Manchester Woodford

[DocLeaf]

Could anyone advise please on how active Woodford is these days, and are there any rumours as to its future; I have a relative who is looking into buying a house close by, and I'd appreciate any information about things to watch out for.
Thanks

[MAN777]

Woodford is a shadow of its former self, days can go by without any movements, BAe are currently working on the Nimrod 3 development aircraft and are hoping for an order from the RAF. Even if this came (and I am very sceptical) it still wouldnt be busy. The airfield is licenced as a factory airfield and cannot operate commercial flights. There has been rumours for years that it will one day become a huge housing estate again I think thats unlikely as planning permissions for new build in this area are as rare as rocking horse droppings.

It is a very desirable and affluent area to live and wish I could afford it, so I would say your relative has nothing to worry about.

[smudgethecat]

i would disagree, its fairly common knowledge that even if the nimrod order does go ahead(which is unlikely)there are no plans to tender for further work when that is compleated , its only a matter of time before this valuable asset is sold off and its a fairly good bet the site will be redevolped for housing, however one thing you can be sure of, aircraft noise is not a problem these days, i live close to the site and its very unusual to hear anything coming in or going out, even the days of traffic congestion around the place are long gone as i think only a couple of hundred are employed there compared to the thousands which up to fairly recently worked there

[jay_hl]

I am led to believe that there is a fair amount of light aircraft flying goes on around there.

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

I am led to believe that there is a fair amount of light aircraft flying goes on around there.


Nope - very little indeed.


Most light aircraft flying over Woodford are in the visual Hilltop Farm hold, waiting for the big stuff to land at MAN before they hop over and drop in on 24R or 24L.

[lexxity]

Hilltop Farm hold

Thread drift sorry. My Aunt owns Hilltop and in days gone by we used to sit on the shed roof watching the airshow. Oh happy days.:{ :{ :{

[Eurotraveller]

Manchester School of Flying based at EGCC do a fair amount of circuit training at Woodford on weekdays, although this is only in PA-38/PA-28's. It's not all done at Woodford, sometimes they go to Sleap/Tatenhill. I'll never forget my days battling a crosswind on 07 with the turbulence coming off the hangers whilst trying to put a PA-38 on the ground, a difficult enough task as it is when you've only got a few hours under your belt! Think my old flying instructor would rather forget a few of those touchdowns....

[LTNman]

If BAE can sell Hatfield for housing then non of their airfields are safe

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

I've just come back from the area and there were quite a few a/c in the Hilltop Farm hold and also a few t & g's from EGCD, from what I could see.

They all seemed to be MSF type aircraft.

[brabazon]

Whether housing is built there is surely a local authority / planning permission issue. It's certainly an affluent area in years gone by I saw Gordon Strachan in the pub between Woodford and Wilmslow - and the Beckhams used to frequent Alderley Edge.

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

If you mean the Unicorn, it is still frequented by the odd footballer.

And Jaap Stam, Laurent Blanc and Cristiano Ronaldo have all lived in the same Woodford house owned by United, only a couple of hundred yeards from BAe Systems.

[initial]

Woodford has a 2292m runway (longer than BLK)

Would it not make an ideal low cost alternative to MAN? A terminal on the Eastern side of the runway would link onto the Poynton bypass (due to be built by 2010) and the Manchester Airport Eastern link road which should be extended from Handforth to the airport at the same time. Terminal would also only be a few hundred metres from West coast mainline which also carries local services between Manchester and Macclesfield where a station could be built or a link bus could link the terminal with Adlington station. Only 20 min by train to Piccadilly.

[pwalhx]

I too have always wondered about Woodford being an ideal Lo Co airport for Manchester, however I am sure the local residents may have something to say about it.

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

If I remember rightly for every Woodford movement Manchester will lose one

G-I-B

[FlyZB]

Surely though, regular commercial services such as Loco's wouldn't be allowed to operate from Woodford purely because of the extremely close proximety to the runways at MAN?

[chiglet]

In the "Old Days", when Woodford had a [minimal] set of "Scheduled" movements......ALL Manchester "Southbounds" had to stop!.....to allow an HS125 [or similar] to depart....:uhoh:
watp,iktch

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

Still happens when the Nimrods go out or there are flypasts with the RJs.

All Manchester traffic stops until the Woodford traffic is clear, but it causes a fair bit of friction I believe.

[DH121]

If (when) flying stops, what else can happen, except the building of new houses? Return to farm-land? Industry?

If the council deny planning permission for houses, it'll go to appeal and as it's a "brown field" site, Prezza won't think twice about it. No doubt Manchester Airport will write a letter of support for the planning application.

[chevvron]

From the AIP, Woodford would appear to have obsatcle clearance problems on the 25 end. The ILS GP is 3.6 deg and with the displaced threshold, the LDA is 1671m.
Does the International Test Pilot School still operate from there?

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

As far as I understand it, once a Nimrod takes off from Woodford, it can't land back there. Don't know if this is LDA - I assume so.

[Jet2]

AWR

Doubt this is true ..... looked like there was one doing a circuit there this evening.

[Rockwell]

Docleaf: my main worry would be the proposed new road system which from a fading memory runs from a new roundabout at the Poynton London Road end fairly close to the runway then across fields to link in with other motorway sections, of which one will end up linking to Manchester Airport and the M56. This would mean the area would be a construction site for several years, when and if work commences. So make sure your conveyance solicitor checks for this if your planned house purchase is down that end.
Woodford wasn't all that busy, even when it was busy, if you see what I mean.
The Manchester Airport light aircraft entry/exit corridor routes overhead the airfield. Light aircraft are often held over 'Hilltop' (near the main factory gates) awaiting inbound clearance into MAN. The Avro Flying Club is still in residence. To give WFD ATC something to do and keep their licenses current, local Manchester flying schools are encouraged to do circuits and bumps.
The Nimrod MR4 flight test programme is carried out at Warton, with occasional visits back home. Once the initial test programme has proved itself, then the remaining Nimrod fuselages on the production line will be upgraded to MR4 specification.
AWR: One just arrived tonight (1900hrs). The MR4s have been in and out from the Warton FT facility on and off. The first to be grey painted returned to WFD from Norwich after the spray job last year. Older MR2's come and go spasmodically and others are ferried in for storage in preparation for conversion to MR4 standard once the project gets the nod. There are no 146RJ movements nowadays, following on the scrapping of the RJX programme some years ago.
chevvron: the ITPS packed up using WFD a looong time ago.
DH121: the whole of the airfield is not a brown field site. All land south of the runway lies in Macclesfield, for planning, and they class it as greenbelt. Hence the reason why the Airtours (now MyTravel) proposal to site the airline's (then) new north-west based flight simulator centre at Woodford, south of the runway, and adjacent to the existing BAE 146RJ simulator centre, was turned down. Airtours subsequently opened their simulator centre in nearby Cheadle.
Prior to the selection of the A330 as the new future tanker for the RAF, the other shortlisted competitor was Boeing+BAE. The Boeing 767s if selected would have been flown into WFD for conversion to in-flight refuelling models for the RAF. To cater for this a new large hangar was to be constructed on the south side of the airfield. I cannot recall at the time if Macclesfield were for or against it, as being sited within their greenbelt plan. As the two sets of flight shed hangars are in need of an upgrade, it was rumoured that the new hangar would just 'replace' the existing ones. As it happened, with the selection of the A330, it became a non-starter.
As to the displaced threshold, as I recall it came about some years ago, as the land owner at the 25 end refused to cut the trees down. I am led to believe that it is the same land owner who owns most of the land the production site is built on north of the runway, and to whom it would revert should BAE move out.
Woodford has been used on a small number of occasions by diversions from MAN, e.g. Manx BAe41s. Though some of the more interesting movements featuring civil aircraft have been a case of mistaken MAN identity. A Sabena B737 and a Learjet spring to mind, amongst others, including a Lufthansa C54 cargo flight!
Sadly the days of Vulcans engine running are long gone. :{

[DocLeaf]

Thanks for all the help - very much appreciated

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

AWR: One just arrived tonight (1900hrs). The MR4s have been in and out from the Warton FT facility on and off. The first to be grey painted returned to WFD from Norwich after the spray job last year. Older MR2's come and go spasmodically and others are ferried in for storage in preparation for conversion to MR4 standard once the project gets the nod. There are no 146RJ movements nowadays, following on the scrapping of the RJX programme some years ago.


A good friend of mine has been involved with the Nimrod refit program, but obviously has been misinformed regarding the Nimrods landing back at WFD.
It also wasn't too long ago that one of the RJ airborne research a/c did some flypasts for test/publicity reasons, but I'm not sure they actually made contact with the tarmac. But I know MAN traffic was halted for those circuits.
It's also good fun to see the Nimrods leaving for Warton with chase aircraft alongside them.

[chevvron]

A colleague at Manchester told me that years ago, they were treated to a superb display by an F111 which was supposed to be displaying at Woodford!

[chiglet]

Correct, chevvy.
He "missed" Woodford, and flew below the old tower, before a hard left turn to vanish in the [4 mile vis] murk :ok:
watp,iktch

[Brewster Buffalo]

Aaah the Woodford Air Show I remember those :)

The Nimrod, the Red Arrows (in their gnats), hunters, Andover, Shackleton.... ....Victors awaiting conversion to tankers.....

when was the last one held?