No Fix Till Amble
 

I'm sorry to have to inform my former back-seat brethren that the Bilsdale mast has been demolished.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-58821271

How far away could you get a fix and how far offset from your track?

I'd take it you would usually use the mast before getting a let down with Leeming LARS to the west?

Anything low level in the vicinity of the mast would most likely have gone through the Leeming gap and be on the way out. No?

Many a Finningley Stude was a regular visitor to Bilsdale, Belmont, the cricket stumps and the 6 power stations on the Humber and it's feeders and the Trent. Half of which have gone at least!

6?
I rember Drax, Eggborough, and Ferrybridge, and I taught studes to work out where they were from the clouds when above the layers.

What were the other 3 pray tell?

They have erected a new temporary shorter mast. The whole story of the fire and months without a signal has been kept quiet from most of the nation.

N7
 

Don’t the good people of Yorkshire have satellite TV or Netflix?

I can honestly say that I wouldn’t notice the difference if we lost a TV mast. Or a satellite signal for that matter.

We use online services only and have for a while now.

I appreciate that if my Grandparents were still alive they may have felt the pain a little more though. Especially as they lived near Ripon.

BV

BV,

What about car radio reception, or do you not bother? Bearing in mind that many, if not all, TV masts are also used to transmit DAB and analogue radio.

How far away you could get a fix is limited by your height agl and the terrain between you and the fix. That’s why masts were so handy - they stuck up above the terrain. How far off track? Tornado GR radar swept maximum of 60 degrees either side of heading. Vulcan H2S had a 360 deg sweep, and there was consternation amongst the Nav Radars when Flixborough chemical works blew up in the 70s!

Speke
 

Again I, personally, wouldn’t notice.

I listen to either music, podcasts or radio via BBC sounds App via t’internet.

I might occasionally listen to BBC radio but I wouldn’t lament its’ disappearance too much.

Jack’s onboard. Haul up the ladder.

BV

EX A, the 6 included the 3 down the Trent, West Burton, Cottam and High Marnham, IIRC. My phrasing wasn't the best, Soz! Must get my ISS books out. There was also a redundant one N of Donny, Thorpe Marsh, which served to confuse on occasion!

Interested to know what feature(s) was used to do a navigational fix at Amble. For traffic flying up the North Sea coast, I imagine Coquet Island and it’s lighthouse is a unique and prominent piece of geography for a radar or visual fix. Viewed from distance inland, normally when driving back to the coast, Coquet Island would appear on the horizon looking like an enormous aircraft carrier passing the entrance to Amble harbour.
In the 80s and 90s there was regular FJ traffic turning at Amble to head inland towards the Otterburn range. Aircraft would fly up the mouth of the Coquet and pass directly overhead my parent’s house at Warkworth, the village having another prominent feature of a castle sitting above a meander of the Coquet. I’m guessing the castle would also provide a good fix position on the low level run in to the range. Just curious if indeed Coquet Island and/or Warkworth Castle were used or some other prominent feature in the surrounding landscape.

Speedywheels, yip Coquet Island was indeed a favourite entry point but was universally known as Amble Light in the RAF. I suspect many crews would have no idea about Coquet, unless they have spent time at Boulmer and in the pubs in Warkworth.
It might have been an entry point to one of the link routes back in the V force days, when low flying was restricted to specific routes, but you will need to ask someone 15 years older than me to confirm that :)

I seem to remember Coquet Island as being at the end of a low level bombing route for the Double Top bomb comp in 1980 or thereabouts, and perhaps as the end point of the Limited Nav (astro) stage. It is of course a long time ago and I may be mistaken. We always referred to it in those days as Coquet Island.