Church Fenton to close this year
 

Sad :{ but inevitable...

We can't afford to keep single airfields for UAS/VGS/AEF. Next? Woodvale, Kenley, Kirknewton, Wyton, Syerston...

LJ

First CCF RAF section camp memories
 

I spent my first CCF RAF section camp there in April 91 and remembered it fondly. Unfortunately we got kicked out for the day all us CCf (from schools in Edmonton and Shiplake college) due to funeral of a GR1 pilot who was locally raised up and got shot down during GW1. There was a four ship flyby as for the day we did an orientation exercise around the local area.

Another great time there was in the tower when an F3 crew did a few approaches and take off without actually landing and on the 5th or 6th go they went into full afterburner to impress us!

I did work experience in the Met Office and ended up having coffee with the crew of an Andover from Wildenrath or Gatow (?) that flew in and they were a great bunch of guys.
Also did my AEF flight with the Chippie while the luckiest cadet in our camp got selected for a Tucano flight!

At that time there was a mixture of the JP and the then newer Tucano based there :)

Also the ACLO who was SATCO there who was a Sqn Ldr formerly aircrew who was building his own kit built a/c in one of the sheds. Top bloke great sense of humour and he told us a heart rendering story that he was one of two or the only survivor of a VIp transport that flipped on its back at an Italian air base many years before.

Cheers

There is a rather interesting idea being postulated over the likes of Scampton where the council would take over parts of the airfield no longer in use and turn it into a museum come tourist attraction allowing the RAF to continue to utilise the rest of the station with lower running costs, allowing it to stay open. See


VIDEO: Multi-million pound tourist attraction could be created at RAF Scampton | This is Lincolnshire


..

I flew on my first CCF AEF from Church Fenton in 1969. My first Bulldog solo was from there in 1975 (YUAS) and also my first JP solo in 1977 when CF was a satellite of Linton-on-Ouse. Needless to say, it carries fond memories.

(Also, my mother was born in one of the farms under the downwind leg in the main runway circuit - it used to have a distinctive yellow roof but that has now gone. It was always amusing to tell any unsuspecting QFI during a PFLWOP after take-off that my Grandfather used to own the field that we were heading for and I would charge landing fees. My great grandfather was landlord of the Blacksmiths' Arms in Biggin at the end of the nineteeth century).

It seems that Wyton and Kirton in Lyndsey are also to shut their airfields - but on the plus side Wittering is to go back to full MOD flying :ok:

Fenton has to be one of, if not the, friendliest stations I have had the privilege to serve on. The atmosphere on station when it was a full flying training unit with 7FTS in the 80s was great. Great mess (long since demolished), great rivalry between 1 and 2 sqns, solo parties, with nurs....... maybe better to stop there.

Such a shame to hear its finally closing. Sadly it probably means an even sadder gradual decay as the remaining infrastructure is left to rot and the few remaining buildings in good condition - the old SHQ, 1 and 3 hangars, the old RFS building, the tower and the old WRAF block :E - spiral into decline. :sad:

Is Topcliffe staying open? might be saved by the army base behind it.

4 Regt Royal Arty use Topcliffe so the VGS and 2x Yorkshire Air Ambulances should keep the airfield open. :ok:

The Met Office at CF was more like a Scout Hut than any Scout Hut! Wooden walls, thin partitions, if you banged the door shut the barograph on the wall received an extra time-mark.
A lot of good people worked there: Ann Wiggins was one of the bosses, another boss was a John ? who was a top-grade football referee, Long John Smith, Bob Ward, Alan Dorward .............
I did a det there during the 1966 World Cup, and they tried to shaft me with all the England match duties.
Tried.

first posting -CHURCH FENTON
 

My first posting after trade training, 1972. Worked in Aero Med (nothing to do with Cas-evac flights!) in 2 hanger, between the Gym and flight briefing room.
Arrived as an LAC as my promotion had not come through, the ‘real’ RAF in my block could not understand how one week later I was sewing on Jnr Tech badges - “you cannot be a J/T medic!”
A bit of a shock going from an RAF Hospital with females and a 4 bed room to an all male station and back to 10+ in a barrack room. My only posting in 22 years that had aircraft – chipmunks. Enjoyed my time there.

So sad to hear (yet another bites the dust).

Did my first solo jet from CF in 1977 and was posted in for a short time in 1988 to do my Jet Refresher Course. Lived in the OM, a cracking place to live, especially in the summer.

Completely concur. I have been to CFN a couple of times over the last year and am devestated by the state it is in. I was in the tower 86 - 89 and loved it there. it was one of those rare stns where you knew everybody and everybody knew you. That had its drawbacks. Anyone remember the solo party scandal of 87 in which I was wrongly implicated?

Chopper

Who was that, do you remember? I thought the last SATCO was female. She'd just taken over before I left in 89. It is possible someone else became SATCO for the last year, but I don't remember. Or was the ACLO a retired officer who had previoulsy been SATCO years before?

Langley - I think the metman in charge was John Selby - nice chap but limited sense of humour when we were in groundschool.

The SATCO was a woman when I was there in 89 and 91 Kate Sh******; I knew her nephew from way back.

It was a great base in so many ways; breaking into LB's room to get booze and the ensuing police interrogations and formal warning from the staish. Hanger parties; Pimms parties; inflatable castles; PBX operators making up ficticious signals to get one into the signals room for a (ahem!) coffee; mad Welsh air traffic controllers; throwing stones at the street light outside the SECO huts; 300 lb steaks in the Ryther Arms....

Airborne every morning before the weather ship!

Part of the all WRAF team that supervised the Hawk wheels up landing!

Currently Defence Attache at the British Embassy Brasilia.

And I was the gopher for the BoI for the Hawk; quite how the Hawk Instr then got given a Jag tour was beyond me... Still, wtf did I know, I went to Finningbobs only to return to CF in 91 to organise the airshow, working alongside the very chap that chopped me.

Maxibon, thank you, John Selby does not quite ring the bell .......... bearded? Went to Bracknell on promotion I think, and Ann took over?

Either way, it was a well-run office ....... I did the inspections from Bawtry [the Met hierarchy was geographical rather than 1 Gp, Training, etc etc, so I had all the military from Leeming to Marham except Coningsby, which always puzzled me]. Spent a lot of time on the road. The curry at Wyton was excellent; a moving experience as it were. Trout farm near Marham, the lovely journey to Binbrook, the absurd polished floor at Linton all strike chords. Wyton had about the last of the old Met Offices within a hangar ..... medieval arrangement.

Fatjoff,

Ah maybe he wasn't the SATCO, as I had thought back then....but I can't remember his name but I'd describe him as an English spitting image of the Hollywood actor Robert Culp - tall and grey hair!

As I said he was building a kit built single seat aircraft in one of the sheds and telling us he regretted not having a two seater in the design as his son had an urge to fly.

Also another memory of that Easter camp was doing search and apprehending skills at night with the RAFP and things got slightly out of hand and the RAFP corporal threatened to bang us all up!!

Cheers

Aargh, when I were a lad the Vale of York was bigger than the RAF is today in terms of runways and aircraft based there!

Leeming, Topcliffe, Dishforth, Rufforth, Elvington, Linton, Church Fenton and Middleton St George just to the north and Finningley just to the south. I had many a happy trip out of Dishforth with 9 AEF as an ATC cadet, when 71 MU was based there as well.

My dog was the Station Nav Officer at Fenton once. Really, she was. No, really.