RAF Roborough / Plymouth Airport

[mawganmad]

I didn't realise it had radar either, I'm wondering if it's the press meaning ILS and radio comms? Or maybe Plymouth Mil have stopped covering the area on behalf of the airport?
I know we used to regularly have diversions, and sometimes overnight stays from Plymouth based airlines at Mawagn on bad weather days.

Sad to say it but I would think Plymouth is doomed, I sometimes wonder how Newquay and Exeter make money.

[John Anderson]

I had read in the press several months that the radar covering PLH was located at HMS Raleigh! Cannot quite see what sort of cover such a facility would have provided and put it down at the time to press ignorance.

[CornwallPhil]

I've no idea what the radar arrangements were. The press reported the last flight left in July and the airport closed at 2230 on 22nd Dec losing its radar/safety cover.

[mawganmad]

I had read in the press several months that the radar covering PLH was located at HMS Raleigh! Cannot quite see what sort of cover such a facility would have provided and put it down at the time to press ignorance.

I know when the aircraft departed St Mawgan that they were handed over and worked by Plymouth Mil who covered all that area for naval activity, just procedure I suppose and if they weren't there I guess someone else would have provided the service.

[EGDGZTCW]

Plymouth didn't have radar. They used Plymouth Mil ( at HMS Drake ??, not sure...) Western Radar (Swannick) and ourselves at Newquay. The problem seemed to start this year particularly, in July, when Ply Mil closed for the summer holiday. I don't recall it ever having been a problem before, the ASW flights still operated as normal in previous years. Perhaps the difference this year was that ASW, now being under the new ownership of "Eastern", could no longer operate in and out of Plymouth because "Eastern" decided that it wasn't safe enough without any radar cover from Ply Mil (Newquay can't see low enough in that area, neither can Western)....just my thoughts I don't know this for sure.

It is a great shame they've gone and I for one will miss them all. I was shown the following Youtube video recently....Plymouth City Airport - A Tribute...take a look you may recoginse someone. There are also many interesting photo's too.

http://youtu.be/cPQdr2642Ks

[CornwallPhil]

For those interested in the current state of affairs at Plymouth airport read the news story by clicking on the link

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Prop...ail/story.html

[EGDGZTCW]

My long time mate Barry worked at Plymouth almost to the end, he was the Bird Control man there. During his years he captured various comings and goings on his video camera. Mostly shot during the 1990's, he has just spent weeks transferring them from VHS to DVD and then uploading to Youtube for all to enjoy. Adding some music and captions, or just leaving the radio frequency to tell a story, they are moments in Plymouth City Airport history, not seen by many, never to be captured again.

Barry has many hours of film and will slowly add them to his site on Youtube. Watch out also for clips from RAF St Mawgan, he has hours from there as well.

Take a look, I hope you will find them interesting.....enjoy

Chris.

Search "Birdbasher" on Youtube if the links don't work for you.

http://www.youtube.com/user/birdbasher?feature=watch

[WJT]

The Airport's goods and chattels are up for sale. Anyone want a fire truck?

http://www2.ppauctions.com/_assets/a...t/Flysheet.pdf

[Yorkie370]

Stories of Plymouth's demise may be premature, according to this;

http://www.viable.org.uk/

[Bigbear]

Stories of Plymouth's demise may be premature, according to this;

http://www.viable.org.uk/

I really hope this succeeds. I and many of my colleagues and business associates need to get to Plymouth and the flight times and distances mean that Plymouth is a real pain to get to. I recently needed to visit a company close to the airport, but I needed to do the trip in one day. The only way I could do it was to fly from Glasgow to Birmingham and then get a hire car to drive the rest of the way to Plymouth. I was then there for the afternoon before getting a late return flight from Birmingham. Less than ideal. I find it especially strange as Plymouth wants to grow its business around the city. How can it without a suitable local airport?