Moggy might be interested in two fly-ins over the bank holiday weekend being organised by ATC Squadrons.
One is at Bassingbourn an ex-8th Airforce B17 base just north of Royston, which is hosted by 2484 Squadron. This is now an Army basic training centre, but there are two hard runways available – one 800m (07/25) and the other 600m (17/35). No landing fee. A/G radio 121.175. Because it is an Army base I don’t know whether you can get in other than by flying. Check out their site as it gives a contact phone number: http://www.2484atc.com/
The other is the fly-in at Nuthampstead (Barkway VOR), also with no landing fee. I haven’t got any more details of this one in terms of contacts or frequencies, but there is a contact number for the airfield in Pooleys, which might be able to help.
We went last year, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. If you are landing from the east, it’s best to touch down abeam the hangar to avoid the steep up slope at th estart of the runway! This one is accessible by road as well.
As both are very near Duxford, it’s possible to visit all three. The cadets do all the marshalling etc, so it’s a nice way to support them.
By: YakRider - 27th August 2002 at 09:15
RE: Another two for the log book…
We got to Bassingbourn and Nuthampstead over the weekend.
They put on a good show at Bassingbourn and we got a nice stamp in our log books. The museum in the old control tower was open and we had a look at some of the USAAF memorabilia including a really heavy flak jacket made from 1mm thick steel plate and a Packard Merlin recovered from a crashed P51.
The cadets were also showing an interesting video of interviews with veterans who served at the base. An interesting fact was that the old girl who owned Wimpole Hall just up the road fiercely resisted an attempt to build a hospital in her grounds. It was eventualy built, but as far away from the house as possible!
We got a glimpse of some Queen’s Division unfortunates being marched around, but fortunately they didn’t encroach onto the runway.
Sadly at Nuthampstead there were no ATC cadets present. Apparently the insurance cover was initially refused (because of September 11th), even though they have been holding their camp and fly-in for many years. When cover was finally sorted out it was too late to get permission through the various bits of the ATC, so the local helpers managed to keep the fly-in going in their place.
Hopefully they’ll be back next year.
By: Snapper - 22nd August 2002 at 22:43
RE: Another two for the log book…
I remember that runway. I ran around the ##### in “Boots, Hi-leg Infantry for the crippling of” a few times. I did my basic there, and as I recall there were still a lot of old buildings on site. Hangars and stuff. The training scenes from Full Metal Jacket were filmed at Bassingbourn too. Apart from the running, I got repeatedly gassed and regularly drunk too. Good memories. Except for the runway.
By: Moggy C - 22nd August 2002 at 21:50
RE: Another two for the log book…
Ah,
I would dearly love both of those in the book, but regrettably in order to get a pass out for Boxted the work on rebuilding the bathroom has to have progressed to a point the present Mrs Moggy considers acceptable.
For that I will need all of this weekend and then some.
Moggy 🙁 🙁
Still, I did some cool grouting this evening.
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August 22, 2002 at 5:11 pm