Hi all, I am planning trip to London with PA46 and looking for affordable and suitable airfields. There are older posts I checked, but any suggestion from nowadays? Ideally paved rwy, avgas and ir and good access :)
Thanks for all suggestions
chevvron
15th Apr 2016, 22:28
Fairoaks has several based PA46. It is 813m and has no iaps, however IFR arrivals and departures are handled by ATC at another local airfield (Farnborough) who will provide IFR services down to 1,500 ft amsl.
Fairoaks is south west of London and is 10 min by taxi from Woking railway station where there are frequent trains to London Waterloo (about 30 min).
AVGAS is available.
For details of landing/parking fees visit www.fairoaksairport.com and enter Landing Fees in the search window at top right.
alex90
15th Apr 2016, 23:33
Fearing repeating myself... but...
I would recommend Southend Airport... again.... They have all the facilities that you possibly could want (paved, ILS DME NDB SRA ATC LIGHTS H24 AVGAS...), I have always found them to be really friendly and always welcoming of general aviation (just give them a courtesy call before setting off to make sure you won't hit them right in the middle of commercial arrivals/departures) best of all you have a train station right there, with trains every 20 minutes or so into Liverpool Street (which takes about 45-50 mins).
I normally fly out of Biggin Hill, again paved, ILS, VOR/DME, AVGAS, Lights... But you're about a 20mins taxi ride (or 30mins by bus) out to the nearest train station, and then another 25-30mins into London Waterloo (or victoria, or london bridge). It however does close really early (no later than 9pm depends on the day, the extended hours only apply to commercial traffic), quite a bit of hassle / expense getting a cab to / from there, buses are infrequent and unreliable. I hear that a large amount of business customers take the 7minute helicopter ride into London Heliport (battersea park) - just in case you have the budget for that - I hear it is quite the experience!
Both those options above, despite being relatively reasonable for the UK, are sadly not very "friendly" airfields, and consider themselves "airports". Although its staff (in my mind) are outstanding, friendly and the like - it does not compare to the local flying club welcoming you to its clubhouse. It is unfortunately a choice between facilities, cost, distance/ease to travel into town and friendliness to GA. I am yet to find a good compromise!
If you were thinking of smaller places to land, and paved, I think perhaps Fairoaks (I don't know the links to london from there) might suit the bill, or perhaps otherwise North Wealds which is only about an hour away from central London by a quick bus, and then the central line (tube) into town. They're very friendly at North Wealds, but I don't think they have any instrument procedures (please correct me if I am wrong).
Hope you have a wonderful visit to the UK!
Genghis the Engineer
16th Apr 2016, 08:45
London is a big city so it's worth checking whether you mind which side you want - if you care.
But yes, I think that I agree about Southend. It's a well equipped H24 airport, but affordable. The town is an interestingly ideosyncratic English seaside town with lots of accommodation if you don't want the cost of staying in London itself, and it's easy to jump on a train from Southend into central London.
G