Wolverhampton "International" (previously Halfpenny Green) has come in for quite a bit of stick on these threads before now.
Yesterday, I ventured up there for a bit of an outing in the Dakota (PA28-236 - not, sadly, DC3!). I took 3 non-flying friends up with me for the ride, and when there we met up with other members of the extended family (the non-Aussie side!). We then made a couple of local excursions of about 30 minutes a piece in the local area, to give some of the family members an aerial view of their homes/golf courses etc, and then we flew back to Wycombe, with a little bit of sightseeing in the Cotswolds and over Oxford on the way back. It was a great day out flying wise for me at least!
Wolverhampton is a great airfield - I was very pleasantly surprised after all the bad things I had read about it. For a start, I was not ripped off. £14 landing fee isn't too bad, and I was able to negotiate just paying the one fee and didn't have to pay over for the landing after the local excursions. Not cheap, but certainly not a rip-off as has been suggested. I guess the problems come if you are in a larger aircraft!?
The "Information" service was great - pleasant and efficient. The facilities were good - plenty of room to park, and the re-fuelling was easy and friendly too.
There is a caf' in the tower - it was a good place to meet with the family and leave some on the ground while taking others on a local flight - although I have to say that they didn't offer much worth having and for some unknown reason shut the doors at three even though there was quite a hungry crowd in attendance! So, some room for improvement there perhaps.
But overall, I found it to be a great airfield with plenty of lovely large tarmac runways pointing in any direction you might want, on the edge of some lovely Shropshire countryside and a nice place for a day out.
My only complaint from the flying point-of-view is that it seems that there is a local preference for an extended downwind leg - which in turn means dragging yourself in on a long-ish (3 or 4 mile?) final... tighten it up boys and it would be safer I reckon!
Anyway, thanks again for a great day out Wolverhampton! I'm happy to reccommend it as a stop-off or day trip destination for anyone else.
Andy
[ 17 September 2001: Message edited by: Aussie Andy ]