Nearest AirfieldStrip to Thame Please????

[Monocock]

If anyone knows please pass details on as I need to be there tomorrow.

Thanks

[Break Even]

Aylesbury (Thame) - EGTA

N51 46.2 W000 56.40

Non radio, grass strip (24/06) 1000m

Unlicensed, 01865 721090

[FNG]

Lovely 1000 metre strip at Thame (just by Haddenham), on the chart and in the guides, but usually only available at weekends, when it is used by a gliding club (NB winch launches). The arrangement used to be that the owners (who are never there) welcome powered visitors, with no PPR. Non radio, circuits to the north, avoid the villages, give way to the gliders and notice where the winch tractor is, landing on the other side of the wide runway to avoid the cable when it is on the ground. In reality the gliding people who use the field are not that pleased to see powered aircraft (I'm always a bit saddened that we could be one sport, but are many) but, as I say, the owners say "welcome". NB absolutely zero facilities, not even a portaloo. No windsock.

Otherwise Chalgrove, Benson if you have connections and loadsa insurance, or Wycombe, or Oxford. There is a farmstrip near Stokenchurch, but I assume it is very private.

[Monocock]

Wow, 6 mins response time! This really is getting good!!

Thankd for that, will give them a ring.

:ok:


Edited 5 mins later.........

I see what you mean about "not being pleased to see powered a/c"!!!!!!

The call lasted about 30 seconds........

It's a shame when powered a/c pilots are accused of hostility towards glider pilots. I have allowed many gliders to land on my strip over the years and have held their wing as they were towed out.

Being met with the kind of attitude I have just experienced on the phone I wonder why I have bothered.:suspect:

[FNG]

Wonder if there's been a change: last time I spoke to the owner he was very friendly and said "land there anytime". Was it the gliding club or the field owner you spoke to? Not the same people, unless the club has bought the field. Number for the owner used to be in the AFE VFR Guide, not sure if it still is.

PS: always possible that some powered plonker has annoyed the local villagers or flown too close to the cable and so mucked it up the rest of us.

[trevs99uk]

There is a an old wartime airfield at Oakley 5 miles SE of Thame
a microlight club operate from the old runways.

Buckinghamshire Microlight Club
Contact Debra Owen 01869 601513

[S-Works]

Be carefull of Oakley, it is a not a bad strip for a microlight, I have been in there a few times in ML's but it is absolute murder on a Group A as the runway is knackered and it is very short. Does have the hanger they used for the James Bond movie where the flew a jet through.......

[Monocock]

FNG, don't know who it was I spoke to but the message was a clear NO.

trevs99, thanks, will try that.

[Brooklands]

Monocock,

Its a shame that Thame won't accept you (actually the airfield is next to Haddenham village, a couple of miles from Thame).

You might find that Wycombe is a good alternative. Although its quite a way from Thame there's a fairly frequent train service from Wycombe to the station at Thame/Haddenham (which is right next to the airfield)

There are some private strips in the area, but I don't have any contact details for them

Brooklands

[Monocock]

Thanks for that. I'm not coming from that far away so was hoping to get a bit closer than Wycombe. Looks like it'll be a drive again:(

[Orange Arm Waver]

Bose-x
Thought that hangar was at Northolt??:confused:
OAW

[FNG]

Mono, I'm still curious about the apparent change of heart at Thame, as the strip was still in last year's AFE Guide with the rubric unchanged: powered visitors welcome (although NB at weekends only). I haven't yet bought this year's edition of the Guide, so do not know if the entry has been amended or withdrawn, on account of visitor naughtiness or otherwise. Is anyone here a member of the gliding club at the strip and able to comment?

PS: If in Thame at lunchtime try the Swan, but avoid the Spreadeagle (once one of the great Inns of England and a location for a sequence in Brideshead Revisited, but now a dull chain hotel).

PPS: If you get there by air please fly over my mum's house (just by the roundabout across from the park at the eastern end of town) and give her a wave.

[Monocock]

FNG

The number I called was the one given by Break Even. I'm not even sure of the guys name that I spoke to.

I'm setting off in a sec by car so will give your Mum blast on the horn as I go past instead!!:}

[Kellvin]

Did anybody ever finish with this thread? I rang Aylesbury Thame only a rew weeks ago to arrange a flight to them. No problems.

I couldn't do it becouse of WX but nobody seemed to have a problem with it.

But, I have promised a friend a trip there next week and I am assuming a friendly voice on the phone to allow the landing (C172).

Maybe I should call again?

[Monocock]

All i can say is dont call the number I did!!!!!

He's not a helpful bunny

[Kellvin]

I went and checked the number with the one I phoned a few weeks ago. It's the same and that person was quite helpful.

I'll try at the end of this week if I see the WX is ok for VFR and will write a little report here.

[astir 8]

As far as I know, Haddenham strip is deserted all week, with the gates locked and a big barbed wire encrusted fence around the road-side of it (they had a problem with "travellers" a few years back). So on a weekday you might tear the a*** out of your trousers getting off the strip.

I'd agree though, there are polite ways to say "no"

I've seen light a/c there at weekends, but encountering winch launch cables either in the air or on the ground can be detremental to the health, so everyone needs to know what's happening in advance