The joys of being in Quarters at Waddington ... you could hear, smell and feel the Force :)

Was putting my little bird to bed a couple of weeks ago in Sth Norfolk (an ex B24 base), when the sky was suddenly full of screaming - 2 x F15s or Tiffies in a turning fight for 5 mins. Good entertainment.

I've been told by one 'in the know' that Lakenheath's F15 and Coningsby's Typhoons will come and play over Norfolk if the weather offshore is above certain limits. All to do with survivability if they had to jettison the jet.
Maybe it's also got something to do with the distance between the new SAR bases, now Her Majesty no longer supplies the service?

All the same, we still get F15's and heavies inbound to Lakenheath and Mildenhall trundling overhead. Long may it continue!

I loved the sonic booms heard when sitting on a quiet North Norfolk beach. Obviously training over the North Sea.

Can these 'booms' still be heard frequently these days ?

North Norfolk coast, the best in the UK :)


coldair

There was a time in the 80s when the RAF seemed to spend much of its time dumping aluminium over Norfolk.


Mind you bliss was living in Lt Snoring and having my dayboat on a £10 a YEAR mooring in Morston Creek

"There was a time in the 80s when the RAF seemed to spend much of its time dumping aluminium over Norfolk."

Also in the 50's when the Sabre's were there. My father used to collect some of it for re-use.

I've just arrived home from several days away in the area of Kelling - Nothing over the weekend, obviously, but a few observations for Monday.....

Constant (F15) fast jet noise from 0830L. Saw one or two...

While crabbing at Blakeney, a US (it had aux tanks?) C130 flew east to west and orbited Blakeney.

Walked from Kelling to Weybourne in the afternoon. The whole time a Typhoon was in a holding (CAP?) pattern at about 5-6k before departing east.

0045L Tuesday morning a helicopter, assumed to be military (nowt on the tracker for offshore or coastguard) overflew the cottage and made the windows rattle. Returned at 0130L.

I hadn't been to Norfolk for some years, and it cheered me up no end.

DH

I wonder how much of this is down to simulators?
I heard two rumors. One that Challenger 2 tank crews were going to mothball their real tanks and do the majority of training in sims, the tanks would only come out for a war. The second rumour was that you could now fly an entire OCU course in a sim ?

Sounds like I picked the wrong week! Good spots those old chap, though 5-6k is still rather high.

I remember many moons ago walking along the shingle beach at Salthouse and 4 A-10s circling and carrying out mock attacks over the slacks down to about 400ft. And three 56 sqn Phantoms in loose v-formation low over Kelling Heath. Miss those days.

Have a look at the Notams for this area on weekly basis. Exercises at Sculthorpe USAF C130 and Ospreys many days into late evenings. Often Hawks etc involved with mock attacks on Sculthorpe at other times. Also tactical refuelling practice for Lynx, Chinook etc at Little Snoring from time to time and helicopter exercises at Weybourne. Live at Little Snoring and pretty busy most evenings. What happens when USAF moves to Germany from Mildenhall is another question.

Thanks, that sounds great!

Last night UH-60 Black Hawks (pair) and also Apache. No Osprey for a few days.........

Also Atlas during the day (high) and a pair of F15's doing ACM over Dereham.

Definitely not as much fast jet at Low Level nowadays though IMHO.

Arc

Eastern Radar
 

If I remember, Coningsby wasn't active during my time at Eastern (1966-68). I'm not sure if it was when I returned from Tengah to Marham in '71 either. But I'll never forget the skies filled with shiny Aluminium from EGUN and EGUL recovering through the battle area. We had to use remote type 82 to see through Eastern's overhead.

C model eagle being giving a bit of birch just now north east of Swaffam. Looks like a gh sortie, lovely views through bins of spiraling dives, climbs, and general aviator enjoyment...

..just had a pair of strikers transit at @500'due South and now tommy Tornado is doing aeros over M'ham..do hope it's not someone's last trip...

Spend a lot of time in north Norfolk and not a lot happening other than the McAully Flight at Little Snoring.

That's why your name rings a bell, although I didn't go to Watton (from Tengah via Sopley) until Spring 70. You must have scratched your name on the crewroom wall :)

Now ... you had a remote T82 display at Marham? Obviously Midland's, but never heard of that facility!

robertfauchon
 

Re Coningsby,

I was sure I'd been there in '70 - checked my log book, 3rd May positioned from Fairford, 4th Coningsby to Akrotiri, 5th did the return, 6th Coningsby to Akrotiri, 7th Akrotiri back to Fairford. We were moving ground crew and equipment for a Phantom squadron detachment to Akrotiri.

Many years later I was reading "Bugs'' Bendell's memoir and he mentioned the same detachment while a Flt Cdr on 6 Sqn. Just taken his book off the shelf and he was on the 1st OCU course which started at Coningsby in the autumn of '68.

A Vulcan wing ( 9,12 and 35 Sqns ) had been there until Nov 64 when it moved to Cottesmore. I don't know if Coningsby was active between Nov 64 and late 68.

Lived at Lt Snoring in the 80s, next door to the old chapel. My friend and much lamenter Peter Charles was air farming still and fettling older aeroplanes and Henry Labouchere would drop in in his Tiger Moth. Now the Light Aeroplane Company is operating from there. I wonder if the church still has the boards commemorating the wartime Mosquito squadrons that operated from the airfield

Seeing as Norfolk has now extended into Lincolnshire, can anyone claryify the history of Coningsby?

I was posted in to Coningsby in October 1956. The station had been closed for upgrading to V-Bomber standard.

We had 57 Sqdn posted in with B2 Canberra's, to 'work up' the station. In the following 12 months I, a Radar Fitter, attended a Victor course at Gaydon and started doing 'V-Bomber Equipment' courses at Yatesbury.

On return from the 1st of these courses, I was posted to Transport Command!

This was to RAF Liaison Party Istres, so I was real chuffed and didn't care what was happening to Coningsby.

I later returned to Bomber Command, 214 Sqdn Valiants at Marham, and Coningsby had dropped of the map.

After some sort of gap, I heard that Coningsby hosted various a/c from Lightnings to Vulcans, what happened while I wasn't looking?

Coningsby was upgraded and extended to a Class A V bomber base in the late 50’s with the standard 9,000 ft runway, standard H shape dispersals and a Gaydon hangar. A Vulcan B2 wing was formed in 1960 with 9, 12 and 35 Squadrons. The station was selected as the UK TSR2 base and the Vulcan wing transferred to Cottesmore in 1964. Coningsby then went on care and maintenance as it was prepared for the TSR2. It was during this period that the large Aircraft Servicing Pan (ASP) was built in front of the Gaydon hangar.
When TSR2 was cancelled all work stopped until it was selected as the UK F-4M Phantom FGR2 base, the OCU arriving in 1968 and the three squadrons 6, 41 and 54 the following year.