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Took the Spit Mk1 up for a flight over The New Forest in Hampshire. Decided to check out some of the abandoned and disused airfileds in the area. In most cases I did a touch and go on the strips before doing a roll of salute over the top. First up was RAF Beaulieu (Pronounced "Bewlee" for our American friends) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Beaulieu

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After paying my respects I then went west along the A31 and had a look over at RAF Stoney Cross

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Stoney_Cross

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From there I went on to Holmsley South, Large parts of this airfield, like the others are now turned over to caravan parks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Holmsley_South

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Then I had a look at what remains of RAF Ibsley. Most of it has been dug out for gravel extraction and is now a series of lakes. The  derilict control tower now overlooks a lake. A small part of one runway is visible but thats about it. Most of it has gone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Ibsley

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Also in the area I managed to find my Dads house at Ringwood, (marked by the red dot)

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and just east of that the Raceway and Motocross tracks at Matchams

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also just on the edge of Bournemouth/ Hurn airport, there appears to be the remains of another strip but cannot find any reference to it.

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Finally I did a bit of close up work for the camera ship, including testing the guns, (psst don't tell the CAA i'm flying with live ammo!)before landing at Bournemouth

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I can only assume the airfields and scenery were part of a VFR scenery set but I don't recall loading it. There is an FSX scenery file that brings Stoney Cross back to a live airfield environment, It looks nice, but I'm not sure I actually want to. I think I prefer it as a ghost of the past.

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Nice pics there Alan, we stayed at an old airfield in the New Forest the other week, I towed the caravan down, cant remember what it was called but it had a plaque and garden of rememberence, all the roads were named like spitfire, typhoon etc...

 

Wayne

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Very nostalgic, Alan. Shame that a lot of these old airfields have been let go/decommissioned. I'm sure it's the same in the UK as over 'ere, once they're gone they're gone and (mostly) forgotten. 

 

A lot of my early flying was done out of old WWII airfields. Canada had many of them, used for aircrew training during the war, then turned over to the public sector. They are distinctive in their triangle-shaped runway layouts. The triangle can still be seen in a lot of Canadian Airports, despite the drastic lengthening of the runway that is used for the prevailing winds.

 

Good on 'ya. And with one wing, too. 

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Nice pics Alan, :thum: you might be interested in some WWII historical airports that can be found here http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/ nicely done and freeware, can't beat that. You will have to download a few scenery library's too. I haven't checked it out but I hear tell the guy (Ian P) has recently consolidated a bunch of the airports into one download too which should make it easier. :)

 

I had most of them before I went the ORBX/FTX route and enjoyed flying the old warbirds into them.

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After leaving a comment on your Hurricane post, I just came across this post. Just what I was looking for!

Very curious too about that field near Hurn....is it Dudmore Farm?

Love the pic of you testing the guns :thum:

@ Brett -Good shout about Ian P's site. He's got 3 fields that work with Orbx..hopefully there will be more

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  • 1 year later...
Hi just seen this and I am loving it, you are a man after my own heart Alan, fantastic shots of my favorite place, and where I grew up. Dad took me mushrooming on Beaulieu disused back in the late 60's I remember feeling the haunting atmosphere.
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On ‎12‎/‎07‎/‎2015 at 09:06, hlminx said:

After leaving a comment on your Hurricane post, I just came across this post. Just what I was looking for!

Very curious too about that field near Hurn....is it Dudmore Farm?

Love the pic of you testing the guns :thum:

@ Brett -Good shout about Ian P's site. He's got 3 fields that work with Orbx..hopefully there will be more

 

The nearest airstrip to Hurn would have been Winkton ALG 3.5 miles to the east. check out my WWII airfield map.

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:thanks: Brett and John for the welcome.

 

For some reason although the link is shared it asks me to verify people.

 

I fly a A2A acusim Spitfire and thinking of making the New Forest airfields for FSX, but its a steep learning curve, I have no clue about scenery / texture design I am just beginning to learn. I think it would be fantastic to fly over the New Forest as it was back in the day and land at RAF Ibsley, now gravel pits. Sad because it was the location for the film The First of The Few, a great movie about the Spit made in 1942 when RAF Ibsley was fully operational.

 

But I can dream and work towards it :thum:

Edited by ACE-9
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Lots of Spitfire fans here so you are in good company.:D There is plenty of information out there for scenery building and even better is that there are plenty of tools out there to make the job much easier than years ago. Icing on the cake is plenty of simmers out there that would enjoy any scenery you make.:thum: 

 

Have you ever seen Ian P's Dark Corner? http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/ he had a lot of old RAF airbases scenery for FSX but only a few of the airfields have been converted to work with ORBX/FTX products to date.

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The prodigal returns, I am home amongst Spitfire fans, loving it. They are fantastic machines, I am luck to live a few miles (perhaps 2) from Woolston where the Supermarine factory was also Eastleigh where it first flew.

 

I have seen ian ps dark corner, it's got some interesting stuff there and has been an inspiration for me to try and make the above. We shall see, you will be the first to know, but it s gonna take a while I think.

 

Tally Ho old bean. 

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