Runway marker boards

A late addition to the thread, but it does illustrate a distance to run board. Hope its of use.

What a pity that excellent pic of a runway marker board has that noisy jet fighter in the background. I think Windsock has been to the same school of photography as me!

Yeah, sorry about that, spent ages framing the shot, pressed the shutter and it appeared from nowhere!!

208 possibly 12 Sqn Bucc launches from St Mawgan Rwy 31. They, and we for that matter, loved this low u/c up quick departure. Often done in pairs.



The DTR "Distance to Run" board with the number 6 showing 6000ft left on Rwy 13. There was a corresponding DTR directly opposite also showing 6. The number on the reverse of this particular board would have been a 3. St Mawgans Rwy was 9000ft long (actually 9006 to be exact mawganmad!)
Also visible in this pic are the "Snow Flags" the orange or orange and yellow sticks were used to mark light fittings in case there was a fall of snow. Stopped the snow clearance vehicles from mowing down the fittings during the clearing operation and to mark the edge of the hard surface. These "flags" would be removed every May and stored in the "Night Flying Shed" until the following October ready for the next winters snow. Ok, not much snow in Cornwall usually, even back then, but when it did snow, well.....

Snowflags were donr away with in 1992 and replaced with "arms" which stands for airfield reflective markers" or something like that and they were left in all year round.

They were still in use at Mawgan until at least the mid 2000s, and St Athan until 'early 08, now it dosen't open in bad weather!

Snow markers are still in use even today.

Re, centreline, yes on RAF airfields dependant on runway width and the marker boards are illuminated with a regulating transformer that is meant to keep the marker board at a constant illuminance level regardless of runway sidelight brilliancy, as the marker boards are in the same circuit.

Retro Reflective Markers is the name that we knew them as and they were in use from the early 90s replacing the old style wooden stakes. As with everything modern, they were less effective than their forebears because they came with a plastic base socket that was designed to be permanently placed in the ground and the plastic marker would slot in. The advantage being that in the milder months the markers could be removed allowing grass cutting operations. The disadvantage was that come the autumn, it was near impossible to find the blasted things again! They were also more of a FOD hazard.

Newquay does have provision for armed aircraft parking - safe headings have been re designated following change of ownership.

The Crash Cover is equivalent to military Cat 4A so sufficient for all but the largest aircraft.

I am extremely suprsied that St Mawgan was still using "snow flags" until recently, in fact Im gobsmacked.

A mount is fixed at the base of a TWY light to hold a flag (ico snow) or RRM (ico failure) seen at Florennes AB in 2007