LL, I’ve been on both sides of the planning debate [both non-aviation and aviation related] and it can be a minefield; good luck!

It might even pay to get a Noise Assessment prepared by a consultant as part of your Planning Support / Environmental Study documentation portfolio.

Thanks so far – anyone delt with this stuff before? http://www.grassreinforcement.com/airfields.html

There are many alternatives products and the choice depends on loading requirements etc, but none of them are cheap!

With ‘creative’ justifications and providing you fulfil various criteria you can even get grants to purchase and lay the stuff. This has been done at Newark albeit not for flying use!!

IMHO I suggest that your biggest hurdle is planning permission for change of use back to aviation use.

A couple of years ago the low-flying zone in the Newark area [between Cranwell and Syerston] became more used since the Gliding Club had their lease terminated at Winthorpe Airfield. So much so the Newark Air Museum website tries to record some of the activity over the museum, which seems to be used as a way-point.

Albeit not as busy in recent months. :confused:

http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/newsItem.php?id=3

Didnt NAM have a surplus T2 from an airport? The new hangar is superb, but much smaller than a T2. Its heartbreaking to think of the effort that must have gone into aquiring a bloody great hangar and dismantling it.

Sadsack,

A dismantled T2 framework [no cladding] was donated to NAM by a company on Bottesford Airfield in the mid 1990s and I believe that part of that framework was stolen shortly after it arrived at Winthorpe. [I’d forgotten about that!] 😮

As part of their options appraisal for their HLF Project Newark found that new steelwork was nearly as cheap as renovating the existing T2 steelwork. Also they didn’t require the T2 height so they opted for new steelwork for their HLF hangar project.

With the permission of the donor the remainder of the T2 framework was sold to Elvington [merely covering the Bottesford to Newark transport costs]. Then before Newark started construction of the HLF hangar a TA Unit dismantled and moved the T2 framework to Elvington as part of a training exercise.

The sheeting theft I previously referred to was on the HLF hangar, which is 60metres x 40 metres [not sure of the T2 size] and now houses 14 aircraft.

Didn’t have any involvment in moving XN819, but have worked on the tail boom of other Argosy’s, and moved a couple of Meteors and they are very similar!

One of the Meteors I think – NF12 at Cranwell?

There are a couple of black and white pictures in the new Tim O’Brien book – Last Post At Newton; that also notes similar grass landings at Newton for:

Shackleton T5 – WB849
Shackleton MR3 – WR990
Canberra B(I)8 – XM271

One of the first ever station visits I organised for myself was to RAF Newton to look round these aircraft, circa 1972-3. I went on the local service bus along the A46 and got to look inside all of the above mentioned aircraft plus the Vulcan. 😀

When Newark built their second Hangar they had just under 10,000 square metres of steel wall cladding stolen from their site.

It was later traced to site a few miles away from the site but the Police were unable to prosecute because they didn’t know who owned the lock-up building it was stored in.

Also their site is now kept locked during the day because at least one scrap wagon has been caught on site – “just checking out what they wanted to get rid of!” while the museum was actually open to the public! 😮