Most Difficult Airfield/Approach..(split from another thread)

[betterfromabove]

...what WOULD be an interesting thread would be the most difficult airfield / approach in the UK!?!

Personal offering from a classic: 08 at Compton Abbas with a howling SEerly.

Cue....horrifying farm strip descriptions. Go on you know you want to :E

[S-Works]

Bah, try Spanhoe in SW gust. Some of the farmstrips out there separate the men from the boys. Compton Abbas is childs play.

[Piper.Classique]

Bodmin can be fun in a breeze :)

[betterfromabove]

Spanhoe....hmmh, will have to go look that one up.

Then find me an instructor to take me in there :sad:

Rufforth (if the gliders would let you in...) looks like it might be fun in a chop...

Anyone been into Newton Peveril or Stokes Bay....?? Although flat, both seem to have pylons rather closer to touchdown than one might like.

[snapper1]

I'm sure the gliders would be very happy to, 'let you in' at Rufforth. GSORA should be able to tell you more!
Camphill would be rather concerned at any powered visitation. It has been done by powered a/c but usually by people who have a lot of knowledge of the site.

[pistongone]

Lundy Island! Sits on top of 300'cliffs, 400meters sloping to the n.e with a 5' dry stone wall one end and big boulders the other.

[jollyrog]

Whichever one your instructor sends you to on the first leg of your solo cross country.

Funny how it seems so much easier when you go there a few months later.

[Them thar hills]

I once landed a Condor on the downhill runway 33 at Grindale.
It was 250 yards long at the most, but then no-one had told me how difficult landing on short strips was.........................:bored:
(I'll guess I had about 60 hrs total time then !)

[Chilli Monster]

Fetlar, in the Shetlands is an interesting strip - the dry stone wall at the end concentrates the mind somewhat.

[pistongone]

Where is that one Them thar hills? British sky sports are at East Leys Farm Grindale and its 500 meters and appx 05/23. I have heard people mention Scarborough Willy Howe about a mile to the north of the DZ but no sign of it now?

[Them thar hills]

PG
The old strip at Grindale is long gone. It's 0.63 NM northwest of the present East Leys Farm strip.
The old buildings are still visible on Google, but the runways have disappeared under the plough. It had 24/06 and 33/15 with traffic lights controlling the road crossing on the 33 approach.
Ginger Lacey instructed there. Hull Aero Club was based there for a time..
Grindale was my first land-away after I got my PPL. In it's day it was a magical place.
tth

[Cricket23]

Popham with the offset final approach.

[will fly for food 06]

I second Bodmin with a SW breeze coming over the hill on approach.

['Chuffer' Dandridge]

Popham with the offset final approach.

Blimey, If you think that's bad..............:eek:

I once was a scared passenger in a Cub which groundlooped going uphill at Nayland, but the P.1 did have substantial tailwind. I did point out afterwards that the flat bit at the top of the hill was more than adequate for a Cub to land into the wind!

[avidflyer]

How about Crosland Moor on 07 with a crosswind? If you're not on the deck after 250 metres of grass it's a go-around since the tarmac bit slopes down at 3 degrees...

[C-dog]

31 at Insch with a southwesterly is interesting - mind the powerline, also the tree just before Pearl's house. And if Ken's cutting the grass then it's the temporary runway - 10 metres from the Gadie burn.

Also you can get into East Fortune with a 172. And get out, just.

[Mike Cross]

Wharf Farm. 430m uphill with a big blackthorn hedge that eats Jabirus at the far end and rising ground beyond. For a fat b@stard on a hot day it was fairly sphincter-clenching. In comparison Glacier de la Tour in the Alps was a doddle.

Just for fun here's the landing are at Glacier de Lombard in the French Alps
http://mrc0001.users.btopenworld.com/webimages/IMG_3391.jpg

Left Base
http://mrc0001.users.btopenworld.com/webimages/IMG_3406.jpg

and Short Final
http://mrc0001.users.btopenworld.com/webimages/IMG_3404.jpg

[Major Major]

Short final...where's the fecking runway?! Under the nose?

[Tinstaafl]

Fetlar's not that difficult. Of the outer Shetland Isles, it's pretty reasonable.

Out Skerries is short (381m) with unlit obstacles intruding into the approach path and no lateral run-off area. At night using flarepots with strong crosswinds it concentrates the mind wonderfully.

Fair Isle is much longer & wider but has a truly vicious downwind turbulence if the wind is greater than ~20kts from Sheep Rock. Also from an area off hills to the north. I've managed to get in when the wind was gusting 30kts & variable from Sheep Rock but it took several tries to to each runway to pick where the turbulence was then an unusually steep approach with lots of gust margin with a short, sharp flare & landing.

Foula is worse! If the wind is >15 kts from the West or East then the strip is all but unuseable although I've managed it on rare ambulance occasions using lots of local familiarity and throwing stabilised approaches out the window.

Even my base airstrip at Tingwall could be challenging in a 45 kt x-wind component at night onto an iced or partly iced strip in minimum visibility up the Tingwall valley.

I doubt that these are the worst in the UK but they're certainly not conducive to complacency.

[Mike Cross]

Short final...where's the fecking runway?! Under the nose?
If you look at the top pic you'll see the curved tracks in the snow. The technique is to land on the right, apply power after landing to keep the aircraft moving (it does wallow in the snow) and then turn to the left to face back down the slope for take-off, You'll notice that the take-off tracks are longer. The short final pic is immediately before touch down, you can see the snow tracks ahead. Comparison with the top pic will give you some sense of the fact that we're actually flying up quite a steep slope despite it looking relatively level.

[betterfromabove]

Ah, ...I knew this thread would bring out them War Stories!!

Maybe we should ask Polly Vacher?!?

Clacton causes plenty of problems - at both ends. The upper-lower wind transition catches a lot of people out, then the hump in the middle of the pitch.

Toughest approach I ever saw though was an ex-BA captain on his first Cub solo, who while he had no problem with the plane, was obstructed by several of the local gentlemen who decided to splay their shell-suited persons across the touchdown point every time he turned short final.

Sure they have something at Baghdad Intl for this kind of eventuality....