It'll be reopening again and I can't wait! I was the guy who started off the original Save Manston Airport group. 10 years finally down the line we got the good news it'll reopen. I love this video thank you for this
That is great news! Such a waste to have a huge airfield and terminal sitting empty like that. Always annoys me how so much focus is put on expending LGW/LHR when they're sitting on something like this.
Lovely vid again Terry. What a place, I'm so pleased it's opening again (mainly because I now live only 10 miles away!). What a great thing to be able to say... "I pushed the red button", and you even have video footage to back it up 👌🏻 🤣
Thanks for the video Terry. It was a great day and we were so lucky to have a guided tour. The airport is such a great asset; I hope we can reopen it again some day.
Back in the 1950s we used to go to Margate for our annual holiday. As a young lad I was thrilled by the sight and sounds of the USAF stuff that suddenly appeared over the top of the cliffs, any dogs on the beach literally went barking mad!
Damn that's so cool! I remember exploring one of the abandoned 747's there many years ago with a group of friends. We arrived in the dead of night and snuck in to it to take photos. Then sure enough because of me posting it online, everyone else did it too! 😂 One of the best nights of my life, sat in a 747 cockpit and having a thermos of tea!
Great video, Terry....I was stationed at Manston from January 1969 until March 1970...cushiest posting in the UK back in the day...Happy memories😊....I left Manston and was posted to a Lightning/Hunter station in Germany...I recognise that cockpit😉
Thanks mate, this video brought back some amazing memories! I stayed at RAF Manston on Annual Camp as an Air Cadet in the late 80's and is where I did my first Air Experience Flight in a Chipmunk- barrel rolls, stall turns, and loop-the-loops all performed by little me (obvs with the help of the actual pilot) over the town's power station cooling towers and Ferris wheel on the pier. I also did my one and only helicopter flight there in a RAF SAR Wessex. But the thing I remember most vividly was a C-130 on the apron late at night. The amount of noise it made was insane. Great to hear it's reopening!
The huge runway was originally built to be the size six standard RAF runways each lit by different coloured lights. This was to enable the recovery of damaged bombers returning from Germany during WW2. It also has a fog dispersal system called FIDO, this involved a concrete trench each side of the runway with a pipe with holes in it a mixture of petrol, paraffin & diesel was pumped down the pipe and set fire to. This provided light and raised the local dew point to disperse the fog, it was not cheap to run burning about 50,000 gallons of fuel per hour.
A great bit of history around an airfield I did fire training at, when in the RAF back in the 80's for the Fireman's strike. Looking forward to the next video.
I got my instructors rating at Manston. Taught by the former Red Arrows pilot Ted Girdler who owned TG Aviation based there. Extraordinary person and pilot. RIP. Manston was one of the very few places where you could practice Precision Approach Radar (PAR) approaches where you are talked down the glidepath by an RAF controller. Only basic instruments and a functioning radio required. Good to know how to do in an emergency.
Great video Terry! I had my first R22 trial lesson at Manston in 2013 and was lucky enough to fly amongst a spitfire, a hurricane and a 747 all within 1 hour. A few months ago I overflew it as a waypoint on my solo land away flight (that massive runway is hard to miss! 😅) very glad to hear about the future plans for the airfield. I guess your app came in handy for the multiple TO/landings? Hope all is well and keep up the good work.
I had the good fortune of doing a practice PAR at Manston which was fun, including having to expedite the landing as a Phantom was coming in behind to do a practice on their arrester wire.
Another great video! I’ve just had the pleasure of taking my 85 year old mum and my sisters (and family) for a fly over Christmas, as they are over from Uk. Hubby and I were wondering how you were able to use a drone on the airfield. Not something you could do here without copious amounts of paperwork!
Great video Terry, I flew in to one of the charity days in May, great to be back there. Last time I was there was late 80s as a cadet. Went up the RAF control tower😊.
Another great video Terry! Best wishes from France. Hoping to come over in the Spring with my Jodel and a few other Jodel mates. It would be great to catch up with you and Jodel Flyer! Destination Duxford…
Interesting place and it looks like you had a good time, I expected the fake blood and writing on the walls to be the product of teenage vandals but it's cool that it came from when it was used as a movie set.
Great video Terry. Hope you had a discount for quantity on the take offs and landings😲🤣 Old airfields are quite spooky aren't they🤔😲 I see that the old Vickers Supermarine airfield at South Marston, isn't to be reinstated, even with Honda now gone. It's going to be warehousing, not a city/regional airport - a shame as Swindon is rotting from the inside out and gearing up for 15 minute city status (via grants after letting everything go to ruin) 🙄💔🤕 Looking forward to your museum tour upon your return 👍🙏🤞😊
Very enjoyable, thanks mate! Looking at the overlaid markings near the end of the video, does that Airstrip get used for some sort of racing? Kinda looks like Drag racing lanes ha ha. Cheers.
Interesting thanks, my father underwent his RAF Fire Service training there, including abseiling over nearby cliffs. I can see him now in his silver asbestos suit and axe hanging from his belt. How times have changed, including firefighting!
So sad to see a abandoned airport in such a bad state. A shame it did not stand the economic bad weather. Well I think it were economic reasons to close this airport. And the KLM F27 is also history. KLM replaced all Fokker with Embraer jets. Btw we have also an abandoned airport terminal. It is at Lelystad Airport abt 20 km north east of Amsterdam. It was a GA uncontrolled field, but was transferred into a full airport as addition to Amsterdam Schiphol airport. The terminal and parking areas were built and the small tower (with only info services) was made higher and an ILS was installed with complete ATC. That ATC is still there but the passenger planes never came. The final political decision still has to be made, however there is a lot of opposition against the airport, and it looks that the current new government is against the opening with passenger flights. But we will have to wait for the final decision on that.
An urban myth. RAF Manston was never a designated diversion airfield for the Space Shuttle. Easy to find the list of "outside USA" airfields which NASA listed.
It'll be reopening again and I can't wait! I was the guy who started off the original Save Manston Airport group. 10 years finally down the line we got the good news it'll reopen. I love this video thank you for this
That is great news! Such a waste to have a huge airfield and terminal sitting empty like that. Always annoys me how so much focus is put on expending LGW/LHR when they're sitting on something like this.
@@tjfSIMthat's politician thinking for you.
@@sparkidee oh wow that’s brilliant news!
Lovely vid again Terry. What a place, I'm so pleased it's opening again (mainly because I now live only 10 miles away!). What a great thing to be able to say... "I pushed the red button", and you even have video footage to back it up 👌🏻 🤣
Thanks for the video Terry. It was a great day and we were so lucky to have a guided tour. The airport is such a great asset; I hope we can reopen it again some day.
Work is due to start in 2026 to reopen Manston as a freight and ga airport
That was so interesting! I always find it so sad seeing an airfield die. Such a shame. The blood made me laugh!🤣🤣. Great content yet again.
Back in the 1950s we used to go to Margate for our annual holiday. As a young lad I was thrilled by the sight and sounds of the USAF stuff that suddenly appeared over the top of the cliffs, any dogs on the beach literally went barking mad!
Damn that's so cool! I remember exploring one of the abandoned 747's there many years ago with a group of friends. We arrived in the dead of night and snuck in to it to take photos. Then sure enough because of me posting it online, everyone else did it too! 😂 One of the best nights of my life, sat in a 747 cockpit and having a thermos of tea!
Great video, Terry....I was stationed at Manston from January 1969 until March 1970...cushiest posting in the UK back in the day...Happy memories😊....I left Manston and was posted to a Lightning/Hunter station in Germany...I recognise that cockpit😉
Thanks mate, this video brought back some amazing memories! I stayed at RAF Manston on Annual Camp as an Air Cadet in the late 80's and is where I did my first Air Experience Flight in a Chipmunk- barrel rolls, stall turns, and loop-the-loops all performed by little me (obvs with the help of the actual pilot) over the town's power station cooling towers and Ferris wheel on the pier. I also did my one and only helicopter flight there in a RAF SAR Wessex. But the thing I remember most vividly was a C-130 on the apron late at night. The amount of noise it made was insane. Great to hear it's reopening!
The huge runway was originally built to be the size six standard RAF runways each lit by different coloured lights. This was to enable the recovery of damaged bombers returning from Germany during WW2. It also has a fog dispersal system called FIDO, this involved a concrete trench each side of the runway with a pipe with holes in it a mixture of petrol, paraffin & diesel was pumped down the pipe and set fire to. This provided light and raised the local dew point to disperse the fog, it was not cheap to run burning about 50,000 gallons of fuel per hour.
Great video as always Terry. Very interesting and a fun way to use the runway! 😊
A great bit of history around an airfield I did fire training at, when in the RAF back in the 80's for the Fireman's strike. Looking forward to the next video.
I got my instructors rating at Manston. Taught by the former Red Arrows pilot Ted Girdler who owned TG Aviation based there. Extraordinary person and pilot. RIP.
Manston was one of the very few places where you could practice Precision Approach Radar (PAR) approaches where you are talked down the glidepath by an RAF controller.
Only basic instruments and a functioning radio required. Good to know how to do in an emergency.
What a great experience! I hope the cargo base plans come good for the place. Looking forward to the next vid of course!!
Can’t wait for it to reopen!
Great video Terry! I had my first R22 trial lesson at Manston in 2013 and was lucky enough to fly amongst a spitfire, a hurricane and a 747 all within 1 hour. A few months ago I overflew it as a waypoint on my solo land away flight (that massive runway is hard to miss! 😅) very glad to hear about the future plans for the airfield.
I guess your app came in handy for the multiple TO/landings?
Hope all is well and keep up the good work.
I had the good fortune of doing a practice PAR at Manston which was fun, including having to expedite the landing as a Phantom was coming in behind to do a practice on their arrester wire.
British Airways pilots used to practice touch and goes in the A380 at Manston.
That's a proper little aircraft that is!!
Massive potential for the airport and the people of Thanet. Wish it and them well for the future.
Another great video! I’ve just had the pleasure of taking my 85 year old mum and my sisters (and family) for a fly over Christmas, as they are over from Uk.
Hubby and I were wondering how you were able to use a drone on the airfield. Not something you could do here without copious amounts of paperwork!
Great video Terry, I flew in to one of the charity days in May, great to be back there. Last time I was there was late 80s as a cadet. Went up the RAF control tower😊.
Another great video Terry! Best wishes from France. Hoping to come over in the Spring with my Jodel and a few other Jodel mates. It would be great to catch up with you and Jodel Flyer! Destination Duxford…
Interesting place and it looks like you had a good time, I expected the fake blood and writing on the walls to be the product of teenage vandals but it's cool that it came from when it was used as a movie set.
Great video Terry. Hope you had a discount for quantity on the take offs and landings😲🤣
Old airfields are quite spooky aren't they🤔😲
I see that the old Vickers Supermarine airfield at South Marston, isn't to be reinstated, even with Honda now gone. It's going to be warehousing, not a city/regional airport - a shame as Swindon is rotting from the inside out and gearing up for 15 minute city status (via grants after letting everything go to ruin) 🙄💔🤕
Looking forward to your museum tour upon your return 👍🙏🤞😊
Great video, thanks Terry 😊
Very enjoyable, thanks mate! Looking at the overlaid markings near the end of the video, does that Airstrip get used for some sort of racing? Kinda looks like Drag racing lanes ha ha. Cheers.
No they were there as part of the lorry park. Thanks for the kind comments 👍👍👍
Excellent Video Terry and great to catch up with you last week.
Looks like you had a better visit to the museum than my visit, no staff wanted to interact with visits
Wow, what a runway 😮
How many landing fees was that?
I can remember doing a detachment there in the early 70s with R.A.F. victor refueling sqd. 🛫
Great again Terry, have you ever experimented with flap settings? 12deg was replaced by the original 15 in the POH.
Interesting thanks, my father underwent his RAF Fire Service training there, including abseiling over nearby cliffs. I can see him now in his silver asbestos suit and axe hanging from his belt. How times have changed, including firefighting!
Manston will have an airshow on 16/17 August 2025
How many landings / take-offs did you put in your logbook 😂😂
Did my Crash rescue training there back in the day
Do you ever come up Leeds way?
With this as a dedicated freight hub there'd be no need to expand LGW or LHR.
Hey Terry I live in Portsmouth never been I a small plane b4 and was wondering if you can show us around your sport cruiser??
Think its insane when the UK is desperate to expand Heathrow when they could just modernise Manston into a new international airport
They never knew what to do with Manstone. Shame its got everything.
So sad to see a abandoned airport in such a bad state. A shame it did not stand the economic bad weather. Well I think it were economic reasons to close this airport. And the KLM F27 is also history. KLM replaced all Fokker with Embraer jets. Btw we have also an abandoned airport terminal. It is at Lelystad Airport abt 20 km north east of Amsterdam. It was a GA uncontrolled field, but was transferred into a full airport as addition to Amsterdam Schiphol airport. The terminal and parking areas were built and the small tower (with only info services) was made higher and an ILS was installed with complete ATC. That ATC is still there but the passenger planes never came. The final political decision still has to be made, however there is a lot of opposition against the airport, and it looks that the current new government is against the opening with passenger flights. But we will have to wait for the final decision on that.
Was it not used as M.D.U.?
I'm not familiar with that abbreviation, but you might mean MDA or MEDA. RAF Manston has been both of those.
Only place in Europe the space shuttle could land.
sure it could have aborted there but there were many other European locations formally allocated by NASA.
An urban myth. RAF Manston was never a designated diversion airfield for the Space Shuttle. Easy to find the list of "outside USA" airfields which NASA listed.
(former) RAF Machrahanish had one of the runways designated for the NASA shuttles should they miss their landing window in the States.