Race Track in a Bowl?

[SketchUp Guru]

I was taking another virtual tour of the UK and came across a race track that appears to be in a bowl. Anyone know what it is? It is at 52°42'31.00"N 1°58'38.89"W . I should add it is near Heath Hayes and Hednesford.

 

[andrewm]

Dave,

It's for stock car (or banger) racing. Never been there but more info here.

Andrew

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thanks Andrew.

Ain't Google Earth great?

 

[andrewm]

Ain't Google Earth great?

Does waste a lot of time though. I take it you've seen the Lancaster bomber in the air at 52°20'10.90"N 0°11'43.24"W. I live not to far from Duxford Air Museum and often see it passing overhead on airshow days. One of only two still flying in the world. The other being in Canada.

Andrew

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Time waster is right. I just think of it as learning my geography.

Yes, I've seen the Lanc in flight. I've seen the other one in flight here in the US so I guess I've seen 'em all. There's also a glider being towed by a small plane although I can't remember where that one is.

I've been going around looking at airfields. I just saw what must be a maintenance facility near Hurn, northeast of Christchurch and a number of abandoned airfields that must be from WWII days. It amazes me that there are so many of them that are still recognizable as airfields such as one at Holmsley ( 50°47'20.17"N, 1°41'46.95"W).

 

[Knot Competent]

Back in the '60's Holmsley still had bits of runway remaining, and was where people would go to teach others how to drive. I did some of my early driving practice there, and a few years later some courting, but we'll skim quickly over that!

Regards,

John

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Courting? :shock:

I taught a girlfriend to drive a manual transmission in a cemetary one night so I guess that's not so bad.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

There's an interesting airfield at Moreton-in-Marsh. All the runways are closed and there appear to be building on them. There are also a few planes left including what looks like one that has burned. There's a little plane almost in the trees at the north edge and to its west a jet fighter of some sort.

 

[Knot Competent]

Don't know if you've come across it, Dave, but most of the UK comes with much more clarity and detail on http://local.live.com , including Holmsley.

Regards, John

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Yeah, John, I've seen that but it is slower to load on my computer than Google Earth. I suppose I should have both of them going at the same time.

My house shows up in Local.Live and you can see the boat I built under its tarp, the shed in the back and even the cars in the driveway.

 

[orangetlh]

hi dave, the airfield you describe is actually a fire service training ground. It also has a 6 lane motorway for training purposes. One of the best tools for finding out what things are is the Google Earth Community. On the bottom left of your earth screen is a layers box. Scroll through and check the google earth community box and this will bring up lots of points of interest.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thanks for the tip. I'll look at that.

 

[RogerS]

Don't know if you've come across it, Dave, but most of the UK comes with much more clarity and detail on http://local.live.com, including Holmsley.

Regards, John

Pity that some of the aerial shots are nearly 9 years old !!

 

[gwaithcoed]

DaveR wrote

I taught a girlfriend to drive a manual transmission in a cemetary one night so I guess that's not so bad. Wink

Yeah right, thats what I told the Vicar, he didn't believe me either

Alan.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

:lol:

Actually, it wasn't too long after that she broke up with me. Might have been because I said something about my being buried on the spot if she killed me while learing to drive.

 

[woodbloke]

Dave R wrote:

I guess I've seen 'em all.

There are two Lancaster bombers I know in addition not flying. One of course is in the RAF Museum and the other is owned and has been completely restored by a pair of brothers in East Anglia somewhere who run a chicken farm :shock: :shock: :shock: They hope eventually, I think, to make the aircraft airworthy so they can fly it, but I think they may be on a hiding to nothing - Rob

 

[andrewm]

Dave R wrote:

I guess I've seen 'em all.

There are two Lancaster bombers I know in addition not flying. One of course is in the RAF Museum and the other is owned and has been completely restored by a pair of brothers in East Anglia somewhere who run a chicken farm :shock: :shock: :shock: They hope eventually, I think, to make the aircraft airworthy so they can fly it, but I think they may be on a hiding to nothing - Rob

Certainly more than that. From memory I can think of one in the war memorial in Canberra and another on the waterfront in Toronto (although I've an idea that that one may have been removed for restoration)

Andrew

 

[Richard in Smithville]

I take it you've seen the Lancaster bomber in the air at 52°20'10.90"N 0°11'43.24"W. I live not to far from Duxford Air Museum and often see it passing overhead on airshow days. One of only two still flying in the world. The other being in Canada.

Andrew

The Canadian Lanc is in Hamilton (Ontario) at a flying musem. It's a great place and even hosts a wood show in January. How can you go wrong there?

Hamilton Warplane Museum

 

[mailee]

Those two chicken farmers live in East Kirkby which is where the Lanc is. It can often be seen taxiing down the runway and is open to the public at weekends and bank holidays. I think it will take a lot of work to get it airbourne again though.

 

[andrewm]

The Canadian Lanc is in Hamilton (Ontario) at a flying musem. It's a great place and even hosts a wood show in January. How can you go wrong there?

Hamilton Warplane Museum

... which despite spending two years in Detroit I never managed to get to visit. Looks like they have updated their website since it now lists flying days. When I was over there I could never find out when it would be flying otherwise I would have made a point to have gone over to see it.

Wish I had known about the wood show though.

Looks like there are a total of 23 surviving. Complete list here.

Andrew