WV-903.Aaaaghhhhh !! My memory fades.
Remember this stuff well,from my early years in RAF. It’s an official preservative used from WW-2 onwards, a sort of greasy goo that was painted on Air Craft metal spares,but probably vanished in early 1950’s. It’s not Lanolin,but is full of nasty ingredients that you do not need to absorb through your skin or eat. I’m sure it was called :- P ? (3?) (Not PRC) But my memory lets me down more often these days. I seem to remember there was was a Green Equivalent around at the same time. Yes, It can be shifted with White spirits,thinners,petrol,etc,etc. Don’t go licking your fingers after working in this stuff. 😮 :dev2:
Bill T.
WV-903.Hooton Park,— Don’t waste your time guys.
The place will go nowhere in the next few years (As I see it ). I feel sorry for the one good HPT Director/Member and the other 2 good TAC Members that I know personally. They are trying to do their best, but the place is now falling apart (Hanger wise ). No 1 hanger has a real “wobbly” roof line,with a tree growing out of it. That roof in one side being held up by internal scaffolding,but that is a huge weight of materials up there. If and when that collapses,that will most likely pull down the other side hanger where the buses are at present.
This will then leave the one(2 really ) Middle or No.2 hangers, which should stay up, as with work done already,it’s future looks more secure. This is(Or was ) the main area where the caravans are stored for members of Public and is the main Income to keep HPT going. So where aircraft Preservation would ever come into this equation ? Who knows, except for the Small “Museum” ::rolleyes:in HUT 29.
I’ve no intention of setting foot in the place again. (I couldn’t afford their charges even if they did allow us back in. ) No doubt this will make some folks there happy, –it does me.:D I tell the wife it was just a bad dream cos people aren’t really like that.
Goodnight and good-bye Hooton Park. Subject closed.
Bill T.
WV-903.Nice one !! Thanks.
PM me if you need any bits for the 3B Seat. Might have a few small parts kicking around and info The Mk 3 seats were nice early lookers, very similar to Mk.2’s and a lot of parts were the same. ( I got a very battered, stripped 3A seat(Valiant ) myself and well on the way to getting all parts needed to build it. I’m really looking forward to that, as this seat is from Valiant WZ-367, and its the 1st pilots Seat.(Finally scrapped at St. Athan in 1965 -66) WZ-366 and WZ-367 were the 2 Valiants selected to fly to Australia in 1956 ?? for the first nucleaur Weapon drops up at Maralinga Range. They flew to Aussie and it was 366 that dropped the first weapon. I guess 367 was a standby.
So there you are, a connection with you and Aussie already 😀 My other connection is that I spent 2-1/2 yrs. at RAAF Edinburgh Field myself with RAF as a fitter on Victor XL-161 carrying out the Blue Steel Stand Off Bomb test drops from 1962-65. I was a member of The N0 4 J.S.T.U. So I always gravitate with great interest towards any Aussie happening that is posted on this forum.
It’s amazing what still keeps turning up in Aussie, so keep it going and best of luck in your endeavours. PM me any questions, will be glad to help if I can.
Bill T.
WV-903.Well I never !!!!!
As an ATC Cadet from 493(Kings Heath ) Sqdn. B’ham 1955-57 I spent many hours at RAF Castle Bromwich either running /Shooting/Parades and even the last Air Show attendance.(Think it was 1957 ). We might well have run over the top of that lot and never knew it. 😮 Any idea what part of Airfield this lot was buried ? Going in Main gate from the Main road,down that left side of Airfield was a lot of Grassy mounds in line that we had to run over, I thought they might have been Air Raid (Filled in ) Shelters or part of the Bomb Dump Could this have been the “Big Spares dump” area ?
Bill T.
WV-903.Ejection Seat.
Hello Bellerine,
Really enjoyed your blog on contents extraction from your Grandads shed and looking fwd. to Tocumwal report. What amazing stuff he and you have gathered, but you do mention having or finding an ejection seat there. Can you give us any more info/pics. on it ? I’m just wondering if it’s a very early Martin Baker seat./ special /or prototype.
Thanks,
Bill T:D
WV-903.2nd. that ANON !!!!
I can vouch for ANON speaking the truth, I was mixed up in it too at Hooton Park and only way for “Damage Limitation” was to lose a lot and cut and run. I’m still stinging about it now. 10 months after finally getting out.
XRX61 is quite right, you are wasting your time trying to apply therapy to Sociopaths and their ilk. By the time you fully realise what they are up to, they’ve snookered you right up the Khyber Pass good and proper. Volunteers with good intentions are no match against these War mongers who spend far more time than you can imagine plotting you OUT of their game. Stressing you out totally is a tactic used, as well as mis-information/ lying /spreading rumours /pricing you out / actual sabotage too.
Yes !!! It’s a very sad situation and is far more common than most folks realise, I’m glad to see it is being talked about on this forum, interesting to find out what percentage of Forumites have been:- Done !!!:mad: :dev2:
Yes !!! Doesn’t the enlarged garden shed / garage seem a much nicer place to work on your hobby. Thats what I do now,—- my “Reduced Collection” of Sea-Hawk tack fits OK, so I can take a cup of tea out with me to play, without the Draconian laws that were imposed at Hooton Park. The Up-side or antidote to these Psycho’s. is that there is now quite a cameraderie of guys who’ve been:- “Done Over”. —who share everything Aviation preservation with each other and have come through the bad experiences moving into a new “Light”, ( Can’t think of a better word ) and happily starting afresh, so remember:-
“Nil Illegitimi carborundum ”
For the younger,tender members in here ,it means: ” Don’t let the Ba*****s Grind you down” 😀 Ex-Forces folks know it well -lol !!!
Bill T.
WV-903.Joysticks !! More comments.
XMas food digesting–lol !!! So some comments here.
2 Good Joystick sets I’ve used for some 7 Years now(On-line WW-2 Combat ) are (As mentioned) The Logitech Extreme 3D-Pro and the Saitek X-52 Pro.
I have purchased 1 Saitek X-52 and 3 Logitech Extreme 3D Pro’s. And am still flying with the Logitech’s. The Saitek caused me many problems at first, as the programming off it’s CD caused no end of problems whilst On-line. So I abandoned that and programmed the Stick via the Game,(OK Flt-Sim) which was and still is:- Micro-Soft CFS-3 “Battle for Europe”. That did the trick and it worked beautifully for one year till I twisted the stick right off it’s centre mounting spindle, trying to avoid a very persistent flier.–LOL !!.
Because of that sticks cost, I moved onto these Logitechs, programming via the same games, Brilliant !!!! Lovely pieces of kit. I wrecked one, am flying with 2nd. and the 3rd. is a waiting spare. Most of our US and Canadian Cousins flying with us On-Line use these Extreme 3D Pro’s as well, with about same wreckage rate as myself, but all speak highly of them.
I fully recommend these Extreme 3D Pro Sticks, about £35 from Amazon UK, last time I looked. Hope this helps and enjoy your Flt. Simming.
Bill T.
WV-903.Great Post, thanks !!
Thank you for covering your Visit with great info and pics. They really bring it home on a not too well known subject over this side of pond.
Bill T.
WV-903.Same here Alan.
Going back even further Alan, as a youngster myself in late 1940’s early 1950’s, every year we family Summer holiday’d just south of Llanbedr in a caravan,(Yes !!–an Eccles ). At that time, the big guns of Army at Towyn were in regular practice use on their range shooting at drogues towed a long way behind Mosquito Aircraft from Llanbedr Airfield. My brother and I would leg it up to the seaward side of Llanbedr Airfield and stand in sand dunes watching the Mosquito’s and Occasionally FireFlies taking off and landing. The aircrew would give us a wave as they went by, sitting in shirt-sleeves order and side window open, what a great life hey !!!
We would watch and listen to the noise of the Towyn guns opening up on the drogues behind the Mossies, for a school-kid, this was high drama indeed.
I knew I would have to do my national Service in about 1958, and this summed it all up for me, brilliant !!
I don’t remember any crashed Aircraft around there at all, I of course knew nothing about the P-38 that was in the sea off the end of the main runway, yet must have passed it many times, probably even swam near the thing.
Yes, a very interesting post here Scott, I’m sure a lot of info will be thrown up, I look forward to it all. Thanks fella’s, keep it coming.
For myself, I’d just like to know what happened to those Mosquito’s and if any survive today. There were some 4 or 5 Mosquito’s being slowly dismantled and scrapped when I arrived at RAF Halton in 1958 to start my RAF Apprentice training, could these have been the ones from Llanbedr ? They had vanished by 1959.
Bill T.
WV-903.Well Fancy that.!!!!”
I always wondered what happened to this Spitfire. As a youngster, I used to cycle from Birmingham regularly to Worcester, mainly to call in to the ATC Unit and gaze in wonder at her. This would be around those years.
Brilliant that she is still around and well cared for. Thanks guys for info.
Bill T.
WV-903.Thanks for posting these———- Appreciated.
Every once in a while a set of really nostalgic pics. are posted here. These are in that category, the photographer caught it all beautifully.
I’m so glad my RAF Service was done over these times, I would not like to be in the RAF of today, no reflection on the serving personnel, but we seemed to be looked after so much better then, than they are now.
It’s also good that quite a few of these Aircraft in pics. are saved (Or parts of them ) The 4 FTS Gnats brought back memories of my time on them and the RAF Valley Air Shows we held over those times.
Bill T.
WV-903.Caernarfon Air World Museum.
Hi JB,
There used to be the remains of the back end of an Anson at Caernarvon Air World. (The Museum At Old RAF Landwrog Airfield), it was mounted up on a wall diorama of a Crash in WW2, but I’m almost sure that Anson crashed in Snowdonia (Mountains ).
Bill T.
WV-903.Great Idea OzJag.
What a neat idea Oz.
The Skype hook-up would really bring the 2 events together and a”Roving” camera help enormously, Saturday. evening at C/pit Fest UK equates to morning for Aussie guys, so the insults trading would go down a bomb as UK guys would be well into the beer by then—(lol).
Bet a lot of horse trading gets done too. Myself and friends did this sort of hook up with a great guy in NZ. (Didn’t we Mark !!!! lol ) and it was really good fun swopping info/ stories/what spares reqd. etc. It’s all about contact,and real time contact too.
Without a doubt, this would make the world go round even faster and we all have a good yap and laugh, ——– brilliant !!!
Bill T.
WV-903.Ahhh !!! memories !!!
Interesting pic.
At RAF Halton 1958,-60, as an Aircraft Apprentice (88th Entry ) I did my basic Airframe rigging in the Airframe workshops there on RAF Prentices. We dismantled them into lumps and re-assembled them, always remember that.—- very interesting. Every thing then was British and Imperial measurements, fittings and tools. We were even issued with a riggers blue big wooden tool box full of these spanners and stuff, but they were withdrawn before I left Halton. Those Prentices vanished about -oooo-er !! 1959 and were replaced by Piston Provosts that had been flown into Halton Airfield, De-rigged and whizzed up to the Airframe workshops, they were complete in every respect. However, (Getting off the thread here -lol ) Those RAF Halton Prentices must have ended up with these others you see in Atcham Towers Pic. I think we had about half a dozen Prentices at Halton,( but it was a long time ago now. )
Bill T.
WV-903.Made I laugh-Nice one !!!
Thanks for putting this one up R.
In my time out in OMAN with Airworks, I’d heard the name mentioned,but knew little more. I do now. Thanks.
Bill T.,
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