Deptford Down
DEPTFORD DOWN: Military training landing area
Note: Situated within the SPTA (Salisbury Plain Training Area)
These three pictures are from my Google Earth © derived database.
Operated by: Mostly by the British Army
Location: S of the B390, roughly 3nm SE of Chitterne village, about 8.5nm SE to SSE of Warminster town centre
Period of operation: 1977 to -
Landing area: Roughly SE/NW, slightly curved and about 2000 metres, grass
NOTES: It appears that this landing area has been regularly used, almost on a daily basis, by Army helicopters. However, Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide', discovered pictures of a RAF Lockheed C-130J Hercules C.5, ZH882, using this facility on the 10th September 2015. As the pictures do not appear to be covered by copyright (?), and seem to be freely available to the public on the inter-web, I have great pleasure in showing four examples below.
For this exercise a 'runway' was marked out and the Hercules made several approaches, including some touch-and-goes, plus at least one full-stop landing. On the day a full contingent of emergency vehicles were provided.
For what it is worth, my guess is that Photo One is a go-around, and Photo Two a landing. Photo Three could be either a take-off or a touch-and-go, or indeed a go-around. Photo Four looks like a landing? Although undoubtably very demanding for the crew(s), it must surely have been great fun too.
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