"Luxury" runways on BoN map.

[RyanR]

Coming back from a raid over the continent in P-47's, we ran into a couple 190's just off the SE coast of England. After we got them, I noticed the low fuel indicator was on. Wuh oh. Pull the mixture, throttle, and prop back, cut the turbo. Pull up the map, and Manston is right there. I'm practically lined up for a short final. Terrific. Drop the speed, flaps, and wheels.... cowl flaps open..... and I'm greeted by an endless expanse of tarmac! I took my sweet time tweaking the throttle and getting her just right before letting the wheels touch. I'm thinking that I should run out of fuel more often! ;) This was much nicer than our home field.

 

The different airfields on the BoN map are one of the wonderful touches that the devs put into it.

 

-Ryan

 

 

[RyanR]

Just to follow up, I had to google RAF Manston. It was basically there for damaged planes (no brakes? no problem!) to land. Looking at wartime pictures on the web, and there's just a mish-mash of planes being fixed up. A B-17 getting two engines, with a Mosquito nearby being worked on.

 

I love it when things in this sim send me off to research real life.

 

-Ryan 

[Jaws2002]

That was the first place I visited when we got the map. Was so used to it from CLOD that I really wanted to visit it first.....

 

 

And I did....

 

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

22 hours ago, RyanR said:

Just to follow up, I had to google RAF Manston. It was basically there for damaged planes (no brakes? no problem!) to land. Looking at wartime pictures on the web, and there's just a mish-mash of planes being fixed up. A B-17 getting two engines, with a Mosquito nearby being worked on.

It's interesting to note how intensely it could occasionally be used for this purpose: on one particular night in 1942, a record 56 aircraft emergency-landed there! Back then, it didn't even have the iconic runway yet, it was just a grass field (although admittedly large).

https://www.manstonhistory.org.uk/on-this-day-28th-august-1942/

 

Apart from its use as an emergency airfield, it housed a number of squadrons throughout the whole war. This includes No. 174 (Mauritius) Squadron, which I'm writing a short campaign about. Once it's finished, you'll be able to see Manston in its 1942 shape

[danielprates]

22 hours ago, RyanR said:

Just to follow up, I had to google RAF Manston. It was basically there for damaged planes (no brakes? no problem!) to land. Looking at wartime pictures on the web, and there's just a mish-mash of planes being fixed up. A B-17 getting two engines, with a Mosquito nearby being worked on.

 

I love it when things in this sim send me off to research real life.

 

-Ryan 

 

I thought Manston was mainly a Lancaster airbase. Maybe it was the case,  earlier in the war.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

8 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

It's interesting to note how intensely it could occasionally be used for this purpose: on one particular night in 1942, a record 56 aircraft emergency-landed there! Back then, it didn't even have the iconic runway yet, it was just a grass field (although admittedly large).

https://www.manstonhistory.org.uk/on-this-day-28th-august-1942/

 

Apart from its use as an emergency airfield, it housed a number of squadrons throughout the whole war. This includes No. 174 (Mauritius) Squadron, which I'm writing a short campaign about. Once it's finished, you'll be able to see Manston in its 1942 shape

Awesome! You make very good campaigns. What plane will this campaign be for? I'm definitely excited for more channel front action.

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, danielprates said:

I thought Manston was mainly a Lancaster airbase. Maybe it was the case,  earlier in the war.

 

No, it was never a Lancaster base.

[Mtnbiker1998]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

It's interesting to note how intensely it could occasionally be used for this purpose: on one particular night in 1942, a record 56 aircraft emergency-landed there! Back then, it didn't even have the iconic runway yet, it was just a grass field (although admittedly large).

https://www.manstonhistory.org.uk/on-this-day-28th-august-1942/

 

Apart from its use as an emergency airfield, it housed a number of squadrons throughout the whole war. This includes No. 174 (Mauritius) Squadron, which I'm writing a short campaign about. Once it's finished, you'll be able to see Manston in its 1942 shape

Looking forward to your campaign more and more!! Love your terrain editing skills

[Lusekofte]

My history are ruined by many online campaign in clod. But I think it has been a fighter base for duration. 
I have absolutely no doubt planes in distress landed there as you did for same reasons or worse

[Chief_Mouser]

On 2/10/2023 at 10:18 PM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

It's interesting to note how intensely it could occasionally be used for this purpose: on one particular night in 1942, a record 56 aircraft emergency-landed there! Back then, it didn't even have the iconic runway yet, it was just a grass field (although admittedly large).

https://www.manstonhistory.org.uk/on-this-day-28th-august-1942/

 

Apart from its use as an emergency airfield, it housed a number of squadrons throughout the whole war. This includes No. 174 (Mauritius) Squadron, which I'm writing a short campaign about. Once it's finished, you'll be able to see Manston in its 1942 shape

 

Ah, Manston. My ATC (Air Cadets) squadron's home field. We flew in Chipmunks from there on many a weekend. Because it served the whole of the Kent Wing ATC some of the squadrons had quite a coach trip to get there and never arrived until 11-ish. So, to save the Chippy pilots drinking too much tea the spare time, i.e. between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., was divided up between ourselves, 438 Squadron (Thanet) and 2433 Detached Flight (Ramsgate). Which meant that someone from the squadron was up there flying every other weekend, on top of our allocated two weekends a year.  Great times. A Chipmunk didn't need that great big runway and would normally use the grass one which cunningly faced into the prevailing wind. However, on one occasion when the wind had shifted we did take off on the concrete - across the width! ?

 

If anyone is ever down there then the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum and the Manston History Museum across the car park are well worth a couple of hours of your time. ?

 

PS The reason that the emergency runway doesn't face into the prevailing wind is because it points directly at Germany. Any aircraft in trouble and hoping to get down there didn't have to do any fancy manoeuvres but just flew straight in. And if they were in a really bad state they aimed for the left-hand side (it's three normal runway widths wide) and didn't have to ask permission or anything first, just get the plane down if they could. Once the crew were out the wreckage was pushed off the runway by bulldozers in preparation for next plane coming.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Chief_Mouser