The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

thanks,not toosure what I am doung at this stage,just finding my way round the site.

philpridd;46419 wrote:

thanks,not toosure what I am doung at this stage,just finding my way round the site.

Welcome Phil, you soon pick up the jist off things, any info you want just fire off the question there is always somebody who has the answers
Please do send in any contributions you have
regards Ian

Welcome effes, got any pictures to share?

yep..i remember Lauging Waters renamed Inn on the lake now i think... the area i mean is a 100 yards or so onthe same side heading towards Dover. You couldn't see it from the A" then , i think as i remember having to climb over fences... there were some tunnels which were walled up after a few yards and in the A" embankment a sort of shed with a rusting locomotive in it... was this part of the airfield outer area or maybe an old quarry ...

cheers...

Thanks...had a quick look... i can add a few things which may be of interest... there was last time i drove past a bit of the peri track left which you can see from the A2...has a pylon on it and the Riverview estate is behind...looking left as you are in the dip heading Dover before climbing hill to laughing Water.. The woods on left had an Trainer crash in them I was told by an old resident who said you could still see scars on trees...I never found them tho. Think he said it was a Hawker Hart. On the right at top of hill there is a road bridge replacing the old one and before they destroyed the woods , just over it was a small pond and lots of big holes... i was told these were caused by bombs going off in a crashing Beaufighter. just near there is Cobham hall also used for accomodation. At the North end of Thong Lane on the east side is an old house ( i forget the name ) which housed pilots apparently. There were stories of a dump where loads of aircraft were chucked in at Wars end , on northern end east side of Thong lane but i have no idea if this is true. The father of a schoolmate was a bit of an expert on the field...Ray Munday...no idea if he is still alive . He had loads of stuff on the field. I even gave him an old aerial photo which hung in my school ( GSFB ) which I 'borrowed'. Would love th have it back! I guess all the shelters ibn cobham woods are gone now.. I took my kids there in the 90s and they were almost all full of rubbish.. what a shame..

Peter,

I guess that you were involved with the later Jindivik Mk4 which came into service long after I had left?

During my time 1969 to 1977 I did a spell in the tower (Decca Radar & CADF) and then had the opportunity to transfer to the hangers to work on the airborne telemetry and radio altimeters.

The primary aircraft then were the Meteor U16 (later identified as D16) and the Jindivik 103A and 103B. I can remember WK800 arriving back at Llanbedr along with several other Meteors and them reverting from a U21 back to a U16. I also used to look after the radio altimeter fitted into Meteor 7 (WA662), the TT20 (WM167) and a Hunter (WW598). WH320 was the main training sortie aircraft for many years until it was lost sometime after I had left Llanbedr. Sadly I never saw the Sea Vixen fly pilotless.

The Fireflies and the Meteor 15's had all gone by then although I must have seen them many years previous whilst holidaying in Llandanwg during the early 60's.

Looking back they were very interesting times indeed given that UAV's are much more in the news these days

On a final note readers may or may not be aware that the Pilots Notes for the Meteor D16, Sea Vixen D3 and the Canberra U10 are available.

www.flight-manuals-on-cd.com/Meteor.html
www.flight-manuals-on-cd.com/Sea%20Vixen.html
www.flight-manuals-on-cd.com/Canberra.html

Thanks Ian,only just beginning to realise how wide the range of topics/interests covered by th site is.Just got to get out and get some contributions together now.Cheers, Phil.