Honington

[Rhubarb]

Hi all,
I have been reading a previous Xmas present from my son titled “The Bucaneer Boys”. It contains some great stories about life in the RAF and FAA. It really gives you a feel of what it was like to be a G.I.F. and G.I.B. during the 70s and 80s. That said I am a little confused ! A lot of the action takes place at RAF Honington. Honington is adjacent to Barkston Heath. Was RAF Barkston Heath once called RAF Honington ? If this was so, why did they change the name ?
Cheers

[reaper493]

Think you must be getting your wires crossed somewhere. RAF Honington is to the east of RAF Mildenhall, no where near Cranwell or Barkston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Honington

Mike

Edit :
I see there is a village next to Barkston called Honington... Completely different place.

[mirage41]

RAF Barnham (not Barkston Heath) was a station in its own way in the dim and distant.

It fell under control of Honington by the 60s, and provided a storage facility for Valiant and Victor B1/B1A - and subsequently Buccaneer.

The associated married quarter housing provided an ideal overspill for Honington.

Whilst I served at Honington, 1964/66 and 1970/76, it was always RAF Barnham, and I believe signage remains unchanged.

Edit - got confused ref. Barnham/Barkston.

[Unknown74]

From what I remember from attending the Honington Airshow in 1992 is Honington under the approach for either Mildenhall or Lakenheath? (or both?) as I recall a lot of Mildenhall Aircraft use Honington overhead which must have been interesting for the Tornados which used to be based there other visitors.

[slogen51]

You certainly could see Mildenhall inbounds over Honington. If I remember correctly Honington provided the approach control for Mildenhall and Lakenheath similar to the Lakenheath RAPCON today. Departing Swingers would call up on Honington while still rolling at Lakenheath.

RAF Barnham is still there and the RAF signs are clearly visible as you drive past on the A134.
Barnham camp looks interesting on Google maps with lots of tracks going off to compounds in the woods.

PS by the way what is a G.I.B or G.I.F ? I am assuming Ground fitters of some sort.

I recently heard 'Gingers' mentioned on Marham ops - I think this is Rhyming slang for Engineers

Edit : just noticed this is in the Lincoln section - I was of course referring to the Honington in East Anglia! another 5 minutes of my life wasted

[graham luxton]

You certainly could see Mildenhall inbounds over Honington. If I remember correctly Honington provided the approach control for Mildenhall and Lakenheath similar to the Lakenheath RAPCON today. Departing Swingers would call up on Honington while still rolling at Lakenheath

Yes, the Honington Control Zone, located at Honington, was set up to control the movements of all 3 bases outside of their Aerodrome Traffic Zones. A procedure existed whereby jet traffic inbound to Lakenheath, via the high level Initial Approach Fix on the East coast, would not work Honington. These would go direct to Lakenheath RAPCON from Eastern Radar/ London Mil just like they do from Swanwick Mil today. This procedure considerably cut ATC workload at Honington which could be extremly busy even without that extra traffic. However, other inbounds to Lakenheath, such as those off the Airways system, would have to work Honington - in ATC speak these were called "Diverse" recoveries.

[Redflag17]

RAF Barnham is used by the RAF Regiment for training. Shortly to close.

[Andy Marden]

PS by the way what is a G.I.B or G.I.F ? I am assuming Ground fitters of some sort.

Guy In Back (Navigator) and Guy In Front (Pilot)

[reheat module]

I recently heard 'Gingers' mentioned on Marham ops - I think this is Rhyming slang for Engineers

That's correct: Gingers = Ginger Beers = Engineers.

[TAFFEVANS]

From what I remember from attending the Honington Airshow in 1992 is Honington under the approach for either Mildenhall or Lakenheath? (or both?) as I recall a lot of Mildenhall Aircraft use Honington overhead which must have been interesting for the Tornados which used to be based there other visitors.

Went through TWCU(45Sqn) at Honington in '88, can't remember any issues with ATC there. Last time I flew out of there was on 26th & 30th March '93 as part of the massed Flypast Practices for the RAF 75th held at Marham. Sadly, on the actual day the weather was atrocious which I think ended up with a single Tornado flyby using the TFR! P.S. If anyone has any photos of the flypasts would be nice to see, I was in GR1A ZA372:E of II(AC)Sqn. Taff

[tm74sqn]

RAF Barnham is used by the RAF Regiment for training. Shortly to close.

Vague memory that it was a nuclear weapons store - for Waddington-based Vulcans?
May be completely wrong though!

[graham luxton]

From what I remember from attending the Honington Airshow in 1992 is Honington under the approach for either Mildenhall or Lakenheath? (or both?) as I recall a lot of Mildenhall Aircraft use Honington overhead which must have been interesting for the Tornados which used to be based there other visitors.

From my time at Honington there were sometimes delays to our outbounds until Mildenhall inbounds to Runway29 had passed through Honingtons R27 extended centreline - that was really the only point of confliction. Back in the late 60's/early 70's Mildenhall was a very much busier base than it is nowadays and when there were multiple arrivals effecting our outbounds we gave them delaying vectors to allow our aircraft to depart. Remembering back to those days, the ATC setup for those 3 bases in close proximity, worked like a well oiled machine!

[SCARECROW]

In Honington ATC we did Mildenhalls arrivals and deps and Lakenheaths deps which was great for spotting fron the tower, got a controller to delay turning 6 F-117's on dep from Lakenheath so i could see them !!!

[Bobcode]

Reference slogen51 comments on RAF Barnham, there are indeed interesting tracks around. At the rear if the camp is an area known as the Gorse Industrial Estate, this was a storage facility for nuclear warheads, the buildings still stand as do one or two of the watch towers. More interesting is a small track that leads off into the countryside, follow this and you pass the remains of a guard house, at the end, is an obviously military set of buildings set behind a secure fence. To the left of this is a field containing underground bunkers that at one time stored mustard gas and phospherous munitions, this is still fenced off and has old warning signs. The military buildings that were used during the war are now utilised for engineering etc.

[Rhubarb]

Thanks all for clearing that up. Some interesting stuff came out of the wood work as always ! The depth of knowledge on hear is fantastic ! I bet we could beat the chaser

[mirage41]

Further to my earlier, by the mid 70s RAF Barnham had long lost its Valiant and Victor bomb storage requirements.

Nevertheless, although I was A/Fitt/E (electrical and instrument), we still had to take our turn at SNCO I/C RAF Barnham.

Interestingly, Honington had by then become an MDU (master divertion unit), whereby anything imaginable could fly through.

The early evening delight, no scanners then so we could only watch, was to hear an F111 and a Coltishall Lightning doing low approaches.

The Lightning would make sure he ended up as No2, and on departure would often engage burner and roll around our friend as they climbed out.

[andrewn]

RAF Barnham is used by the RAF Regiment for training. Shortly to close.

Correct - one of the many MoD sites (aka the family silver) being sold off to property developers....

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defe ... evelopment

[andrewn]

From what I remember from attending the Honington Airshow in 1992 is Honington under the approach for either Mildenhall or Lakenheath? (or both?) as I recall a lot of Mildenhall Aircraft use Honington overhead which must have been interesting for the Tornados which used to be based there other visitors.

Went through TWCU(45Sqn) at Honington in '88, can't remember any issues with ATC there. Last time I flew out of there was on 26th & 30th March '93 as part of the massed Flypast Practices for the RAF 75th held at Marham. Sadly, on the actual day the weather was atrocious which I think ended up with a single Tornado flyby using the TFR! P.S. If anyone has any photos of the flypasts would be nice to see, I was in GR1A ZA372:E of II(AC)Sqn. Taff

Funny, I was sitting outside the wire in the pouring rain on the 1st, waiting for the flypast that never was...

Eventually the cancel order came through and everybody went home - here was my (incomplete) log from the day:

3x 1FTS JP - XM378/34, XM470/12 & XM478/33 "Jet 1-3"
plus another 3x unident callsign "Provost 1-3"
2x 9Sq GR1's - ZD714/AP & ZD746/AB "Rafair 503A&B/Buckskin 1&2"
4x 13Sq GR1As - ZG707/B, ZG711/E plus 2 "Cobra 1-4"
plus 4x XVSq GR1s unident - "Magnum 1-4"

looks like I missed you in ZA372/E sadly !

[TAFFEVANS]

From what I remember from attending the Honington Airshow in 1992 is Honington under the approach for either Mildenhall or Lakenheath? (or both?) as I recall a lot of Mildenhall Aircraft use Honington overhead which must have been interesting for the Tornados which used to be based there other visitors.

Went through TWCU(45Sqn) at Honington in '88, can't remember any issues with ATC there. Last time I flew out of there was on 26th & 30th March '93 as part of the massed Flypast Practices for the RAF 75th held at Marham. Sadly, on the actual day the weather was atrocious which I think ended up with a single Tornado flyby using the TFR! P.S. If anyone has any photos of the flypasts would be nice to see, I was in GR1A ZA372:E of II(AC)Sqn. Taff

Funny, I was sitting outside the wire in the pouring rain on the 1st, waiting for the flypast that never was...

Eventually the cancel order came through and everybody went home - here was my (incomplete) log from the day:

3x 1FTS JP - XM378/34, XM470/12 & XM478/33 "Jet 1-3"
plus another 3x unident callsign "Provost 1-3"
2x 9Sq GR1's - ZD714/AP & ZD746/AB "Rafair 503A&B/Buckskin 1&2"
4x 13Sq GR1As - ZG707/B, ZG711/E plus 2 "Cobra 1-4"
plus 4x XVSq GR1s unident - "Magnum 1-4"

looks like I missed you in ZA372/E sadly !

Cheers,due to the forecast weather I don't think we even crewed in on the 1st!