bicester scramble this sunday

[aeropilot]

RichB said:

GT3Gooner said:

RichB said:

scratchchin: Well that kind of ignores the fact that Goodwood, like Brooklands, was and is a motor racing circuit with enormous history whereas Bicester is an ex-USAF bomber base that has now repositioned itself as a home for vintage, verteren and classic cars. They are both interesting places in their own right but ultimately nothing beats the smell of castrol R and the sight of 1950s Ferraris and Maseratis giving it full beans around a proper race track.

Think you’ll find Upper Heyford is ex USAF (F1-11s, etc.) Bicester RAF was WWII bomber station.

Ah ha, good point, that's true. I've flown my glider there and thought there was a USAF connection.

Edited by RichB on Sunday 7th January 14:41

There is a very loose USAF connection, as in the early 1980's the USAF set up a contingency war hospital facility at RAF Bicester, with a possible 500 bed capacity in times of war emergency, so from the early 80's up until just after the Gulf War there were about a dozen USAF personnel based at RAF Bicester.
It was never an active USAF airfield, although, like you, USAF personnel based nearby could use the gliding facilities.

Bicester was really only a pre-war RAF bomber base, was basically a training and maintenance base for most of WW2, and after, and as such, its that very reason its heritage as the last remaining largely untouched pre-WW2 RAF airfield that been the reason its deemed worthy of preserving.

[2172cc]

RichB said:

What time did people arrive? What were the queues like to get in?

Last time I arrived for "opening" and it was already filling up with queues backing to the roundabout.

I arrived yesterday at 8.30 and drove straight in via the main gate with virtually no que. By about 9.30 the traffic was building up to well past the roundabout from the other entrance with the unmade road.