Manchester Barton 9 May 2023 from David Thompson
The Airfield Research
Group had a superb ‘all area’s’ visit to Barton recently and
were hosted by the Friends of Barton Aerodrome and for only £2
pp , cash on the day , which is incredible value for money !
The tour started in
the ‘new’ hangar and then took in the Westair maintenance hangar
, the 1929 Pemberton Hangar as well as the smaller Hangar 3 near
the tower which is for GA and gyrocopters . The tour normally
includes both a visit in to the control tower VCR but due to
‘operational reasons’ we couldn’t go upstairs , but the ground
floor pilots lounge and toilets were open for our use , and the
helicopter hangars which are accessed by a short walk up the
main road but due to the persistent weather we sought refuge in
the café !
The tour lasted about
2 hours but would have been more if we had included the
helicopter base too but what do you expect for a couple of quid
, Heathrow !
Afterwards we headed
off to the Hooton Park Collection on The Wirral to visit their
museum which is very good and again included a full site tour of
the buildings , vintage buses and commercial vehicles which
whilst not everyone’s cup-of-tea was very interesting and the
museum aircraft are well displayed , some of which have only
recently arrived from the now defunct MoSI in Manchester .
Our two guides were Steve Petter and Peter Smith with Steve in particular being an aviation anorak and the Friends can be contacted via ; tours@friendsofbartonaerodrome.org.uk .
