Bruntingthorpe - A Unique Experience

Bruntingthorpe airfield is quite local to myself being an ex USAF base (closed in the 50's). It is home to quite a few ex cold war jets, many maintained in flying condition, although many are not allowed to be flown anymore. About once or twice a year they hold an open day where you can go along and watch aircraft such as the two lightnings and also the likes of a Victor tanker, Buccanneer, Comet and many more carry out full power taxy runs down the 2 mile runway.(the most notable resident aircraft being Vulcan XH558 which is due to return to the air in 2006). It's a unique experience as you can stand right by the runway, much closer than at a conventional airshow. I believe the next open day is going to be August bank holiday Sunday. For more info check out: www.ColdWarJets.co.uk

Very often other aircraft will visit on these open days and there is also sporadic weekend flying activity. Seems a shame it doesn't see much flying activity these days with such a huge runway. The owner, a dedicated enthusiast has put forward plans for a freight airport in the past but to no avail.
By the way, their air/ground frequency is: 122.825.

Air To Air Frequencies

I don't want to go into a list of military air to air frequencies right now as there are hundreds of them. These are generally allocated to individual squadrons, however its always worth checking the following VHF frequencies that are frequently used for civil air to air and they are: 118.0, 122.65 & 123.45. I have heard all of these in use in the last week or so.

Atmospherics & The Civil Airband

Whilst I definitely don't claim to be a radio expert, I do know from experience that atmospheric conditions can drastically increase reception from time to time. These atmospheric effects are most prominent on the short wave bands but can effect the civil VHF airband also. I understand there is some relation to sunspot activity which apparently runs in seven year cycles. Anyway enough of that, if your still reading, thanks for bearing with me! As far as I'm aware the UHF military band never experiences this but I have experienced it on the civil VHF band. The last occasion was probably over a year ago for me. At the time I was able to clearly here the controllers at: Gatwick (126.825) , Brize Norton (various) and Mildenhall tower on 122.55. Pretty amazing from my location in Leicester! I wonder if any of you readers have experienced this also?