RAF Machrihanish sells for £1

They paid a £1.00? I hope that they got some change:diablo:

A friend of mine was posted there as SATCO. I never did find out what he had done.

exmpa

’twas a place to pass through but not linger to long, stunning scenery especially at low level, but not a place to go tech.

Sounds like some of you have some fond memories there!

I seem to remember them flying in a Vulcan or Victor for burning practice for the fire brigade, they found they didn’t have a burning pan, so one was built and it duly dumped on it for the big day, the then Staish I believe looked at it and decided it was to good to burn….. Don’t know what happened after that.

Tac Comms Wg Trng Exs used to inhabit the old V-Bomber dispersal facilities.
And of the very LIVE sheep that was mysteriously found in OC TCW Det’s bunk. And of the very DEAD sheep found (still steaming – it was a very wet Macrospanish night!) at the bottom of a megawatt Tx aerial (everything went very dark and quiet with a very big bang!!!) We had been working some frigate in the Windies – but it all stopped!!
There were several “No Tea & Biccies” interviews when we got back to base!
Formative years for a lot of us!!
Resmoroh

Re 14

HP111

That sounds like the SBS practicing their shady arts.

John Green

HP111, Hi,
Parachuting into Studland Bay was a regular sport some years back! Fairly senior (non-para) officers about to be posted i/c Units with a para capability would go to 1 PTS and do all the good stuff. They would then go and do a live drop into Studland Bay – thus qualifying for their ‘Para Wings’. Studland Bay ain’t too deep if you catch the tide right – the taller blokes might have been able to stand on the bottom while some ASR lot came and scooped them up!!!!!
The Rest, Hi,
We used to go to Macrospanish from time to time with the Andovers for them to experience the Rufty Tufty world of tactical operations. OC Andover Det was, on one occasion, changing into Best Blue in order to meet the local dignitaries. There was the usual hooly blowing. OC A Det’s downwind 12×12 tent door was unfastened. His No 2 opened the upwind door! OC A Det’s BB trousers last seen flying very low, and very fast, in general direction of Oggin!! Ho-ho!!
And Jimmy The Fish never failed. On one Endex occasion the deep frozen placky bags of sea-goodies failed to arrive. We rang Jimmy, who told us that our recovery a/c had been delayed by 24 hrs. He knew!! But Ops had forgotten to tell us!!
Some of the cross-wind landings by the daily flight from Glasgow had to be seen to be believed. “Say again all after Landrover blown over, Over!”.
Just a few tales in a series of 10,000!! All true – I swear it.
HTH
Resmoroh

It is not the whole place being sold, Campbeltown Airport is remaining as it is leased.

Is flying still going on at Macrihannish? Last time I was there (1994) there was some civilian flying going on and the place was signposted as “Airport” on the roads round about. WL635, Varsity and Vulcan XL427 were on the dump.
Jim

I think Loganair fly a Twin Otter in nowadays?

Remind me. The Datsun Hut. Is that the one with the Cherry on the top?

You guys crack me up 😀

Moggy

Is flying still going on at Macrihannish? Last time I was there (1994) there was some civilian flying going on and the place was signposted as “Airport” on the roads round about. WL635, Varsity and Vulcan XL427 were on the dump.
Jim

Digressing a bit, but one summer afternoon a few years ago I was on the beach at Studland in Dorset and I noticed that there were what looked like a couple of long rowing boats circling not far out in the bay. Then a Hercules comes over fairly low from inland, a bunch of soldiers bail out the back and parachute straight into the water and are picked up by the waiting boats. Whatever the point of the exercise, it couldn’t have been more public.

Yup they used to have a special Herc pop in for training and would jump out the back at low level in their dingies.. Crazy

:):):)

Yup they used to have a special Herc pop in for training and would jump out the back at low level in their dingies.. Crazy

SEALS have been stationed there for many years, rumoured as a consequence of regular visits of “Aurora” type stealth aircraft, and others of a highly secret nature.. Machrihanish being needed for its extremely long runway.

Re 5

Now what was that last spat you and I had about illteracy ? Chickens and roosting come to mind !

John Green

We used to do a fish run, they would call the guy in the Tower, he would arrange a load of fresh fish to be delivered to the tower the day before we left Aldergrove, a Wessex on a Nav ex would then pick them up and transport them back to Aldergrove where some would go to the mess and the others back on the Herc with the guys, if you were ever transiting the area you used to call ahead and put your order in 🙂

You used to buy train sets from Cyprus and get Fruit, we used to check guys out from Cyprus on ground running yearly and they used to throw boxes of the best fruit I have ever tasted into the fwd hold for us.

Some years back I had an email from a chap who used to Fly Swordfish from there.
He told how it was always very windy, and if they had a strong headwind, it took a long
time to get to their mainland destination.

There have been many stories about Machrihanish over the years, fact and fiction.

Remind me. The Datsun Hut. Is that the one with the Cherry on the top?

My IPad alters stuff and you don’t always catch it, Nissan is what the spell checker changes it to when I type, being a multi finger Typer, ( read two on a good day) one tends to watch the keyboard as opposed to the output window.

So long live the Nissan Hut a natural successor to the Datsun Hut.

So there :p