RAF St Mawgan – Remembered

That’s good, I have a lot of information of the period, I was worried you would date it after these heathen, useless civvies took over.

Oh goody, Shacks into Nimrods period!

Late 60s early 70s. early Nimrod era. Got access to many AI types of an international flavour of that period.

BTW great response there pagen hehe.

this is a picture of 404 hangar……………….

………Have be quick – Pagen out types me every time!!!

For what year are you basing your flight sim on

Baz

Your confusion is well founded as that hangar is at RAF Kinloss not St Mawgan! It’s an ‘austerity’ C Type, non of which were built at Mawgan, indeed the only hangar used by Nimrods at Mawgan is the distinctive and almost unique ‘cantilever’ hangar 404.
Unfortunately the K.Saunders book has many critical errors in it.

Can’t wait to see a decent St Mawgan add on for flight sim, if you need help with details and pics please let me know.

BTW there was never a hangar in the area that is circled in red, not until the far more recent (2003ish?) Skybus hangar.
The one referred to by the bowser driver sounds like 405 hangar, a T.2 which was by itself on the Treloy area.

Spitfireman suggested I posted my queries on this thread. BTW info gleaned from this thread has already been useful. I’m planning a ‘remake’ of St Mawgan for FSX, the favourite airfield of many I think.
I’m having problems placing and orientating this hangar pictured here in Keith A. Saunders book. I’m further confused by info supplied by an ex-St Mawgan bowser driver (Matadors) who placed it near the present Newquay terminal. ( 2nd pic) He remembered U-2/TR-1s using it as well as Shackletons and later Nimrods.

Can anyone help? Pics of anything in the late 60s early 70s would be great. Particularly buildings etc.

Mickey D
Team SDB

“when will this add on be ready Mickey?” Got no deadline Pagen so I can’t say. It will be payware on Flightsim.com but there will be titbits for helpers 🙂

Good idea there spitfireman. Good responses already. Amazing how St Moggie is rembered with such fondness by so many. I reckon it’s the nearness of Watergate Bay and all those topless surfers. 😮

My own memories are of holidaying at Trevarrian Holiday Park, owned by the Philips family. The first time we went would’ve been around ’76 or ’77. Dave Phillips hadn’t been opened many years. 1st year the pool was opened if I remember. Anyway being a Saturday when we arrived and the RAF operating a 5 day week 😀 it was quiet………………..until about 7am Monday when the first Nimrod flew out at what seemed like ” down on the deck” and nearly blew the trailer tent away. Found out later from 2 guys we were fishing with that that particular pilot liked to waken us all up. It worked 🙂 Brilliant! Best holidays we ever had were spent there in following years. Took in the Airday one year. I remember watching a C-5 Galaxy arrive the day before. It just seemed to hang in the air above Newquay.
Ah nostalgia. It must have been great to actually be a part of it like you chaps.

Mickey D
Team SDB

That area you circled, back then housed the station generators and was known as ‘Northsite’ it had a number of buildings over there, mainly prefabs. There was a bulk fuel installation which is defunct but still survives and an emergency crash gate (4) named St Mawgan. There was a long single storey brick building which is still there but empty. Adjacent them were (gone now) 2 large (long) prefabs. There was never a hangar on this side of the airfield till 2003ish.
There were several 60′ lighting towers in this area (myself and wingcomderflap climbed them!)all long gone.

I doubt 405 hangar would house a U2 as it’s wingspan was 3 ft too wide.

Say you pick ’68-’72 you would have 7 sqn Canberra TT.18s, 22 sqn Whirlwinds, MOTU Shackleton T.4s, 42 sqn converting from Shackleton MR.2s and 3s on to Nimrod MR.1s and 236 OCU with Nimrod MR.1s.

when will this add on be ready Mickey?

As pagen mentions, the hangar in post 255 is 2 Hangar at Kinloss. The old NLS line hut and freight shed are the buildings to the right of it.

Another shot of 404 hangar taken from the southern taxiway looking across South Dispersal just before we closed. I don’t think it’s appearance has changed much, if at all, since it was built. The small silver building to it’s right in this view is new (ish) though.

Mr Saunders book has lots of “St Mawgan” photo’s in, however, many of them are just not the St Mawgan in Cornwall I’m afraid :rolleyes:

It must have been great to actually be a part of it like you chaps

Yes it was. I was there for many years and I miss the good old days of the Cold War.

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But more importantly I have the Airways done. 😉

Ha ha very good, got some stories from that place!:o

The walls are fairly plain in 404, but a distinguishing feature is the cantilever beams supporting the roof structure (thus allowing the wide clear span front opening), these extending down to the uprights externally at the back of the hangar.
One thing you may need to decide is if you are doing this pre ’75 when the large and distinctive base operations block was finished, or prior to that when ops was situated in a maze of Seco huts around the back of the tower.

St Mawgan work in progress

Got a couple of things done. Hangar 404 is OK externally but if I want to have a door or two open I need pics of the inner walls.
But more importantly I have the Airways done. 😉

😀

Hang on Mike

Wasn’t Tanker pool behind 405 hangar back in the 70s?

Baz :diablo:

Yep sure was Baz, but ours is (was rather:( ) far better, so poetic licence in this instance is authorised 😉

old location (ish) http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=50.441376&lon=-5.017808&z=18.3&r=0&src=msl

Can’t think of anything that rhymes with tanker:confused:

allow me 🙂 http://www.rhymer.com/RhymingDictionaryLast/tanker.html

Funnily enough, Dr Strangelove was a bowser driver at St Mawgan as well.:rolleyes:

Although Matadors are even a tad before my time, all our bowsers had the convenience of automatic gearboxes 😀

Hang on Mike

Wasn’t Tanker pool behind 405 hangar back in the 70s?

Baz :diablo:

My bowser driver contact mentioned that hill saying it was a barsteward in a Matador due to all the gear changes of the crash box.

Funnily enough, Dr Strangelove was a bowser driver at St Mawgan as well.:rolleyes:

wouldn’t call him a barsteward though!

My bowser driver contact mentioned that hill saying it was a barsteward in a Matador due to all the gear changes of the crash box.

Thats a point, don’t forget to do tanker pool (just off the Treloy line);)

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=50.439724&lon=-5.007386&z=19.3&r=0&src=msl

now sadly unused as a tanker pool 🙁