Flambards, Helston, planes. Where are they now?

…you’ll be pleased to know the Whirlwind is no longer sectioned

That’s a shame, that Whirlwind was beautifully sectioned by trainee RN engineers and was a work of art in itself really.

Sorting through my old slides, I found these pics of Flambards, Helston in Cornwall, in 1985 and was wondering where all these planes are now. I have looked on Google Earth but cannot see them there now. Any ideas? Tony

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Tony to find out the current state of the Sea Prince, Wessex & Whirlwind see here- www.aeroventure.org – you’ll be pleased to know the Whirlwind is no longer sectioned & has been beautifully restored by the YHPG at Aeroventure (look at the links section & you can pull-up their website) .

Ironically, in August 1999 I chose Flambards as the site to observe the Solar Eclipse. The Sea Prince & Wessex were in the background, but little did I know at the time that nearly 20 years later I would see them literally on my doorstep.

Bristol Sycamore 😉

Ah! Isn’t that a sweet name. Why don’t they call planes names like that nowadays?

:D:D:D

Hi Paul,

Thanks for posting your photos. You can see that it was around the same time as mine. Interesting the helicopter (sorry, don’t know what it’s called) has very low rotas. I don’t suppose Elf and Safety would allow that nowadays in case someone bumped their heads on it and died!

Anyone else have any pics of this little piece of history? (the park I mean, not the helicopter)

Bristol Sycamore 😉

With apologies for quality – a combination of grainy 35mm transparency film, plus a 10year old scanner..

And sorry my other half ruins the view of the Scimitar!

Hi Paul,

Thanks for posting your photos. You can see that it was around the same time as mine. Interesting the helicopter (sorry, don’t know what it’s called) has very low rotas. I don’t suppose Elf and Safety would allow that nowadays in case someone bumped their heads on it and died!

Anyone else have any pics of this little piece of history? (the park I mean, not the helicopter)

I see the Scimitar is in storage due to lack of space at Solent Sky.

It would be nice if they would be prepared to loan it out to another museum. Quite a rare old machine nowadays.

A few more photos from 1985

With apologies for quality – a combination of grainy 35mm transparency film, plus a 10year old scanner..

And sorry my other half ruins the view of the Scimitar!

Seem to remember that evening I enjoyed a couple of pints of “Spingo” in the Blue Anchor in Helston, and then had to ask my other half to drive us back up to Newquay (where we were staying) as I had slightly 😉 underestimated the strength of the beer, and decided not to chance being pulled over by the boys in blue :o.

Thanks for opening/posting the thread Tony – brought back some very happy memories…

Paul F

Ah yes the Blue Anchor & Spingo.

I was in the ‘Blue’ last Weds, Thursday & Friday 😮

And the Spingo is as strong as it ever was!!!

Hi Tony et al,

I too visited Flambards during the summer of 1985, and will try and find and scan a few of my slides if they add more to the overall picture – some of Tony’s pics look identical to those I remember taking – especially the close up of the Scimitar cockpit as it “refuelled” from the hose trailed from the Sea Vixen.

I have similar memories of watching Culdrose’ Sea Kings and Jetstreams from the public viewing area, and of the simple chain link fence.

Seem to remember that evening I enjoyed a couple of pints of “Spingo” in the Blue Anchor in Helston, and then had to ask my other half to drive us back up to Newquay (where we were staying) as I had slightly 😉 underestimated the strength of the beer, and decided not to chance being pulled over by the boys in blue :o.

Thanks for opening/posting the thread Tony – brought back some very happy memories…

Paul F

Yes Culdrose are to commended for their openess, as you say regular base tours, and ‘spotters area’ etc.
I think Nick is possibly referring to down turn in flying activity these days, but that is something that has affected most stations, some far more than Culdrose.

Yes, they still have a good relationship with the local community – I was down in Helston last week & the Captain was dancing in the Midday Flora Dance etc.

The flying has changed, although it is good to see the Hawks flying. I heard from a reliable source that when the Jetstreams are retired next year they will be replaced with just 4 King Airs – a far cry from the original squadron strength of 750 NAS.

The day before the annual air day used to have an air of excitment to it, with practice displays & a general buzz. All that has gone now (like many other places) and the 2008 airshow was truly appalling with only the RAF saving the day flying 3 Tornado F3’s in atrocious conditions. Most of the visiting aircraft were parked on the North side away from the publics eyes!

Anyway, I will be at the show this year as I want to catch the Jetstreams in their final year. It only seems like 5 minutes ago that they were introduced to replace the ageing Sea Princes!

Yes Culdrose are to commended for their openess, as you say regular base tours, and ‘spotters area’ etc.
I think Nick is possibly referring to down turn in flying activity these days, but that is something that has affected most stations, some far more than Culdrose.

I can’t really comment on the change in atmosphere because I have no experience of what it was like ‘before’, however my impression is that CU seem keen to maintain a good atmosphere and relationship with the local community, if only by virtue of the public viewing area/car park they maintain and the station tours they run regularly.

I’m curious to know if there are any other stations that operate such things?

I was going to mention the tower, it was the original WWII three storey admiralty type, lovely looking building. When the new tower was built Culdrose had two towers for a long time until this one was demolished in the early 1990s.
Agree with you Nick about those trees, it used to be good way of identifiyng the station in photographs.
There was always a really nice atmosphere at Flambards, Culdrose and Predannack, I think those were the days when Culdrose boosted that it had more aircraft moves than Heathrow – unsure how true that was, but possible I ‘spose with all those helios fluttering about!

Yes, I agree with you James – CU used to have a good atmosphere which feels as if it has changed – my Dad says the same in as much that it was very different when he used to watch aircraft there in the early 1950’s. It is probably just progress & the fact that we are all getting older… That said the high, barbed wire fence around the perimeter doesn’t help IMHO – although I’m not sure if it was erected to stop people getting in or the matelots from getting out! 😉

I was going to mention the tower, it was the original WWII three storey admiralty type, lovely looking building. When the new tower was built Culdrose had two towers for a long time until this one was demolished in the early 1990s.
Agree with you Nick about those trees, it used to be good way of identifiyng the station in photographs.
There was always a really nice atmosphere at Flambards, Culdrose and Predannack, I think those were the days when Culdrose boosted that it had more aircraft moves than Heathrow – unsure how true that was, but possible I ‘spose with all those helios fluttering about!

One other thing… the hill you see behind the RA Gnat is called Tregonning Hill. Back in WW11 a Blenheim ( I think) crashed into a small quarry on that hill at night killing all on board whilst trying to find Predannack.

Nice too the lovely old ATC tower in the background too…

Just behind where you were standing when taking the Wessex pictures were a number of tall pine trees that often appeared in the background of pictures taken at CU – even from the 1940’s. Sadly these were cut down a few years ago. It might not seem important, but to me at least, these trees were a distinct landmark that were part of CU.

And nearby major RAF cold-war base and nuclear weapons storage facility St Mawgan didn’t have any fence at all around most of its perimeter.

In the Culdrose photographs:

Note the three foot high chain link fence and it didn’t even have barbed wire on it.

And we had a cold-war going on in those days!!!!!

Like I said we were just in a car park on the edge of the field taking pics when the wessex came over. They winched the man down and we thought we were going to be moved on, but he went back up and off they went.

Yes the Gnats were used on the School of Aircraft Handling to train deck handlers how to manouvre Sea Harriers around on a deck, before Harriers were commonly available for the task.
Most of the Flambards aircraft were ex dummy deck aircraft hence the ‘SAH’ applied on the noses of some of them earlier on.
Nice pics of the Wessex winching (with the casual grass cutting going on behind), didn’t realise they came that close to the fence