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One of many scenes within the control tower at The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby . This tableau depicts life in the control room of the tower back in the day .
A short history of RAF East Kirkby taken from wikipedia --
Royal Air Force East Kirkby or more simply RAF East Kirkby is a former Royal Air Force station near the village of East Kirkby, south of Horncastle in Lincolnshire, just off the A155. The Greenwich meridian passes through the airfield.
RAF Station East Kirkby opened on 20 August 1943 as a Bomber Command Station and is situated not far from RAF Coningsby.
Stationed at East Kirkby were:
No. 57 Squadron RAF (5 Group) 27 August 1943 – 25 November 1945.
No. 630 Squadron RAF (5 Group) 15 November 1943 – 18 July 1945.
RAF East Kirkby served also as the headquarters of No 5/5 (Bomber) Group RAF in command of satellite stations at RAF Strubby, RAF Spilsby, RAF Hemswell and RAF Manby.
Operations
On 17 April 1945, near the end of the Second World War, a 57 Squadron Lancaster was being loaded with bombs when a fully armed 1,000 lb bomb was unintentionally dropped onto the tarmac. Because the bomb had had its fuse inserted it detonated, setting off the rest of the Lancaster's bombload. A massive explosion killed three airmen, injured 16 others, wrote off six other Lancasters beyond repair and badly damaged a nearby aircraft hangar.
The final wartime raid from East Kirkby was flown on 25 April 1945. In total, 212 operations were carried out during the war, from which 121 Lancasters did not return. Another 29 aircraft were lost due to operational crashes or accidents.
Post war
No 630 Squadron disbanded in July that year and its place was taken by No. 460 Squadron RAAF from RAF Binbrook. This squadron joined No. 57 for transfer to the Far East as part of Tiger Force. In the 1950s, the airfield was used by the United States Air Force for Air Rescue squadrons for four years. The station (code name Silksheen) closed in 1958. It was sold by the government in 1964.
Aircraft museum
The airfield became the site of broiler sheds, and is now home to an air museum, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, which bought Just Jane, the gate guardian Lancaster bomber from RAF Scampton, which is regularly taxied out and stood with the four Rolls Royce Merlin XXIV engines running. Just Jane is being restored to flight by the museum.
NX611 was built by Austin Aero Ltd at their Cofton Hackett Works just south of Birmingham, rolling out of the Flight Shed on 16 April 1945, when it was put into storage, and in 1952, it was one of 54 Lancasters sold to the French Naval Air Arm, (L’Aeronavale) for £50,000 each as part of a 1951 NATO arrangement. It was designated WU-15 (Western Union). In June 1961,it joined Escadrille 9S (Surveillance), in Nouméa, New Caledonia.
On 15 April 1964, it accompanied Lancaster NX665 (WU-13), on delivery to the RNZAF, from New Caledonia to Auckland, New Zealand, returning to New Caledonia, with the crew of NX665. In 1965, its service with the L’Aeronavale over, due to spares shortages and maintenance problems, it was flown to England and on 13 May 1965 landed at Biggin Hill Airport, Kent, as part of the 'Historic Aircraft Preservation Society' Collection (HAPS). It had flown 2,330 hours. It had been registered as G - ASXX for its flight back to the UK and later stood as the gate guardian at RAF Scampton before being acquired by the museum owners Fred & Harold Panton
The control tower is believed to be haunted. The airfield was featured in a 1980s BBC series about World War II airfields. Much of the runway is still intact today but mainly used by local farmers as hard standing and by model aircraft enthusiasts. Occasional civilian light aircraft have landed on the remaining runway in recent years and the airfield still appears on Civil Aviation Maps as a diversion emergency landing location.
A memorial to the fallen can be found outside the main gate where the guard house once stood.
RAF East Kirkby was investigated by the Most Haunted team in 2003 for their third series on Living TV now called Sky Living. Yvette Fielding and her team investigated the museum and site for alleged paranormal activity. The episode was transmitted on Tuesday 7 October 2003 on Living TV. It was the first episode of the third series of the paranormal investigation show Most Haunted.
In 2008 the museum opened an unlicensed part-grass and part-concrete landing strip for visiting military and civil aircraft. No aircraft should land without contacting the owners first via the museum's website or telephone number. Air traffic control on flying display days is from RAF Coningsby and there is a six-mile "no fly" exclusion zone around East Kirkby on display days.
I was very interested in seeing the reference to RAF Manby , a base I spent some time at on a full runway and taxiway survey back in the very early 70s and in the winter months and it was very very cold and wet .
We stayed on site - 16 of us in one room - the transit dormitory . Saw a number of live bands in the NAAFI including Slade .
The lasting memory of Manby though is of me running along the centre of the taxiway to retrieve a survey target from the centre line with a Jet Provost following close behind me waiting for me to clear the obstruction - felt quite hairy at the time but I guess the pilot knew what he was doing - I hope !!!
( shot taken in very low light through a grille ! )
Yearly event commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Six Day War of 1967, in which Israel regained control over their holiest sites. Main part of the day is the Dance and Flag Parade, concentrated in and around Jaffa Street. Some 70.000 people from all over Israel and the world joined in the celebrations.
Success in weight loss comes at a price: eating the same thing (almost) every day to combat any sign of eating disorders.
I've shrunk back the rice and added green beads to what I eat every day (win!), but at the same time the struggle happens every day.
But that also means every day is a chance at a mini victory, and who doesn't like a victory every day?!?
Not the store's actual name, but it wouldn't be a bad one if this were their only line of business. Porto, Portugal
The central tower contains the boathouse. Up above, Harry the Harbor Seal mans the control tower, making sure the underwater traffic is safe.
Let's head to the other wing >
For all photos, see the full album.
This is the control panel at the IJsselbrug, the bridge over the canalized river IJssel in IJsselstein, Holland. It gives the information about the traffic lights over the water. Which are burning and on which side, to prevent boats and yachts from having frontal collisions ;-) This bridge is still completely hand-operated, lucky me!
A better view of the controll bunker. Surprisingly, the lighs and controllie stuff wasn't that hard. The really hard part (for some reason) was putting on the floor above the bunker. I have no idea why, but that took about 2 hours! :P
DDC "Wild and Crazy"
We have worked very hard to teach R "impulse control". At this moment, he wanted his dinner, and he wanted it NOW. But he's not barking or jumping (like he used to do). Rather, he's staring intently toward his dinner which was being prepared.
Before electronics, the most reliable boiler/generator controls were operated by compressed air.
Scattered throughout the country, older power plants are being abandoned for more efficient or sustainable sources of electricity. Some still stand as a tribute to those who sacrificed and worked so hard there to assure the community had reliable energy to power their lives. These views are of a ~50 year old plant closed about 2 years ago.
See more of this site at flic.kr/s/aHskpNTVLG.
2-9-08
Bessy is the quality control inspector at City Bakery and this birthday cake passes inspection.
Playing around with my recently acquired Lensbaby Composer. I thought this was an interesting way to show the focus/bokeh control!
For these images I shot a roll of Fujifilm Superia 400 through my Pentax P3, then re spooled the film back into my Konica Pop.
The staged, Pentax shots were done to give a clear and focused background image, where as the candid Konica shots were done to add a sense of unorganised chaos to the top image.