RAF Woodvale

[cdb]

Hi

Am visiting Woodvale next week (by land) and want to get a feel for the airport.

Can anyone PM me if they have a set of approach plates they could scan and email? Doesn't matter if they're out of date, I just want a feel for the airport and area.

Thanks

cdb

[tmmorris]

Sadly no scanner at home, or I'd oblige. You can get them from www.aidu.mod.uk (in Terminal Charts volume 2, which is only £11 odd, if all else fails).

The only IAP is a DF: the plate assumes UDF but does offer a VHF frequency so they can probably manage VDF too.

2 runways 03/21 1647x45m, 08/26 1068x45m; there's a third disused one on about 16/34 judging from the plate, so make sure you identify carefully!

Circuits 800ft QFE. Frequencies App 121.0, Tower 119.75; out of hours use 121.0 Woodvale Radio.

Large area of woodland to the NW...

Tim

[Small Rodent Driver]

The disused runway 16/34 is actually used nowadays.

Rest of info appears correct. Caution the microlight field about 2.5 miles to the south east though. It can be quite busy.

Hope this helps.

[Flik Roll]

Other traffic is likely to be from the UAS's who are likely to operate on a UHF freq so keep a good lookout :ok:

[McFunkletrumpet]

cdb Check your PM.

[tmmorris]

Who's using 16/34, then, that No. 1 AIDU don't know about? Is it a VGS?

Tim

[Small Rodent Driver]

Can you use plain english please? With a little less reference to T & F LA,s

[cdb]

Sorted, thanks everybody!

[tmmorris]

No. 1 AIDU = RAF No. 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit, who prepare the RAF charts. If 16/34 is in use, I'd have though they would know...

but Volunteer Gliding Schools often use 'disused' airfields/runways, e.g. Wattisham, or the disused at Odiham.

Tim

[Pierre Argh]

Doesn't matter if they're out of date
Why bother then, they're not worth the paper their printed on?

Aren't you suposed to, under UK law, fly with up-to-date information?... even if it's not a legal requirement, it makes bloody good common-sense and this sort of request is moronic?

[Bravo73]

Er, Pierre Argh, before you start ranting the next time, you might want to read what the guy actually wrote.

The clue was when he wrote 'Am visiting Woodvale next week (by land)...

Now who's the 'moronic' one...?



:yuk:

[Pierre Argh]

Bravo 73

Noted, I wihdraw that comment (cdb pse note)... but not the general theme of my observation. I am concerned that others readers might (making the same mistake as me) consider PPRuNe a means of obtaining Flight Planning data that will in all probablity be unreliable (just look at the number of second-hand comments and assumptions, this request has already generated?)

[Speedtape]

Dropped in there one Sunday while I waited for the EGNR weather to improve. Place was like the Marie Celeste. Wandered around for an hour or so and never saw another soul.

[McFunkletrumpet]

I've also found that ,when it is closed it is deserted.

I'm surprised that the" rottweilers" at the main gate didn't get you.

[Speedtape]

Nope, never saw anyone else. Wandered around the Hangars, popped into the empty clubhouse, wandered across to the locked main gate. Not a soul. Hung around until the vis improved at Hawarden and then launched off again:cool:

[jayteeto]

When it is closed it is not deserted!! We operate the police helicopter 24/7 on the airfield

[McFunkletrumpet]

Jayteeto. Yes sorry about that. I forgot that you were there. My apologies.
Do you think that speedtape WAS at Woodvale? He implies that he was able to walk round the hangars (inside )? and the club house. As you know there is no club at Woodvale. I doubt if he would have been able to get into the private users section. As for going to the locked main gate......well

If, however, he is correct in what he says, and I can't say he definitely isn't correct, then I would suggest that in the interest of security for the airfield your colleagues might care to investigate how an aircraft was able to land undetected, and the pilot walked around the airfield and to the main gate UNDETECTED.
A serious breach of security here I feel.
Questions at the main gate I think !!!!

[Small Rodent Driver]

Strewth!

He could have walloped the entire stock of Mars Bars from the private users section.

Quick call security! :D

[the_flying_cop]

mc funkle,

i take appreciate your point of concern re the security issues. other than erecting a roof over the airfield when it closes you will never prevent an aircraft from landing at an airport.

although i have just thought of one... you could place those big iron X things they used to stop tanks during the war along the runway.

this still means that the place could be attacked by people in helicopters...

i think the chap you have misinterpreted the post about him wandering round hangars. i would assume (see even imdoing it) that he will have walked around the outsides of them looking for some company. i would be very surprised, ney dismayed to hear that people still left doors insecure.

good points raised, but i think a little common sense needed to be applied, (and forgive me im not trying to flame you, just pointing out the relatively obvious) still, you made my monday a little more enjoyable.

regards

(last time i went to woodvale there was a club, albeit small and cosy. very friendly chaps in there though!)

TFC

[DuncanF]

My parents live in Southport so flying into Woodvale would save me the nightmare of a mind numbing drive up there from London. The trouble is I'd want to go in on a Saturday and Leave on a Sunday.

What is the form for arranging this? Is it, as suggested, dead over the weekend? Will I have to get the old man out with a ladder to help me scale the fence? Or is the club open at the weekend, even if the RAF part of things is quiet, with access in and out if PPR'd?

Any advice, contacts, etc. much appreciated.

Duncan

[McFunkletrumpet]

Duncan Check your PM.

[Maude Charlee]

I'd be surprised if Woodvale was quiet at the weekend. It's home to a very busy UAS (or is it 2 now?), and the vast majority of their flying is weekends, and usually Mon and Tue are the days the squadrons stand down. It certainly used to be anyway, before they bought plastic Airfix kits and went all civvy on us. :}

[Crashed&Burned]

Visit Woodvale while you can.

With the demise of the UAS and AEF systems, it will be another housing estate by this time next year.

:ugh:

[Gannet06]

Help, a major security lapse. Never mind landing at a closed(?) airfield without the required permission and entering private premises uninvited, the Mars Bars are obviously at risk. What next? I hear there is a Kit Kat mountain in there somewhere.
Is nothing sacred?

[cdb]

OK guys... so there is stuff other than the police Helo and the UAS going on?

Do microlights, gliders etc. operate out of the field, or somewhere unlicensed nearby? Is the airfield available PPR to civvies, and does anyone know if the West Lancs Aero Club (or any flying club) is still based there?

Thanks all!

[Crashed&Burned]

Microlights are on the other side of the bypass down from Tescos. WLAC disappeared yonks ago, I think. Just 2 UASs, the Bill and an AEF there now.

Civvies can land PPR and at usual RAF rates.

[Small Rodent Driver]

I believe the airfield is available to visiting a/c ppr and at MOD rates. This however, only when ATC is active. (They sometimes dont operate on certain days).

No microlights or gliders operate from Woodvale but, there is an unlicenced strip at Ince 2.5nm SSE. Longest runway is 400mtrs E/W with unobstructed approaches. Rest are appx 300mtrs in length.

Depends on what you are flying but a lightly loaded C172 will / has coped OK.

West Lancs Aero Club ceased to exist some time in the mid - late 1990,s. A private owners group is apparently still active at Woodvale though.

[Maude Charlee]

Woodvale is 24hrs PPR by telephone (01704 872287 ext 7243) according to Pooleys, 0900-1800 Tue to Sun normally.

"Considerable risk of birdstirke". Yup, remeber one of my fellow studes coming back in a Bulldog with rather a lot of seagull splattered all over the place. Lovely.

[Speedtape]

Yup, it was definitely Woodvale, I've just checked back in Skylog. It was in a Pa28-161 in December. I was not imagining it. I was directed there by Warton after checking the Hawarden weather with them. They suggested I land at Woodvale because they had seen an aircraft in the circuit there (a Cessna if I remember correctly). Warton didn't think there was any ATC there as they had tried them on the landline but gave me the frequency to free call them which tied up with my flight guide and the runway (22)which the cessna had seemed to be using. I did not get any reply from either ATC nor the Cessna which by this time had departed. So using blind calls, I made an overhead join, approach, landed and taxied to nearby the tower. We wandered around looking for someone to talk to or a phone to use. The hangars I looked in had Bulldogs in them. I never said I went into the hangars, just looked through the gaps in the doors and there was definitely what appeared to be a club or as some have said, a private users section where there was a payphone but we used our mobiles anyway and when the vis improved at EGNR, launched off. In that time (approx 1h45 ) didn't see a soul.

[McFunkletrumpet]

Perhaps someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the Bulldogs have been long gone from Woodvale. Admittedly there was no specific year in which the December visit took place.
I wonder why anyone who had a mobile phone with him might wander around looking for a phone to use !!
Anyway, most ,if not all of the foregoing info on Woodvale has now been said and paints a current true picture of life at this super little RAF station. Twas always my favourite.

McFunkletrumpet (Co founder of West Lancs Aero Club ).

[Krystal n chips]

I've always been curious as to why Woodvale has survived over the years --other than for the UAS / AEF elements---when other Stations have been closed. It would seem to be a "prime target" for the beancounters after all. Sorry if the question is off topic, but I drive past the place albeit on an infrequent basis--and just recall my visits there as an ATC cadet many years ago--plus helping to recover a Gnat once in the early 70's.

[Crashed&Burned]

RAF Woodvale is the only flyable RAF presence in the NW of England, so has some value.

Woodvale was always a favourite for strange military helicopters transitting to and from Ulster during the main troubles. Fairly discrete, good links to Manchester and Liverpool.

Also useful if Prince Andrew fancied golfing at Birkdale...!