I just stumbled across this site whilst looking for something else !
I was stationed at Manby in 1972-73 and was a member of the Macaws team in 1973. I flew in the number 3 slot flying from the right hand seat which made radio frequency changes somewhat interesting.
The other members that year were Pete Diggance ,leader. John Aldington, number 2 and Mick Marriott number 4.
Manby closed in 1973 and we moved to Leeming where we became the Swords with Mark 5’s.
I have some pictures if anyone is interested.
regards,Mike Fox

Manby closed March 1974, John Aldington broke his leg so had he recovered to be able to fly with the team, I expect you remember Buster Wells one of the ground crew.

John Aldington had to be substituted as he broke a leg going up the starboard side of a jeep, the wing was wet and he slipped and rolled down the wing to the ground this was before they had begun working up as a team.

Mick Marriot was a local man from Alford, Pete Diggance was from Kent and was a surly sort, Frank Redmond and Bill Hillman along with Mike Fox were a good bunch.

The replacement for John Aldington was someone from the previous year but I can’t remember who he was. I remember JA and his E Type Jag a real bird puller he reckoned.

Suprisingly Strubby was never finished, there were always quite a few concrete bases for Nissen Huts but the remained empty, The bottom Dispersal (Pan) near the ATC was never surfaced and the Runway nearest the Tower was disused and the surface in poor condition, the short runway wasn’t used very often and rarely on night flying, when the Meteors used it at night the lighting was by Goosenecks, a sort of large watering can that had a wick that was lit, they were equally spaced down the runway, the short runway never had electric lighting.
The Hangars at this time were black and a lot of the buildings still had camouflage paint, this changed to hangars green and the other buildings an ochre colour(yellowy) our crew room was this colour but the doors and window frames were a Brunswick green, it all looked very smart but it had lost that wartime unique atmosphere, at the same time all the bowsers and tractors and ground equipment was painted bright yellow, before that we had RAF blue but with a yellow topping on the bowsers and tractors, the Mini’s retained their RAF blue as did the J2 crew buses.

I met Ray Hanna when he was a QFI on Meteors at Strubby 1964,the singleton at that time was one Fl Sgt, Soames-Waring sadly he passed on last year a true gent who wore a paisley pattern cravat whilst flying, both men are sadly missed.

Interesting, the Macaws only practiced over Strubby in the last two years and we had to stop flying early because of that, they were doing their routine directly over the main runway one day and I borrowed a ground signal box from the radio men (moonies) the box was a foot or so square but it had a extendable aerial similar to the type on a transistor radio, I got up on our crew room roof with the box and aerial extended, it looked like a big remote for a model aircraft, I then made out I was controlling the Macaws, the men on 1 Sqdn Varsities were a great bunch always up for practical jokes.

Somebody at Manby got a sink plunger and fashioned out of cardboard the end of a key stuck it to the plunger and then stuck it on the side of a JP, we always called them clockwork mice.

There was an incident at Manby where someone had marked a message out on the white top part of the airframe above the training command logo, the Varsities were always dirty so it must have been easy with a damp rag say, the message read “**** me said the Duchess” this was noticed as the aircraft taxied past whilst the AOC was visiting the tower, OOPS !
There was no shortage of pranksters at Strubby as the men were mostly ex RAF fitters and as civilians had little time for rank and military order.

You are right it was not a fun job and it was called the MRD main runway de-icer, the use of a pilot is correct I think but the noise and not knowing if the engines would blow there certainly wasn’t a queue to do it, it looked spectacular though.

Hello, saw your piece on 897, it served with 1 Squadron at Manby then at Strubby 1964 – 1972 that was when Strubby closed and the pigs were all flown out to Oakington.
I was present at the closing ceremony, I had worked on Varsities since 1964 and we only lost one that was 680 when we were at Manby in 1964, she was on approach on one engine with the other stopped and feathered, the pilot was F/O Williams QFI, the live engine seized and he put her down just short of the airfield at Keddington both pilots were uninjured and after a de-brief and full medical F/O Williams was back in the air 2 hours later, shortly after he went on leave and when he returned he had been promoted to Fl Lt.

The aircraft was cut up on site but the cockpit section was retained as it was proposed that it be made into a simulator, it stood for many years near the ground school at Manby, what happened to it I don’t know.

Any Varsity info I had was sadly lost in a fire some thirty years later, if anyone has photographs of Manby Strubby Varsities I would be grateful of copies, I will cover any costs incurred.