Sandown Airport is the victim of money and its associated greed factor. Believe me.

I can only hope that those responsible will find it impossible to sleep.

So I take it that this time the rumour is true?

I don’t suppose those responsible will be giving it a second thought – just rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation of the riches that await.

A sad ending to another fine airfield with a long if chequered history.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

Might do so as well.

Having flown many times to Bembridge since 1971 and to Sandown since 1977, I have probably been to the latter over 50 times and half that number of times to Bembridge. No guesses therefore as to which airfield I prefer. 🙂

The fortunes of the two have fluctuated over the years with usually one in the ascendancy and the other in the doldrums and certainly in the last couple of years, ever since the restaurant fire, it seems that it has been a case of Bembridge thriving while Sandown has declined.

It is good to know therefore that its immediate future seems secure.

Wannabe pilot, I hope you managed your trip to one or other of them, and for what it’s worth, rightly or wrongly, despite flying from an airfield on the coast, mainly in single-engined light aircraft, I have never once worn a lifejacket, otherwise than for trips across the Channel and the Irish Sea, when it does become essential.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

Liz & Paul

I do not know where Liz and Paul base their aircraft, they live in Goathland and there may be a farm strip nearby. Also I was incorrect, they never owned an Auster at Inverness , that was Alison Symon.

I’ve known them since their instructing days at Blackbushe/Shoreham and well recall Paul doing a loop one evening in his Jackaroo G-AOIO (still surviving in Australia?) at one of the PFA Rallies at Sywell in the mid-1970s.

I haven’t seen them since a chance encounter nearly 17 years ago when we were both visiting Breighton – a very murky day when he kindly gave me a quick five minute trip in the Hornet Moth shortly after taking Desmond Penrose for a flight in it.

This was followed by by the offer of a ride in a Super Cub to formate on them as they flew back north towards Whitby.

Thoroughly nice people, real aviation people. I had only gone there on the back of a daft mission the previous day to fly from the old Doncaster aerodrome about 7 weeks before its final closure and the weekend was made complete when Mr Penrose, who I’d never met before or since, gave me a lift into York to catch the train back home.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

4.25 pm and while proud grandparents entertained our son, his fiancee and 1st grandchild in sunny back garden, a Spitfire flew over heading south west.

Nothing on the Shoreham airport website live arrivals so wonder which one, as it sure was an appropriate salute to the little lad, who will not be three days old for another four hours. 😀

Wicked Willip :diablo:

dailee1

I’m sure there must be enough material for a book to be written about all the mainly failed attempts to operate scheduled services from Shoreham in the past 50 years (and no I’m not offering to write it!:D). I would guesstimate probably 20 to 30 companies have tried, some of which can’t have lasted for very long as I’ve forgotten all about them.

Channel was probably the most successful and long running and most entitled to be considered as Shoreham’s own airline, even though they were never based here, and they suffered the difficulty of operating from an often badly waterlogged airfield, before they improved the drainage and before the advent of the hard runway. Many others have followed.

Stramsway Ltd. t/a South Coast Air Taxis, had ideas but only ever did pleasure flights with their Rapide G-APSD. They also used an Apache and the pair of Mooneys G-ASNP and ‘NR, the latter of which was the first ever transatlantic delivery direct to Shoreham. On one famous occasion they did a charter bringing in The Hollies pop group, an event leaked to the media in advance, which resulted in hordes of young girls trying to reach the aircraft before the props. had stopped.

Irelfly too had plans but they only lasted five minutes and maybe couldn’t get an AOC for their ex B.K.S. Air Transport Dakota G-AMSH, which they brought in.

I can’t remember the exact chronology but others followed such as Haywards Aviation with G-ASDD Dove and G-AXXJ Islander and South East Air Ltd. with their Islander G-OSEA.

Later Brymon had a go with Dash 7s and also Aurigny with Trislanders. Another Trislander operator was Lyddair, which positioned up from Lydd for flights to Le Touquet, sometimes with just one or two passengers on board!

Blue Islands/Rockhopper, Alderney’s airline, operated flights there for a while with Islanders and Trislanders again and most recently Skysouth, until they stopped a few months ago, were sending passengers in their Navajos to Le Havre and a few other destinations.

Wicked Willip :diablo: