Up the bank at Alconbury

[SW Sky Blue]

No trip out was ever complete back in the day without a quick run up the grass bank at Alconbury to see what might be on the other side.....

This particular day I found a nice lizard Galaxy 90022 sporting Patriot Wing titles......Happy days....sorry about the scan quality....

90022_C-5B_ThePatriotWing_Alconbury_KevinWills_copy by KdoubleU2017, on Flickr

90022_C-5B_ThePatriotWing_Alconbury_KevinWills_copy2 by KdoubleU2017, on Flickr

Hope this brings back good memories....

Cheers,

Kev W.

[paddyboy]

Hi Kev

Certainly does bring back good memories

Alconbury’s Air Tattoos we’re unmissable to us

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[vc10man]

Very nice Kev.

[Mustang531]

Thanks for sharing these, a couple of nice shots from another sadly missed base. It could attract some interesting visitors and as stated, their Air Tattoos were pretty good too.

[dragonchaser]

Alconbury was my favourite base back then, you nearly always had a nice surprise when you peered over that bank.

[macbear26]

Hi Kev,
Thanks for posting, totally agree with some of the above comments above. This was my favourite base and travelling from Plymouth caught as many as 15 visiting aircraft from USAFE in a 5 hour window. I still miss the RF-4Cs and F-5s.

[capercaillie]

Very nice Kev.

[F3]

Aah Alconbury and its Air Tattoos. Where the wife and I had our first Taco, with Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes blasting out from a nearby ghetto blaster. That was living alright! I swear that every time I drive past on the A1 I get the distinct whiff of burgers being barbequed. Obviously from those ghosts of airshows past!

[paulbrown1665]

Hi guys, Seeing all these comments about Alconbury got me thinking of the past, what year was it when the Morrocan AF skyservant was in the static park , I went on the flightline after Sundays show with my mum's boyfriend of that time to empty skip-bins .My eye's nearly fell out of my head when we passed the above mentioned!!
Best wishes PB.

[roughcutter]

Great shot from the bank, it was always a favourite stopping off point for us enroute to and from the Hall/LN

[Knife 04]

Brilliant Kev - liked the C-5 in these colours but a pain in the backside to photograph in low light!

Keep them coming

Darren

[F3]

Hi guys, Seeing all these comments about Alconbury got me thinking of the past, what year was it when the Morrocan AF skyservant was in the static park , I went on the flightline after Sundays show with my mum's boyfriend of that time to empty skip-bins .My eye's nearly fell out of my head when we passed the above mentioned!!
Best wishes PB.

'92 Paul and I've got shots of it if you'd like one. Certainly the rarest exhibit there on that occasion. Surprised it made it. When they appeared @ The Hall a few yrs later they had a CASA CN-235 as support.

[Nighthawke]

Hope you don't mind but here it is (not the best quality I know) :
4336/CNA-NP

[Tiger 1]

Absolutely does bring back memories... loads of them....when travelling down to Mildenhall and back from South Yorkshire this exercise was performed twice every trip.

I remember checking one morning and nothing but the check on the way back found 6 x C141s lined up.

Thanks for posting and giving the old memory bank a good old nudge

T1

[retro11]

Yep brings back the memory's all right first stop for us having driven overnight from Aberdeen, the scramble up the bank bino's in hand to see if anything could be seen early in the morning, next stop Mildenhall in hope of a SR-71 launch or finally catching up with 40612 those were the days

[F3]

If anyone is interested I'm still able to supply Alconbury Air Tattoo mugs which will not only bring back happy memories of the base every time you have a brew/wet but it really does improve the taste. There were no takers when I originally advertised these back in '20 but if I get orders in double figures I'll start a production run.

Alconbury mug by Michael Britton, on Flickr

[haveblue]

Galaxy was always an impressive sight, both in the air and on the ground (and still are if you are fortunate enough to see one). Always preferred the grey and white over the lizard scheme but you have captured the colours well. Remember small plastic kits of these being given away in the late 60s or early 70s by a breakfast cereal company in exchange for half a dozen cereal box tokens!

[3Greens]

Scrambling up that bank certainly does bring back great memories.
My first recce around the base in the early 70's looking for good access revealed a very wide vista of numerous RF-4C's all huddled in their groups of four on multiple dispersals (long long before shelter city appeared). It was amazing... just seemed that there was always something starting up or returning.
Happy days
Thanks for posting Kevin

3Greens

[timb]

And then a drive around the back to see what other goodies there were, IS and BT F15,s etc. Did you have head for a village called Abbotts "something" ? It was a long time ago.

[Nighthawke]

Abbots Ripton