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BluBear

3. Danger Dogz
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Posts posted by BluBear

  4. Touring the Kent USAAF 9th AF Advanced Landing Grounds... by bicycle

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Thanks chaps.

    What next indeed...

    Well there are plenty of former Battle of Britain sites around these parts of course.
    I just threw together a tentative Strava route that includes West Malling, Rochester, Eastchurch and Detling, about 67 miles with considerably greater elevation what with going up the North Downs and such, could be fun though.

    Or I could start at Manston, go through Ramsgate then down to Hawkinge, Lympne and back which is around 64 miles (closer to 100 if I tag on Lydd/Littlestone).

  5. Touring the Kent USAAF 9th AF Advanced Landing Grounds... by bicycle

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Something I've been meaning to do for a while is visit the sites of all seven (eight including Brenzett) former USAAF Ninth Air Force Advanced Landing Grounds in Kent, by bicycle.
    The most well known of course is RAF Lashenden, now Headcorn Aerodrome which is a popular General Aviation, Skydive and Warbird flight experience hub. It's also just down the road from where I live, so naturally that's where I started the ride.
    With help from the book 'UK Airfields of the Ninth then and now' by Roger A. Freeman, a healthy dose of Wikipedia and a few drops of Google Streetview, I plotted the most direct route in Strava to easily accomplish all eight sites in an afternoon. 
    The weather wasn't perfect; actually quite blustery and hard-going down on the marshes, but considering the minimal elevation overall, it made the ride that bit more rewarding.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't find the memorials to a couple of the sites, but I managed to snap pictures of the rough area where the runways would have been back in 1943/44 instead.

    Sites visited in order: 
    Lashenden 
    Headcorn     (actually near Egerton and incidentally the site PapaBear, Fenrir and I used to fly model aircraft from) 
    Ashford 
    Kingsnorth 
    Brenzett     (An honorary entry for the US AAA battery based there, it was an anti-V1 RAF base primarily)
    Woodchurch 
    High Halden 
    Staplehurst

    For those of you interested in the stats of the ride, there's a link to my Strava entry at the bottom of the post, it turned out around 58 miles in the saddle.

    Here's the route map, with the locations of the airfields:

    tour map.jpg

    And onto the sites...

     

    RAF Lashenden

    Aero Legends were operating both of their Spitfires today, the single-seater Mk.IX TD314 was on 'sit-in' experiences and the two-seater T.IX HN341 was performing pleasure flights.
    The latter seemed to follow me round the ride for the first 20 miles or so, which made the experience all the more poignant. Quite the soundtrack!

    20180617_142418.jpg20180617_142607.jpg

     

    RAF Headcorn

    The memorial is actually located on Bedlam lane which runs along the South East perimeter of the site, the airfield would have been directly behind me taking these pictures:

    20180617_144145.jpg20180617_144156.jpg

     

    RAF Ashford

    Looking approximately South West from what would have been the eastern perimeter, the NNW-SSE runway would have run from right to left in this view.

    20180617_151318.jpg20180617_151327.jpg 

     

    RAF Kingsnorth

    Looking North East, this is where the NE-SW runway intersected the main road. Spitfire NH341 flew overhead just as I took this picture. Marvellous!

    20180617_152825.jpg

     

    RAF Brenzett

    Now a small museum which has a number of interesting artefacts, including an intact Vampire sadly languishing outside (not good for wood), a bouncing bomb recovered from Reculver and the last time I was there a fully operational link trainer.

    20180617_160146.jpg20180617_160151.jpg20180617_160340.jpg20180617_160342.jpg20180617_160509.jpg

     

    RAF Woodchurch

    The original ALG was located to the North of the village and South East of Little Engham Farm, which is a private strip owned by the Warbird pilot Rob Davies who famously bailed out of his P-51D Big Beautiful Doll at Flying Legends 2011 (some of us dogz were there to see it).
    He used to put on a great little airshow here called Wings n Things back in the early 2000s, sadly rising insurance costs and mounting risk assessments knocked it on the head. He's still active, test flying and transporting Warbirds around Europe and working with Aero Legends as a camera ship pilot in his T6 Texan that he still flies from here.

    These pictures are views from what would have been the Southern threshold of the N-S runway, looking North-ish.

    20180617_164456.jpg20180617_164504.jpg

     

    RAF High Halden

    Unfortunately, the memorial did not materialise on this one, it may have been moved to the village. This however, is the view roughly looking south at what would have been the northern threshold of the N-S runway.

    20180617_170615.jpg

     

    RAF Staplehurst

    I've been cycling around this site for years without realising the significance of the surrounding fields, for some reason I thought it was located to the west of the town.
    This fantastic, well kept memorial was erected back in 2010 with an opening ceremony which included a flypast by Rob Davies in P-51D Big Beautiful Doll along with the wartime pilot of the P-51B etched into the stone in attendance.
    Despite the leaden skies and howling wind, I took the time to sit on the grass and sign the visitor book, looking out over the fields and trying to imagine what it was like 74 years ago.

    20180617_174345.jpg20180617_174358.jpg20180617_174410.jpg 

     

    That's all folks!

    For further information, Wikipedia has a decent amount of information on WW2 ALGs in general and goes into some detail for each one I visited today.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Landing_Ground#United_Kingdom_(Kent)

     

    Here are the stats of the ride:

    https://www.strava.com/activities/1645043553

     

    • Thanks 2

  7. Flying Legends 2018

    in Flying Legends 2018

    Posted · Edited by BluBear
    News

    Looks great doesn't it? Can't wait to see that with a Glad, Spit 1, Hurri 1, Emil and Blennie.

    I understand Berlin Express did indeed fly yesterday. Whoop!

    EDIT: Berlin Express has just been withdrawn from the line-up ?

    • Sad 2

  11. hello Dogz

    in IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz and Desert Wings: Tobruk

    Posted

    Hi Fatal.

    Our squad Clod night is Thursday, where we fly on our own (public) server, we were almost in double figures last night.

    I guess the reality is, the ten or so regularly active dogz are already dividing their time between 46, great battles, DCS and clod over multiple time zones; so any time for extra curricular activities is limited at best.

    Sure we like to get involved in events when possible, like SofW for example but right now I reckon we just don't seem to have the time. 

    We had been discussing whether clod was getting stale recently and thought about popping over to other servers for a change, but then FT makes some cool changes to our server and all is good again. ?

    Thanks for the invite though, obviously it extends back to you. These are just my thoughts, no doubt some other mangy mutts will have their own stinking opinion. ?

    S!

  17. P-51 Miss Velma emergency landing @ Legends 2017 - In cockpit footage and analysis

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Full inflight video and discussion of the incident from Miss Velma's emergency landing last year.

    A great insight into the decisions and problems with a misfiring engine. Great airmanship.

    Originally posted on the Key forums.

    https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...irport-landing

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpq...ature=youtu.be

    Quote

    Levy bellied the stricken airplane into a farm field, and it slid to an abrupt stop in about 100 yards. The impact was so forceful that the canopy slammed forward, hitting the back of his head as the plexiglass was thrown clear of the airplane. Levy wasn’t seriously injured, and he made a radio call saying that he was OK before he shut down the electrical power and stepped out of the damaged aircraft.

    And there's me thinking he pulled the pin at the time!

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 2

  19. Piece of Cake - 30 years ago

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Just now, Sweper said:

    Coldn't agree more. I read the book first, (which I bought with my own money at Duxford). One of the funniest book I've read. If, one can appreciate Brittisch humor and banter, of course :)

    Then I bought the series but didn't watch it until we visited Painalot's place in Waterlowille.

    Then I got Fighter Pilot from Mr Friar him self. Also a darn good read. Yes, I can imagine how Derek got the story for his book. Maybe.

     

    I'd heartily recommend reading Robinson's other period aviation novels.
    Damned Good Show (Bomber Command) and Goshawk Squadron (Great War) are the two others I have which are also fantastic reads.
    Most of them have some kind of link, with familiar names appearing as they progress through their RAF career. Skull Skelton for example is the main protagonist in Damned Good Show.

    I really need to pick up 'A Good Clean Fight' which continues the story of Hornet Squadron, set in North Africa in the spring of 1942 flying Tomahawks.

    • Like 1

  20. Piece of Cake - 30 years ago

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Great little article here chaps:

    WHEN PIECE OF CAKE CAME TO HEADCORN – 30 YEARS ON
    https://warbirdtails.net/2018/03/17/when-piece-of-cake-came-to-headcorn-30-years-on/

    One of my all time favourite aviation film/series. Been meaning to give it another watch, it's been a while. I used to have it on repeat as a lad, wearing out PapaBear's VHS recording from the original showing on ITV.
    Also, I've lived down the road from Headcorn most of my life and never realised it was used as a base for filming; you learn something new every day!
     

    I urge anyone with a passing interest in the Phoney War, Spitfires (one famously under a bridge piloted by Ray Hanna) and jolly good banter to watch this, also read Derek Robinson's book, it's brilliant.

    Whilst you're at it, read Paul Richey's Fighter Pilot, which must have heavily influenced Robinson's work.

     

    • Like 2

  21. Flying Legends 2018

    in Flying Legends 2018

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Jabo said:

    It flies!

    P-47 'Nellie' (G-THUN) about to touchdown after a test sortie from her Duxford home (At least I think it's Duxford - don't remember all those trees though).

     

    This is going to freakin' AWESOME (as long as they open the taps a bit and not just have her stooging around with Sally B!)

    (Not my photo - it's in focus - Credit to Duxman over at the Historic Aviation forum)

     

     

    I think she looks smashing mate, love the new scheme!
    I believe she test flew from Sywell where she was shipped in, assembled and repainted by Grace's team.

    Nellie has since taken up residence at Duxford after a flying visit to Lakenheath for a photoshoot with the current serving Squadron of F-15s.

    See here: http://www.thetfordandbrandontimes.co.uk/news/second-world-war-era-fighter-planes-visit-us-air-force-base-in-suffolk-1-5509249

     

  24. Whatcha Flyin'?

    in DCS Series

    Posted

    Some of us are still on rusty old 1.5... Soon* to upgrade

    I fly any of these, in no particular order:

    Spit
    109
    Sabre
    P-51
    FC3 (F-15, A-10A, Su-33 etc)
    Harrier
    Huey
    Hawk (almost never cos it's porked)
    I think that's it...
     

     

     

     

    *could be this month, could be next, or the next...

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