The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

So I have found a bunch of knowledgeable enthusiasts that share an interest in something I grew up with.

Long story short, I was born within a couple of miles of Rearsby and knew well the sound of Austers, then by school age I lived beside spitalgate and watched the gliders and cranwells H J Proversts. Then moved to Suffolk where I was surrounded by Woodbridge/Bentwaters & Wattisham as active stations (then) and rode the high school bus through Martlesham airfield daily.

For some reason I developed an interest in aviation, particularly of the WWII period and has fostered (or should the be festered) that interest ever since.

I now work within the town of Sudbury on the side of Station 174 Sudbury. Indeed today I finally walked the remains of the bomb dump.

I hold OS maps of the whole of Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex/Cambs and have visited many of the sites, my journeys tend to consist of mental reference to old airfields as I pass nearby, found myself in Ludham at the weekend and just had to go see.

So that's the condensed version. I look forward to exchanging pics and thoughts with others over the coming days etc.

Kevin.

welcome to the forum, i too thought i was alone in my interest until finding this site 3 years ago, since then, i have been on may excursions and digs and met some fab fellow enthusiasts, enjoy the site

Hi & welcome along to AiX. I get the feeling you'll feel right at home here

I'm VERY interested to hear that you lived near Rearsby during it's active days. A local airfield to me that's history fascinates me. Hopefully in August the Austers will be returning for a very long awaited reunion fly in at the old airfield.

Cheers
Steve

Stevie I had already noted the fly in and hope to get up for that. My first flight was in an auster from Ipswich in the early 70

Hi,
I live in Wiltshire and am interested in WW1 AIRFIELDS. This is the right area for it. I was stationed at Upavon with 21 sqdn (det) in the late '60's. Current interest is Chattis Hill, 43 TDS at Stockbridge ( just in Hampshire)

Interested in most things related to military aviation. Born into the RAF as father was in for 24 years as an MT fitter. He served all over the world including Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Aden, Antigua, Anguilla and various UK bases. I was born in the RAF hospital at Wroughton and also lived at Abingdon, Akrotiri and Marham. Spent four and a half years in the ATC in 1936 Sqn at RAF Newton, when it was still open. Had some great times charging round the station, including the bomb dump, on night exercises. Visited many other RAF stations while I was a cadet including Scampton, Syerston, Hereford, Finningley and others.

Cheers

Ian

Hello Ian, a warm welcome to AIX

Welcome and I trust that you can find the information you need.
All I can offer is my best recollection of a conversation that I was involved with in 1971 which would include some of the locations and time period that you are researching.
There were several elderly gentlemen at our table and one of them had been a pilot in the RFC and he had been delivering fighter aircraft from the Weybridge factory to various training airfields that were up to about one hours flying time from the factory. I believe that your two airfields may have been included in the discussion because they may have been involved with some of the first ground to air communication trials. He also told us that the commanding officer wanted the stones moved at RFC Larkhill because they were both a collision risk and were impeding his fliers training. I believe that there may have been up to six or seven airfields that fell within this area.
My father had been born in July 1917 and it was about this time that the gentleman who they referred to as flying officer Jones RFC had been involved in an incident that had finished his flying career.
They were discussing early navigation techniques as apparently most of these aircraft were only fitted with basic instrumentation when they left the factory and in very poor visibility or low cloud they relied heavily on terrain knowledge, wind speed and direction, compass and having a reliable time keeping pocket watch.
There were apparently a ring of these training airfields in the Wiltshire Berkshire direction that were both just under an hours flying time from the factory providing the wind direction and strength was not against you and they were mostly situated either side of the London & South Western main railway line heading out of London.
Most of the people at the table and nearly all of the people I’ve discussed it with since believe that it was a major leg pull however he stated that in 1917 most railway lines had only been completed in the previous 10 to 20 years and that their straight earthworks were still more visible at flying height than the narrow roads which bent with the contours of the land and were also masked by the trees so as you could not always tell the difference between a hedge row and a road line until you lost some considerable altitude. He concluded by telling them that it was bloody sight easier to loose altitude than to gain it and that is where the discussion nearly finished.
Another person tried to support him by telling a similar story about a Diana Wolf Barnato during the second conflict who had to make an emergency landing at RAF Windrush when she was delivering an aircraft from the factory without its full set of flying instruments. Mr Jones then left everyone speechless by saying that he had been introduced to her father when he raced at Brooklands.
I’m sure that I will be corrected shortly.

Welcome to AiX Halton58 from a fellow HAA.

I trust that you have read through the AiX threads on Chattis Hill:

/community/showthread.php?2478-Chattis-Hill/page2&highlight=chattis+hill

/community/showthread.php?9574-Chattis-Hill-Robins-Hanger-found-in-Stockbridge&highlight=chattis+hill

Welcome to AiX Marshazz.