The lake at RAF Valley was a dumping ground after the war. Allegedly trucks, vehicles, ammunition, and all sorts of other stuff was dumped in there.
When i stationed there in the 80’s it was still off limits for swimming (although i’m not saying no one ever swam there after a few too many beers in the No.10 club!), and you weren’t allowed to fish in it. Apparently the fish were thought to be contaminated with chemicals from the dumped stuff.

I also seem to recall that over the years there’s been a few aircraft crashes into the lake, and that not all the wreckage has been recovered as it was tangled up with all the crap at the bottom of the lake.
Whilst i was there a Gnat and a Vampire (Venom?) were kicking around the hangars, and eventually they were tarted up and put on the gate.

Would this be the lake to the right of the accomodation block on the way into the station…if memory serves correct, theres a chinook or a seaking in there…crashed in the late 80s with a fuzzy full of Air Cadets??

correct, you will need a login to see a photo on facebook unfortunatly

Dragonfly

well…the weather was quite dull, But Dragonfly WG724 is finally outside along with the sycamore…its taken all day and we didnt leave the museum till half 7…much to the Big grin on Johns face as he has seen his long term project moved outside for him to finish off.

The day didnt go without incident though…while moving the sycamore outside..the first war wound was claimed…on my back by the dragonfly rotor blades…nice flesh wound now 😀

moving to the Dragonfly….we started by shifting her over to where the sycamore stood on pallet lifters and a trolley jack…but part of the wood she was sitting on collapsed and BANG..into the wall of the hangar she went…a look of horror covered old johns face as his pride and joy was thought to have been quite badly damaged.

after inspection it appeared that it was only rubber seals that had been knocked out of place so we carried on with the moving.

after a while we managed to position 724 in such a way that she could be rocked out of the hangar..this worked after replacing the wood with a concrete slab then smashing the edges to get it through the door which was too narrow for the undercarriage of the heli, once outside…we attempted to attach the rotor blades but decided to call it a day when one fell on to one of the guys helping and stuck his arm to a set of ladders

now for the pictures:

Placing the jacks for moving

Adjusting the nose wheel to place it on a jack

Out she comesthe corsa is there for a quick tire inflation*on the aircraft*

Covered up overnight ready for blade fitting

Outside with the Sycamore

The things that needed moving for the helis to come out

Thanks to all who assisted today it was a good days graft

heard a dak this afternoon over NEAM…apparently one of the last flights out of carlisle??

RIP 🙁