Speaking as a chap who first flew from Welshpool BEFORE they put the runway and hangars in, then as a PPL and finally as an instructor I rate the place very highly from a GA enthusiast point of view.
Its cheap, rulebook-lite, suffers no snobby "club atmosphere" and its cheap.
What people have to remember is that its a really challenging airfield and thus allowances should be made. You´ve got a 1500ft circuit with less than 300ft agl in places! This makes for an unusal pattern further complicated by noise abatement.
The runway is small and usually with a crosswind and often some odd wind changes at low level. Couple this with a totally honest basic Ground/Air radio environment with up to 7 training aircraft in the air at one time and what you have is - as I say - a real challenge.
Too many visitors pitch up with v. little prep. They expect ATC and are snotty when they don´t get it. They are not prepared for the unusual circuit height. They expect the place to be peaceful and dozy when they actually produce over a PPL a week.
ALl that said, more challeng equals more reward. Its a lovely area to fly in and there is actually a lot to do within 4 miles of the airfield for day trippers.
In a decade that has seen so many GA airfield closures we should all be cheering for a start up success story like EGCW.
The runway was 2.4ft under water last time I was back there!
WWW