How many RAF stations have swimming pools?
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BV,
BV, your too young to say that. You have to at least be a "Cold War Warrior" to make such inflammatory comments!
And I promise not to flood the forum with stories of how ‘it was so much better in my day’!
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Sorry with my facetious hat on, I am unclear what aviation link the original Q has. To get back to present tense though Honington, as the Home of RAF FP, has a superb indoor pool but its opening hours are a little narrow. Much better than the grotty pool it had in the 80s when the roof let more water in over the winter than the small pool could actually hold
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There was a well established pool at RAF Wyton in 1976, -turn right (or left if coming from camp) at the guardroom ,across the green from the officers' mess right next to the main road. I swam my RAF swim proficiency ther in Aug 1976. It was still there in 1991-1995.
Whilst the divers gently punch you in the abdomen if they think that you’re not breathing out on the way up.
Actually once you got over the panic of being flooded whilst trapped in the chamber the escape trainer was quite good fun. The dunker ( initially at Vernon then VL) less so. !!!
No idea why the submarine service stopped it. Seemed like vital training to me.
Actually once you got over the panic of being flooded whilst trapped in the chamber the escape trainer was quite good fun. The dunker ( initially at Vernon then VL) less so. !!!
No idea why the submarine service stopped it. Seemed like vital training to me.
yep, all on its own next to the running track. Perfect for skinny dipping late at night in the summer, happy days in the early 70s. ( Comcen girls where are you 😉 )
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It was still in use by the RAF in 2004/5 when I was there and the building is still standing, although not sure what the Army have done to it now!
Last edited by ej200man; 2nd Nov 2022 at 13:23.
Can't see any mention of Lyneham's pool, if memory serves it was near the airmen mess & bowling alley it had a reasonable height diving board too. Scared myself witless having decided to try the high board - only did that once!!
It was there near the cadet's MQs when I did summer camp in '87; where did it go?
I'm afraid the Old Workshops that housed the Halton pool were declared unsafe around 2016ish. It has been shut ever since. Technically it does still have a pool but you can't use it...
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In the summer of ’67, just a few minutes after leaping into the deep end of RAF Khormaksar’s very nice outdoor pool near the Shackleton pan, the peace was shattered by a terrorist bomb exploding on an empty Aden Airways Vickers Viscount airliner parked further down the pans. An unexpected, shocking and unpleasant event although most of us bathers had become accustomed throughout that year to the many unfriendly actions of the local Arab NLF and FLOSY brigades. As far as I remember, no one in the pool was injured but the poor old Viscount was a total wreck.