We are delighted to feature another guest post from David Coxon, Honorary Vice President of Tangmere Military Aviation Museum.
David writes:
In the summer of 1972, two years after RAF Tangmere officially closed, Flight Lieutenant Tony Lee, an RAF Air Traffic Control Officer, based at RAF Thorney Island, was ordered to set up a temporary local ATC facility in the disused visual control room (VCR) on top of the roof of the empty Tangmere control tower building.
He brought with him a very pistol and pyrotechnics and an Arc52 air to ground portable radio to communicate with a Thorney Island based C130 Hercules aircraft, tasked with carrying out a practice low level cargo drop on the old 25/07runway. The Hercules duly checked in on Lee’s VHF radio and was cleared for the low level cargo drop. However, when the aircraft was on final approach and half a mile from the runway threshold, Tony saw an elderly gentleman on a bicycle crossing the airfield and approaching the runway. Realising the danger, he instructed the Hercules to break off its approach and go-around. The Hercules crew did not immediately acknowledge the instruction and Lee, fearing the worst, ran onto the roof outside the VCR and fired off a red pyrotechnic from his very pistol. The aircraft, to Lee’s relief, was then seen to break off, commence a climb and take up a westerly heading back to Thorney.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the story; the very pistol pyrotechnic, on hitting the ground, set the grass near the control tower on fire and Lee had to call out the Fire Brigade from Chichester to put out the fire.
