The Bastards Closed all the Best Bases.
 

With so many RAF bases closing or already closed, I wonder which ones PPRuNeRs would have campaigned to retain - assuming anyone could have been bothered.

I'm being hard on myself and limiting my choice to two. Obvious ones, but that's the benefit of going firsts.

Chivenor
Leuchars

Oh, I might as well state wich ones I'd have chosen to close. Again two:

Valley
Any naval one - just for fun here :E (and to sustain Sharkey's paranoia about the RAF having it in for the RN)

Just for entertainment, you undersatand. You might want to support your choices. The agument for mine is that they were both brill places to live and fly from (Leu and Chiv, that is).

Lyneham & Netheravon, same reasons as yours.

Don't really want to suggest base closure, but Wattisham might be up there. Not sure the Pongos care for it much either.

Has to be RAF Biggin Hill on my save list Courtney ... BoB ... OASC. I wouldn't close any Stations ! :ok:

Some others, sadly no longer real RAF aerodromes:

Abingdon
Biggin Hill
Binbrook
Bovingdon
Brawdy
Chivenor
Coltishall
Cottesmore
Gaydon
Kemble
North Weald
Oakington
Scampton
St Mawgan
Stradishall
Tangmere
Thorney Island
Wattisham
Watton
West Malling
West Raynham
White Waltham
Wittering

:{

BEagle has got his historic UK En-route Sup out again :ok:

Add Manston to BEagle's list ... Even if only because of the +9000 foot runway :ok:

And Mr BEags, before we send you to your desert island, which of your favourite tracks would you save if a big wave came along and washed them all away?

Guetersloh & Upavon - two great tours

Fond memories of Leuchars, but none more fond than those at Linton, both as a student and instructor. That's the one that'll really make my heart sink when it's finally closed. :{

Courtney - the same 2 as you (can't imagine why ;)).

However, I reserve the right to change if Akronelli is ever threatened!

Lyneham
Finningley

Which bases would I save?
 

Coltishall would be top of my list. Loved the place.
Second place would be for Boscombe Down to be utilised more than it currently is. I know it's still open, but I'd love to fly FJs based out of there. Sadly I'm not TP material so it's unlikely!
I would vote to get rid of Coneheadsby. I think it's a bloody miserable place but I think it'll be around for a while yet!
BV:ok:

Bentley Priory:{:{:{

On my overseas save list ... RAF Luqa :ok:

Gutersloh
Benson

Places I wouldn't miss:

Machrihanish
Brize
St Mawgan

Chivenor
Abingdon
Chivenor
Scampton
Chivenor
Tangmere
Chivenor
West Malling
Chivenor
West Raynham

...and Chivenor!

I thought you lost your cherry in Machrihanish CGB?

My username gives it away, I'd like Laarbruch to have survived as it was in 1990, but I suppose it is still there in a way which brings up another question... is this all a bit academic, as no station has survived as any of us remembered it, even if it's still open today in RAF hands.

The feeling you had at any given station in any given era is by its nature ephemeral.

Laarbruch is, of course, right but I'd still vote for Leuchars every time.


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Keep Lyneham - great team spirit about the place in the 90s when there.

Wipe Leeming off the face of the planet - miserable place full of people on last tour trying to be as close to the NE as possible with no interest in anything other than themselves. (sweeping statement of course!)

Cottesmore before the new build and before the wire went up. You could walk to the pub in Greetham in about the same time as it took to get your car keys, get your car from the garages near ops, and drive around.

It was across the field, passed the staish's quarter, down a farm track, thorough the mounds of the medieval village, through the church yard and thence the pub.

Mess party nights, often dominated by the marrieds saw us seeking out pubs even across the A1. All pre underpasses and drink driving.