The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Welcome to the forum from another Suffolk-ite! I live near Eye and know about the Apaches, we always get the MC-130 from Mildenhall over fairly late at night too, and low!!

Enjoying your input so far and I look forward to reaing more of your posts. PNK is very knowledgeable when it comes to ranges too so I am sure you will be able to help him out reseearching them as well.

Once again, welcome to the foruim.

PETERTHEEATER;107540 wrote:

Welcome Waspie. I'm an ex - Sycamore man myself!

Why the Loch Doon MTR?

Sycamore! Wooden rotor blades if I recall!!!! Brave man. (That said the jolly old Wasp had a wooden tail rotor until the mid 70's!!!)

As for Loch Doon, I used to picnic there whilst at Prestwick on 819 NAS. Then one day I was tasked to supervise a local headmaster who had talked the MoD into using one of their Sea Kings to assist in his research on the Loch Doon Gunnery School.

His camera was totally inadequate for the task so I used our, (RN), Hasselblad, he informed me where to photograph and I snapped away! Without grabbing my log book it was circa 1983/4, it was a particularly warm spell and the reservoir levels had dropped to an all time low exposing the hanger floors and several building foundations. Unfortunately, the rolls of film I rattled off where passed to the school headmaster with many promises of a copy of his finished book. I can only assume the book was never completed or it was a superb con to get a free flight!

However, it did pique my interest in the gunnery school. The areas of surrounding woods with there distinctive 'U' shaped cut outs became clear as target tracks for the gunners transiting the loch on a firing run. A railway track which served as a moving target platform was also exposed. I decided to write my own story and Loch Doon is part of it. So in my search for info I found this site.

I am ashamed to say my knowledge of the places and facilities I flew from is poor having read some of the threads on here. So I guess this is a good place to learn, only hope you lot can put up with me!

Great! If you can focus on the history of a single area then it will get much better coverage. From what I have found, the Loch Doon 'range' was a white elephant bred at great cost to the taxpayer but then, the planning mentality was WW1 Army generals!

Sycamore? Wooden flexible rotor blades with droop stops. Sail the blades down into the stops in flight and you got that sinking feeling as the blades departed!

Welcome to AiX Rerun57, I have followed your posts and it is interesting to have first hand information on ranges. Whilst, as an aviation history fraternity, we focus on aircraft ranges and related ranges, a couple of years ago one of our members CARNABY started running with 200 Yard Moving Target Ranges (Turret Training) and eventually we tracked down most but believe that there may be two or three others undetected.

Military (Army) ranges sometimes overlapped or were adjacent to RAF and FAA ranges and it is useful (and interesting!) to understand how these worked to avoid confusing extant remains with those of the air ranges.

So, keep your inputs coming!

He was 84th Entry Airframes. I was 83rd. So, we were there at the same time but trainees were spread over three Wings. I was in 2 Wing, 1 Squadron.

Hi Avril
Welcome to the forum !
If you look through the various sections you should (perhaps already have) find the airfield vehicles section.
I learnt to drive in an Austin A40 Somerset at a gliding club,closely followed by series 2 Landrovers at an ATC gliding school and then drove many different marks of LRover during my RAF service.
Out of deference to my back - I have managed to mostly avoid them since 1983

rgds baz

Hello all,

Hi there. So I finally got round to joining....

I've been a volunteer at RAF Waterbeach Museum at the Barracks since 2006. Shortly after I became the Hon Curator, taking over from a civilian member of 12 Engineer Group (Air Support) who are the brigade level RE unit running Waterbeach Station. He continued as OiC (officer in charge). I have no armed forces background, but I have worked in libraries and archives in Cambridge University, Middlesex University and local industry. Originally I trained in plant biology at university!

As you can imagine I had a steep learning curve, but had the advantage of access to the University Library in Cambridge. Soon after I met John Hamlin who lives locally. Together we published an updated version of John's 1987 booklet:

Hamlin, John F., with Oliver J. Merrington
At the 'Beach: the story of Royal Air Force Waterbeach and Waterbeach Barracks.
Peterborough: GMS Enterprises, 2011.
ISBN 1904514634
£9.95 from me, John or Graham.

And the year after the government announced that Waterbeach Barracks was to close in 2013 - see subsequent messages from me.
The Museum is closing too, at the end of September. If you would like to visit before then, see
homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.merrington/...rracksmuseum2012.pdf
Or you can get my email address & phone number from Richard F, Paul F or John H.

Richard & I are planning an article in a future issue of Airfield Review.

See also forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?p=1866026

Best wishes,

Oliver

Hi Oliver, welcome. Sorry to hear that the museum is closing - I have to admit I didn't know it was there, despite being relatively local!
I will try my hardest to visit before it does.

Hi Oliver, great to see you on the forum. I am looking forward to meeting up next week and visiting the museum and airfield.

I can highly reccomend the book for those who have an interest in the airfield.

Looking forward to putting the article in Airfield Review as well

Our own Waterbeach thread is here;
/community/showthread.php?1415-Waterbeach

Richard