DX Wombat

I was the 'lad' in the tower on weekends in the early 60s having previously been a Staff Cadet at 10 AEF.

Which one of the handsome controllers was your Pa?

FW

Daz,

I most certainly remember Toad Hall. I am so old I confess to seeing Pan's People live there once - and bl00dy sexy they were too!;)

Ah - Sands & Toad Hall - it must have been the ozone that had such a beneficial effect on a young man's libido!:E

Man who worked there for 40 years says "No". We shall see.

Where would Rockin' Rod go? Cath behind the bar...

The usual Closure Clue is doing up the MQs. Hmmm. Has West Lancs had a new bar?

Seen by many - forgotten by none.

I wonder who this anonymous "expert" is, and if he has any connections to builders or other housing companies....
https://www.otsnews.co.uk/woodvale-w...ys-raf-expert/

Maybe a disgruntled ex or wannabee AEF pilot who got binned in the recent purges?

Expert????
Manchester Airport don’t even want biz jets!!
Liverpool charged me £40 odd quid a landing when renewing my twin rating recently. That’s going to reduce costs.
The recent find of a load of buried asbestos at Woodvale negates the “alternative” uses

In one of those coincidental symmetries that life sometimes throws up, the maiden flight of the English Electric P1B took place at Warton just a few months before the last THUM Flt Spitfire left active RAF service at Woodvale on the other side of the Ribble estuary.

Toad Hall and the Sands - names to conjure with!

Ah, Woodvale! SAMUAS (okay, it was actually called MASUAS but Salford Aero-Eng dominated when I was there!) in the mid-80s. I'm not sure it was ever bettered in my 30+ years!

Never forget the 'old' mess, climbing on the Meteor gate guard, regular dunkings in the water storage pools, loads of flying, 3 useable runways, Toad Hall night club, and of course Uncle Rod Newman and XX549! Such happy days!

XX549 - get some time in! I remember WD322 on MUAS.

Wow, I wonder who this was

I have to admit, keeping an airfield open with no other Station function is a little wasteful these days. Maybe some form of joint ownership is required like the former RAF St Mawgan?

As a former QFI/CO with happy memories of RAF Woodvale, I am aware that the future of the airfield has been reviewed many times. Somehow it has survived several rounds of defence cuts despite more operational bases closing. The savings made by closing Woodvale would be a fraction of those from the closure of a major base like Leuchars and Kinloss (Both of which still have limited use by the RAF. Manchester, Salford and Liverpool universities all provided a good number of aircrew and engineering recruits to the RAF in my day, and Woodvale is conveniently placed for students from there to start their RAF training. Unfortunately, the emphasis on flying in the UASs has been reduced in recent years. The current Grob contract can't have much longer to run and the advent of MFTS may introduce a more complex and expensive aircraft for EFT. I am sure that the bean counters will be looking again at the need for and cost of every base in the UK. I am aware that Woodvale has some civil activity but this is unlikely to contribute mor than a few thousand a year towards the maintenance of the airfield, ATC and emergency services. To call Woodvale an emergency diversion airfield is fancyful. The runways are shortwith low load carrying factors, there is no regular source of avtur and the crash cat is not suitable for anything other than light aircraft. In my time there only a handful of jet aircraft used the airfield - on preplanned visits and each one generated a storm of protest from local residents! To suggest that UAS/AEF operations can operate successfully from a major civil airport is incorrect. Continuous circuit training does not mix with heavy instrument traffic. UGSAS had to detach to an RAF airfield for the circuit consolidation phase each year (The need for this may have reduced since the reduction of UAS hours in recent years). my years at Woodvale were, in the main, very happy and we produced many good pilots (including RED ONE) and engineers for the RAF. Good luck for the future!

As far as AEF ops go, it’s effectively already closed.

When my father rejoined the RAF in 1951, (having demobbed in early 1947 and joined 613 AAF Sqn, based at Ringway), his first posting was to MUAS as QFI/CFI.

As you will know MUAS was operating out of Ringway in the late 1940's, which was for the reasons you set-out completely unsuitable. It moved to Barton, which was particularly convenient for not only my parents, but for me as I attended Bridgewater School in Worsley. Ironically my father flew from Barton in 1938/39 with the Civil Air Guard. Then MUAS moved to Woodvale. Nice location. I recall seeing The Queen waving from a balcony on her Coronation tour of Britain and of many days on beaches which never ended, also the white round house which looked like it had once been a light house and lastly Lord Street.

I may be wrong, but I have the impression my father trained students from both Liverpool and Manchester, one of which won the D.H. trophy during his posting as an instructor.

Photos from that era attached..

On the seated photo my father is to the immediate left of the CO as we look at it.

Disruntled with the Civil Service in 1948, and a Southport resident, hied me to Woodvale (Spitfire XIVs ?) as a stepping stone to getting back in the RAF.

"Go away", said the Adj - "we're full up, don't call us, we'll call you".

Luckily the RAFVR (Fazackerley, Liverpool) were more welcoming, but as they had only just been reconstituted after the war, there was no training organised before the RAF took pity on me, and let me back in.

Ah, Ainsdale Beach .... what stories those sandhills could tell !

Danny.

You and me both Danny!:E

If we apply the standard test as to closing down - which is have we just spent some £M's on it, then it should stay open, as the only spending observed recently by me has been 1) painting the Southerly hangar doors of the UAS/AEF Tutor hangar with RAF Roundels ( v large ) and 2) repairing runways. Mind you the VGS is temporarily relocated to Topcliffe due to the decimation of the Vigilant Fleet and the lengthy re-introduction of it back into service. Although no sooner will the very few be back , than it'll be time to withdraw them totally - but that's another major story of how not to manage an aircraft fleet !!

@1.3VStall,

Not only do I remember Sands and Toad Hall very well, we were apparently at Toad Hall on the same night. I still have fond memories of Babs Lord in particular!!

I also claim WD322 as my favourite steed. First solo in her on March 14 1973 under the watchful eye of gentlemen QFI A**n Th***e.

Happy days.

TT

.... and just to stir the grey cells a little more:

https://image.ibb.co/d6DiLm/Pans_People_011.jpg