Possible RAF base closures

RE: Possible RAF base closures

Anyone got an aerial picture of Cranwell?

RE: Possible RAF base closures

Yes the Tutor can operate from grass. At Cranwell the gliding club operate from what is the grass ‘airfield’ as such.

RE: Possible RAF base closures

I would guess the tutor could operate from Grass couldnt it?

If you have not been to the Cranwell visitor centre, do! its very small, but they make one hell of an effort putting bigger museums to shame!

RE: Possible RAF base closures

cranwell operates dominees and jetstreams from the paved runways, which are quite large, certainly transport large anyway, there are also grob tutors based there with CFS and uni air squadron, it is fully equipped to cope with nearly anything the runway is big enough of taking!!!

coanda

RE: Possible RAF base closures

That wraps up a mystery, as a Chipmunk pilot told me a few years ago, that Cranwell was all Grass. However, I wondered how the JPs in their heyday operated from there, and before that Vampires. i even saw an F15 parked when I drove past once.

RE: Possible RAF base closures

Not necessarily. St Mawgan’s been largely dormant since the Nimrods all consolidated up at Lossie in the 90’s, so that’s not really a surprise. I would be very surprised to see any significant changes at Brize and Lyneham though.

Really must correct you about Cranwell; there is quite a large hard runway there, and the Red Arrows were using it for a few years up until last year. And besides, some years ago I took a fellow Officer Cadet’s GSX-R1100 down it at max chat one Sunday morning which I probably shouldn’t really admit to… 😉 You’re thinking of Cranwell North, up near the married quarters. That’s just grass.

RE: Possible RAF base closures

That is INSANE! Shutting down your best and largest bases? Operating large aircraft from cramped and smaller ones? Like the lunacy of cramming everything into Cranwell which has less Runway than Duxford and I think, no hard runway.