARC. Most of whom would agree to approval to land at places such as Marham, Wittering, Leeming and Leuchars even if it meant burning more fuel. But that wasn't always possible, also the MT for passengers might be at the mercy of their own station. This one time (not at band camp!) when I brought some FJ folk back to the UK it hadn't been possible to arrange to fly them direct from ASI to Wattisham but they were hugely glad not to be going back deafened and starved in the bowels of an Albert. One of their number told me that their MT Ops wouldn't send a bus until they'd been told that the VC10 was about to land at Brize; I'd faced the same in my short time on 56 so was very sympathetic. An HF phonepatch to Wattisham off the sticky-out bit of Africa and a little white lie did mean though that the Wattisham bus arrived at the precise moment the passengers had cleared customs and the movers. Which probably saved them about 5 hours of frustration.
But you wouldn't believe the opposition we often faced from some jumped-up 'Unit Mobility Officers' when we'd offered to fly passengers home when we had the opportunity.
My favourite RTB with pax was flying a pairs VRIAB at Wittering with the first GR5 when we came back from Dubai via Akrotiri. We broke first, extended downwind whilst the Harrier landed, then dropped off the pax and were UK customs cleared by the SDO!
I attended Scampton airshow last sept and was saddened too by the state of some of the buildings.....
So Reds likely to relocate to Wittering or Leeming??
cheers
Seen trooping flights using Edinburgh Airport over the last 20 years, especialy in the VC10 days
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Here is an Idea, sell Hendon for housing and use the funds to transfer the RAF Museum to Scampton, I would imagine the enlarged historical site would be ideal and the funding generated from selling the prime site at Hendon would fund it all.
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Scampton may be a valuable piece of real estate, but what if the new owner takes offence to having the grave of a dog called Nigger. I suppose he could be exhumed and reintered at York Minster, but I don't think the incumbent bishop would approve, in that case would it not the most appropriate final resting place for Nigger, as the most famous RAF dog, be be St. Clement Danes, it would be two fingers up to political correctness.
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BV, sadly most truckies were unwilling to make waves and suggest alternatives... Those of us who'd been buggered about in previous existences were more likely to try.
I've flown trooping flights to/from Lossiemouth, Kinloss, Turnhouse, Manchester in shiny VC10s and to Marham, Wittering, East Midlands, Leuchars in the VC10K.
Can do - if allowed!
Some pax are never satisfied though - we once gave some pompous pongo officer a lift to Germany. It was a double IRT sortie, so Brize to the Clutch took a couple of hours and 3 approaches, taking-off at 10:00 local. Rather than thanking anyone, said pongo huffed and puffed about the time it was taking....
Just for once could a thread about Scampton NOT become a conversation about that sodding dog...PLEASE!
I've flown trooping flights to/from Lossiemouth, Kinloss, Turnhouse, Manchester in shiny VC10s and to Marham, Wittering, East Midlands, Leuchars in the VC10K.
Can do - if allowed!
Some pax are never satisfied though - we once gave some pompous pongo officer a lift to Germany. It was a double IRT sortie, so Brize to the Clutch took a couple of hours and 3 approaches, taking-off at 10:00 local. Rather than thanking anyone, said pongo huffed and puffed about the time it was taking....
Just for once could a thread about Scampton NOT become a conversation about that sodding dog...PLEASE!
Last edited by BEagle; 24th Jul 2018 at 15:22.
You'd have thought Chivenor would have been the ideal place to base the RA.......had they not given it away to the RM.....?
I have it on good authority that the government is going to lease space at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Buying slots will be expensive, but apparently it will be a saving. BA are going to service airframes and BA pilots will fly the aircraft on off duty hours. Ok I made it all up, but the way things are going, it won't be long. What a mess!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
As you pull the pins from the map the distances between runways increases, fuel reserves increase, and flying hours reduce. Throw night flying in to the pot and it was almost inevitable we had to use civil airfields, and that was 20 years ago. Holding Manchester from Coningsby or Leeming from Lossie was a drag.
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Plus when you start to resurface runways etc, your options to disperse become limitied.
