Circuits landing fee deal?

[betterfromabove]

Hi,

Anyone know which/any airfields/strips in SE of England offer multiple landing deals?

Want to do some CX in my taildragger next weekend, preferably on grass, somewhere away from base.

Thanks
BFA

[jollyrog]

£25 for all you can eat at Headcorn. Arrive, get dizzy, land and pay, go up and do some more, then go home.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Enstone does the same deal as Headcorn.

Or if you're happy short field, come to Chilbolton - £3/movement, visitors welcome, very nice fresh pizzas 20 minutes walk down the road in the Abbotts Mitre in Chilbolton Village.

G

[chevvron]

Last time I flew from Redhill, they charged for each landing; I think Shoreham do too.

[I Love Flying]

Unfortunately Chevvron is correct, and they are not cheap - especially Shoreham.

North Weald does a deal I think. £12 for 3 or so I seem to recall, might even be unlimited if they are quiet. Worth giving them a ring.

[OpenCirrus619]

Headcorn gets my vote - BUT phone first and check they are allowing circuits.

When the runway is soft (after a period of loads of rain) they often have restrictions on circuits (i.e. you can't do them).

OC619

[All-The-Nines]

The group I fly with have a deal at Andrewsfield whereby we pay £20 for 5 circuits. Give them a ring and see if it applies to anyone or whether we were just lucky and someone in our group knew the right person. It's a decent length field, easy approach/climb-out, pretty solid ground too the last time I was there.

[betterfromabove]

Thanks guys! Amazingly useful and quick responses as usual!! ;)

Based at WW, so Enstone might be a handy one.

Headcorn I love, but bit more of a stretch unfortunately. Great to know about though, especially if fancy a trip that way.

Anyone know if Chiltern Park do anything? They were microlight focused, but now seem to be aiming for more GA visitors.

Chilbolton an interesting one. Yes, very do-able in a Jodel and good practice. Had been put off by lack of facilities when I visited by road. Do you leave an honesty fee in the portacabin there? I'll phone ahead on pizza availability I guess?!

Always thought was a shame Compton Abbas and Popham don't offer the same, as they're both fields that are fun to master (particularly 08 at both places). Would be wee bit of extra revenue for quiet periods.

[betterfromabove]

Yes, Andrewsfield nice outing too. One of the more straightforward circuits in the SE, once got round Stansted of course:}.

[Mark 1]

For Enstone, there are two grass runways. The one south of the tarmac is part of the main operation and they would charge you as mentioned above.
However, the North side grass is operated by the maintenance base and they don't usually charge a landing fee. I don't know if they would encourage visitors just for circuit practice and the strip is a bit prone to water-logging.
So it may be worth checking with them.

If you don't mind going a bit further North; Hucknall has two very good, well drained grass runways and would charge very little (PPR weekends only).

[Genghis the Engineer]

Chilbolton an interesting one. Yes, very do-able in a Jodel and good practice. Had been put off by lack of facilities when I visited by road. Do you leave an honesty fee in the portacabin there? I'll phone ahead on pizza availability I guess?!

Purely on an honesty box. T'is true, the facilities are limited to a caravan, a kettle, an honesty snack shop, and a loo round the back of the hangar (prudent to have a loo roll in your flight bag).

The Abbotts Mitre in the village is a fantastic food pub around 20-30 minutes walk from the strip (just walk down the hill from the airfield gate then turn left in the middle of the village).

If you need any more information than that or Pooleys, PM me - I'm a local, although only occasional weekends right now

I think we may be about to change the landing fee to £5 including a cup of tea.

G

[matspart3]

We introduced a 'day rate' for PPL's and trainers at Gloucester £24 for up to five and £49 (inc VAT) for as many as you like, subject to a fuel uplift. Three hard runways and one grass.

[Piper.Classique]

I don't think Popham have a quiet time.......
I hadn't realised people charged so much for touch and goes in UK. Many French airfields don't charge at all, and those that do only charge one landing however many circuits you do. How about Caen? Go to Cherbourg for lunch, as the food is better, then on to Caen for the two manicured grass runways. Or any other field you fancy in the area. Return via Cherbourg if you want to upload some wine from the shop attached to the restaurant. Landing fees around five euros at both places. Or just go to Caen direct with two hours PPR for the customs man who never turns up.

[betterfromabove]

Spoke to Popham today and they say they have an offer of £12 for up to 4 landings. Beyond that, they are negotiable. Quite interesting.

Only quirk is on 08/26 will have to be stop-go's rather than T&G's (which is what I do in a taildragger anyway...). Plus, you need to be qualified PPL.

[betterfromabove]

Yes, I used to live in France and be based at St Cyr l'Ecole near Versailles.

We used to sometimes do a "lap" of the Paris CTA and stop off a couple of places along the way, often just doing a T&G to get to know a place. Real safety benefit if you ask me, since you got to know well every surrounding airfield and a lot of fun.

Why don't the UK CAA say give some free CX vouchers to each PPL per year so they get out somewhere away from their base from time to time?

When you're operating close to CAS and when the viz/cloud comes down it makes it one helluva less drama and thought process to divert.

[betterfromabove]

PS. Except for the fly-in's, Popham is nowhere near as busy as WW in my experience, especially midweek. They certainly didn't bothered by thought of bashing circuit at weekends. Only allowing based a/c due to waterlogging seems main concern at moment.

[betterfromabove]

Matspat3 - think I saw your posts on Flyer too about Staverton. Really great to see some active enthusiasm in terms of attracting GA from a regional airport - you could see the positive feedback from the forum responses.

Not visited yet, but been meaning to, as not an area I know very well.

Agree with gist of that forum's discussion that advertising local attractions, including those of course on the field itself are crucial to attract visitors...there's money to be made not so much always from the landing fee itself but from the associated purchases (cafe, pilot shop, surface transport, museum if exists etc)

Like the fact you cuta short grass strip as well amongst the tarmac. Wish more regionals would do that, especially one for crosswinds. Saw Hurn do that one weekend when had a formation of Tigers come in en route to Jersey Air Rally. Bit off-topic, but how much effort/red tape/up-keep does it take over and above the existing tarmacs?

BFA

[betterfromabove]

For anyone interested, got a great deal at Sywell today. £12 for several circuits and landing.

Top fry-up as well....what a great place. How all airfields of that size should be!

[Milt]

Touch Down Fees

Back in the late 50s I was attempting to determine the maximum recoverable offset from a runway at minimum break off approach height for a Vulcan Mk1 on an ILS let down. Multiple approaches resulted in recoveries to runway centre line and ocassionally a brief touch down and sometimes only with the rear sets of main wheels.
Surprise, surprise some weeks later I was asked to confrm the count of touches for the bean counters so the LANDING FEES could be paid.

[hobbit1983]

I believe Old Sarum offer touch and goes at £4 a pop, or all you can handle at £24.