Linton on Ouse : The end of an era
 

The Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron left their home at Linton this morning to take up residency just up the road at Leeming were they will join the already incumbent Northumbrian Universities Air Squadron . The departure of YUAS brings to a close over 80 years of operational flying from Linton with a NOTAM issued today of an airfield closure notice and the station well into its eventual drawdown at the end of 2021 . Very sad times indeed . Some details here ;
https://twitter.com/RAFLintonOnOuse
and
https://www.facebook.com/raf.leeming/

Sad news- some of my happiest days in the RAF were spent at Linton.

Sad to see another great airfield close. I went through BFTS there in 77/8 when the dispersal was a sea of red and white Jet Provosts.

My youngest was a member of YUAS only a couple of years ago and for a while she lived in the west wing of the Officers’ Mess, as I had done. I helped her move in. On arrival at the rear door she had forgotten the combination to the push button door lock. Almost without thinking I pressed the buttons and opened the door. Same combination forty years on!

Leeming is a very long way north, especially bearing in mind that YUAS’s earlier home was Finningley. Cadets travelling from Leeds are going to find that journey even more inconvenient.

Maybe they should rename it OJIYUAS - Only Just In Yorkshire UAS.

YUAS
 

Whilst I share your sadness at the closure of LOO and acknowledge that Leeming is far less convenient for York based students you can hardly say that Leeming is only just in Yorkshire. In fact it is almost the geographic centre!

BV

I was thinking you are geographically challenged - must be a Nav in disguise!

Surely Leeming is way to the north of the centre

But then I google mapped it and saw you are spot on!

TR
 

That’s why I googled it myself before posting. Never assume...

BV

Great days at Linton. We JEFTS lot lived in Hornet Block if memory serves correctly.

Some good biking trails in the bondu around the airfield.

Well done Royal Air Wing of 2020...:=

Geographic centre? Really?
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ad0d092143.jpg
Of course, I'm just a Nav.

Yorkshire
 

Anything South of York doesn’t really count.

BV

My Grandad was based there in WW2 with the Canadian Air Force, as an engineer for the Halifax bombers, saw a lot of crews off, not so many returning. He also received his medals from the station commander there couple of years before he died, after having not received them when he finished serving, no idea who it was who presented them, but could upload the picture if asked for.

Monday 13th August 1979, 09.30, I arrived at Linton to start a near 41 year career with the MOD in various guises. :ok:

Linton Memorial Room
 

Is there any news on what has happened to the contents of the excellent Memorial Room at Linton on Ouse?

I was just thinking the same, SpekeSoftly. It was run by a most knowledgeable and enthusiastic chap 5 or so years back.

I remember the gentleman well Skua - Wing Commander (Retired) Alan Mawby. Some years ago he was kind enough to arrange a visit for myself, my wife, and my late mother whose first husband's Lancaster Mk11 failed to return to Linton from a bombing raid in 1943.

I've since found the following link which (sadly) answers my question:-

https://35squadron.wordpress.com/201...memorial-room/

It does if you’re at Sheffield or Hull University. More difficult to get from there for a student who isn’t lucky enough to have access to a private car. My daughter struggled even to get from Leeds to Linton in time for Friday evening town nights.

I also recall great days at Linton when in 1972 it was by far and away the Premier BFTS. The staff student relationship was at the forefront of a new era. Just imagine being permitted to be in the bar in the Officers Mess until 19.00. Indeed, it was almost a parade for all aviators on the Station, a different era from today! Very sad that a station with such a great tradition has gone.

Come on pilots, don't let a Navigator correct us pilots on a point of navigation. Who ever thinks that Leeming is in the center of Yorkshire needs a new map. It is in the center of North Yorkshire, however Linton is far more central to the whole county. I recall how my friends who were posted to Leeming for BFTS complained how lucky we were to be 20 minutes from York. Of course in those days the attractions of Newcastle and Durham were not quite the same!

I remember when Alan Mawby joined 214 as a captain on Victor tankers. On his first flight with his new crew he had put his co-pilot through his paces, making him work harder than perhaps he had been used to. In the crewroom afterwards the chap remarked (jovially) "our new captain is a bully". Tom Brown's Schooldays was being shown in TV at the time, so Alan was promptly nicknamed "Flashman" , which stuck while he remained on 214.

Really nice chap though, good pilot, and I was always very happy flying with him.

I was house member at one time, and well remember a large amount of 'art' in the mess loft. Going back a couple of years ago, I noticed that all the drawings of past aircrew that lined the corridors were missing. I wonder if they are now in the loft as well.

It would be a terrible shame if no one has thought to go and look.

It was some of the most memorable two years of my career, made more so by those two wonderful summers of 74 and 75.

Along with - I guess - a relatively small number, I was commissioned there in 1968. What was ITS moved from South Cerney to Linton as AOTS (Aircrew Officer Training School) for a short-ish while before (I think) combining with the ground pounders at Henlow (?) as OCTU.

So different then (indicator of old git); to think we were turning out 30 or 40 commissioned pilots and navs every 5 weeks! And that was just the "gutter entry", not counting the General List RAFC Cranwell Flight Cadets!

AOTS also spent a short period (1968 - 1969?) at Church Fenton. I remember it well!