Ah, Finningley. It's really quite nice up there now, I am told, that the filthy coalite plant upwind at Rossington has closed down.

If I can't ask why ref. Leeming closing then...
Why not keep Leeming.:)

Beags, you really have become terribly dull since becoming civpop. I thought it was just me, but your a dullard in the A1 bracket.

Get out more, start enjoying your cpls's pension!

Such a useful contribution from one of the 'race of sky gods':yuk:.

Wattisham may be open but it onlty counts as an airbase if stuff actually flies!

Lynx and Apache make great static displays, though!

Since Valley seems to crop up quite a lot on this thread the following description of Anglesey in a book I am reading may be of interest:-

'A miserable tract, composed of a succession of circuitous and craggy inequalities'.

The description is from the late 1700s but from the comments nothing much seems to have changed.

:( Marham....please don't make me go back.....!

Close :
Lyneham
Brize Norton
Cranwell
Odiham
Leeming
Coltishall
Coningsby
Akrotiri

Re-Open :
Scampton
Finningley
Church Fenton
Chivenor
Manston
Oh, and
Lyneham
Brize Norton
Odiham
Leeming
Coltishall
Coningsby
Akrotiri

I'll get promoted for suggesting a fab waste of cash.

Except leave Cranditz shut. All that happens there is Adminers ponce around trying to convince each other that Flt Lt is a really important rank.

Prop,
Splendid idea. Take a long week end (remember them?) and a couple of OBEs.

Close Valley, drop the Menai Bridge with a well paced Paveway and give the whole sodding island a shove towards the north-west!

What's the gripe with all the other places compared to the carbuncle on the backside of the RAF. Get with the programme people!

Wattisham played host to a det of harriers from 4Sqn the other week - are things on the change?

Not that I'd be one to start a rumour...! ;)

Well if the article in yesterday's Grauniad is anything to go by may I suggest the following:

Bentley Priory
Uxbridge
Colt
Leeming
Lyneham
Wittering - as a flying base
and one of the "Northern" out posts.

Reopen? Nothing - except may be RAF Basra.

Defence is up the creek and the paddle was taken as a savings measure last year.:{ :\ :ugh:

Roland,
Do you have a link to this article please?

Close

RAF Mount Pleasant

Do you need to ask?

Re-open

RAF Gatow

Formation drinking in down-town Berlin

Regards

-Nick

Didn't mention the "Tigers" Beags, shame on you!

Nothing matters very much, most things don't matter at all.

Ah yes, sorry - forgot about 74! Actually it was only the Firebirds and the crows when I was at Wattisham - but tanking the F4Js back from Miramar and North Island was fun! If memory serves, my 'IRT' on the VC10K was completed on a trip flown from Dayton, RV'ing with a couple of the Tigers' 'new' F4Js from Wright-Patt, then tanking them to Goose for a 3-e ILS.

I like FV's fantasy air force idea - but could we move the Weston Zoyland Hunters to Merryfield and base some Javelins at WZ?? Even better - have a DH Hornet OCU at Merryfield as well?

Plus the non-embarked Sea Venoms and Sea Hawks at Yeovilton, of course!

I think that the last RAF aircraft I saw at Merryfield were a gaggle of Pioneers and a single Twin-Pin which were refuelling on the way to somewhere further west? Must have been in the early 1960s.

Ahhh! Valley!

Its not the end of the world
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but you can see it from there!

Close?....Brize Norton, of course - if you've ever tried calling them for a radar service as a GA operator, you'd know why - they were bad enough when trying to get a zone crossing in a military transport or fast jet, but I didn't know I was born then. Also, their Zone is spreading like a cancer into the (what used to be) free southern English airspace.

Open?.....Abingdon and Thorney Island - had some great times at both places.

A

BBeags. Please don't forget I've already got Westonzoyland earmarked for my squadron of ex-Nigerian Jaguars.

Negotiations are proceeding and a mate of mine in the local constabulary has agreed to pop along to stop the traffic on the road across the runway when required, so that will help operations.

Airbedoo-doo, close the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome? Shame on you for suggesting such a thing...

There is a new Chirp form out now, 'Pilot/Flight Crew report - Access/Crossing Difficulties in Class D Airspace'. So if any Twatco gives you a hard time, fill it out and fire it off. Perhaps the status of certain CTRs might then be reviewed? Why does Brize merit a huge Class D CTR when Exeter and Humberside, for example, cope with just an ATZ? Why not just a double-ended Class G MATZ centred around a 2.5 mile ATZ?

Madsdad - OK, bin the Javelins - you can base the African Cats at Weston Zoyland. The Zum'zett Wetlands wouldn't challenge their initial climb rate after all!

Nah,
Put the Jags at Sedgemoor Services on the M5, they'd probably unstick somewhere abeam Taunton.:cool: