And one of my AATC course was a Leading Airman of the Fleet Air Arm who was stationed in the tower here. His name IIRC was Tex Edwards. And from what I can recall the helicopters flew until 0400 on Monday-Thursday. I always recall that the VHF LARS frequency at Portland was 124.15, I know that as it was shared with Marham and Shawbury. Yes we could here aircraft talking to Portland from Marham!
Not unusual. Farnborough Approach frequency 134.350 was shared with Valley for many years. One day I heard an aircraft which commonly operated out of Fairoaks call up and I answered him, then quickly found out that he had actually departed Blackpool heading towards Valley and he was calling Valley for LARS near Llandudno but they couldn’t hear him whereas I could!
I reported this and it was found Valley were actually operating outside their DOC so a new frequency was assigned to them.
Thanks for that. The strips we used for the field deployments in Germany were about the same length as Portlands runway. Mind you it still amazes me that the US Navy landed a C130 on a carrier!
My microlight could easily get in/out. If it was opened for microlights it would be very popular as there aren’t too many other airfields nearby.
Could be a bit tricky in a crosswind same as Gib though.
My late father, John Thompson, used to fly for Airwork at Hurn. He told me that he and many other pilots used the Portland runway to do “roller landings” (touch and go) in Sea Hawk and Hunter jets. This was seen by an admiral one day, who put a stop to this practice!
The Lynx with the red door panels and red tails are ones that have served in Antarctica on HMS Endurance.
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And one of my AATC course was a Leading Airman of the Fleet Air Arm who was stationed in the tower here. His name IIRC was Tex Edwards. And from what I can recall the helicopters flew until 0400 on Monday-Thursday. I always recall that the VHF LARS frequency at Portland was 124.15, I know that as it was shared with Marham and Shawbury. Yes we could here aircraft talking to Portland from Marham!
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Not unusual. Farnborough Approach frequency 134.350 was shared with Valley for many years. One day I heard an aircraft which commonly operated out of Fairoaks call up and I answered him, then quickly found out that he had actually departed Blackpool heading towards Valley and he was calling Valley for LARS near Llandudno but they couldn’t hear him whereas I could!
I reported this and it was found Valley were actually operating outside their DOC so a new frequency was assigned to them.
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I wonder if Harriers ever used the runway here?
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yep https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1090031
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Thanks for that. The strips we used for the field deployments in Germany were about the same length as Portlands runway. Mind you it still amazes me that the US Navy landed a C130 on a carrier!
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Yes, they did.
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My microlight could easily get in/out. If it was opened for microlights it would be very popular as there aren’t too many other airfields nearby.
Could be a bit tricky in a crosswind same as Gib though.
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My late father, John Thompson, used to fly for Airwork at Hurn. He told me that he and many other pilots used the Portland runway to do “roller landings” (touch and go) in Sea Hawk and Hunter jets. This was seen by an admiral one day, who put a stop to this practice!
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