Hello!
History
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England.
The station was first used by the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 but was not brought into use for flying until July 1918 by the Royal Air Force. During the inter-war years and continuing through the Second World War until 1950 Upper Heyford was used mainly as a training facility. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford initially served as a base for United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) strategic bombers and later United States Air Forces In Europe (USAFE) tactical reconnaissance, fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft in the UK.
Upper Heyford was unique among airfield in the United Kingdom as only the flight-line area required military identification to access. The rest of the station, save the commercial facilities, was accessible to military and non-military alike. Upper Heyford was also unique in that the airspace around the station (from the surface to 3500') was protected by a mandatory radio area (UHMRA) in which private pilots were required to be in contact with the base controllers on frequency 128.55 when flying past or overhead.
Wiki article/history here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Upper_Heyford
The Explore
Explored with my usual partner in 'crime,' This is quite a well known place and has done the rounds plenty over the years. With a lot of site development more recently, we thought we ought to check it out before it's all gone. Happy days there's plenty left to see
Jesus H Christ though... the amount of walking we did... arriving at 9.30pm we finally left at around 5am. Don't underestimate the size of this place, and we still didn't get around everything. The plan was to start at the North-West area and methodically work our way around the site from there. Of course it never goes to plan and we spot the security patrol in their car heading our way. No bother, a quick run and hide and we're all sorted. And lost.
This was one of several encounters with Security as they do regular patrols, I imagine due to the new vehicles being stored on site and a lot of active business etc. Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to hide on an open airfield.... No worries, we'll crack on....
ETA - Sincere Apologies for the two watermarked photos. It's not an advertising ploy, I've already had the image ripped off despite it being online for matter of minutes.
History
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England.
The station was first used by the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 but was not brought into use for flying until July 1918 by the Royal Air Force. During the inter-war years and continuing through the Second World War until 1950 Upper Heyford was used mainly as a training facility. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford initially served as a base for United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) strategic bombers and later United States Air Forces In Europe (USAFE) tactical reconnaissance, fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft in the UK.
Upper Heyford was unique among airfield in the United Kingdom as only the flight-line area required military identification to access. The rest of the station, save the commercial facilities, was accessible to military and non-military alike. Upper Heyford was also unique in that the airspace around the station (from the surface to 3500') was protected by a mandatory radio area (UHMRA) in which private pilots were required to be in contact with the base controllers on frequency 128.55 when flying past or overhead.
Wiki article/history here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Upper_Heyford
The Explore
Explored with my usual partner in 'crime,' This is quite a well known place and has done the rounds plenty over the years. With a lot of site development more recently, we thought we ought to check it out before it's all gone. Happy days there's plenty left to see
Jesus H Christ though... the amount of walking we did... arriving at 9.30pm we finally left at around 5am. Don't underestimate the size of this place, and we still didn't get around everything. The plan was to start at the North-West area and methodically work our way around the site from there. Of course it never goes to plan and we spot the security patrol in their car heading our way. No bother, a quick run and hide and we're all sorted. And lost.
This was one of several encounters with Security as they do regular patrols, I imagine due to the new vehicles being stored on site and a lot of active business etc. Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to hide on an open airfield.... No worries, we'll crack on....
ETA - Sincere Apologies for the two watermarked photos. It's not an advertising ploy, I've already had the image ripped off despite it being online for matter of minutes.
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