Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Non-Airline Forums > Private Flying
Reload this Page >

Most Challenging GA Airfields in the UK

Private Flying LAA/BMAA/BGA/BPA The sheer pleasure of flight.

Most Challenging GA Airfields in the UK

Old 18th Nov 2018, 20:11
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Most Challenging GA Airfields in the UK

I've got just over 140hrs now, mainly flying my boss's C150 Aerobat. Looking for some good challenging fields to fly into.

So far, the most challenging fields I've been to are:
  • Ledbury
  • Meppershall
  • Eddsfield
  • Bagby
  • Milfield Gliding Site
  • Dunkeswell (full night landing with 17kts straight across - easy during the day)
As you can probably tell, for me, the more out there the better. Microlight fields, gliding sites, the smaller the better!

I also live in Newcastle so anyway not 200 miles away would be appreciated but I get most will be from the south.
aviatorrossy is offline  
Old 18th Nov 2018, 22:16
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: north of barlu
Posts: 6,207
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
St Mary’s scilly isles
A and C is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 02:18
  #3 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Barbados
Posts: 411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
UK - Nayland, every day and twice on Sunday!
Ebbie 2003 is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 02:44
  #4 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 1997
Location: UK
Posts: 7,737
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Another vote for Nayland - I based my shared Jodel there for many years.

Get a proper briefing first - one way for landing and the other way to take off. Runway on a genuinely steep hillside with steeper hills directly bordering the runway margins.

Rob
PPRuNe Towers is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 07:52
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
I had never heard of Nayland, so I looked it up, expecting it to be in suitably rugged part of Britain. I was very surprised to discover it was in Suffolk, just across the border from Essex! I looked at it on streetmap.co.uk - the contours and the appropriately named Hill Farm give the game away.

During my search, I saw a reference to a 2004 PPRuNe thread about a legal challenge to the airfield. Interesting reading but no follow-up. What happened in the end? What was the legal process that prevented the presentation of evidence?

Nayland Airfield Needs Your Help!
India Four Two is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 07:53
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: the dark side
Posts: 302
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
Crosland Moor (Huddersfield)
horatio_b is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 08:21
  #7 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Here
Posts: 1,874
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Any/all private strips...!
Sam Rutherford is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 09:53
  #8 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: S.E.Asia
Posts: 1,953
Received 10 Likes on 4 Posts

Spilstead Farm near Battle in Sussex.

Undulating to put it mildly.

But well worth a visit to meet Bill Cole.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=638943289812038&id=100865096953196&_rdr


https://www.scoopnest.com/user/BBCAr...dified-version


Last edited by Mike Flynn; 19th Nov 2018 at 10:07.
Mike Flynn is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 11:01
  #9 (permalink)  
Moderator
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 14,202
Received 46 Likes on 24 Posts
Stoke, Isle of Grain.

G
Genghis the Engineer is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 12:56
  #10 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: S.E.Asia
Posts: 1,953
Received 10 Likes on 4 Posts
Lundy in the Bristol Channel
Mike Flynn is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 13:45
  #11 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Barbados
Posts: 411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Nayland, land, pointing at what looks like a vertical cliff - then FULL throttle to get up the hill.

There is a tractor for those who dont.

Take off, like going off an aircraft carrier - no visible runway after a couple of hundred feet.

Very scary, much more than St. Barts which I did the training on earlier this year.

Lots of taildragger types at Nayland, Champs Austers and such.

Easy to find - has Nayland in big letters painted on the hillside.

I recall a nasty accident there a decade ago when a couple of women in a PA28 out of Southend thought they would give it a go.
Ebbie 2003 is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 14:27
  #12 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Amblesidel
Posts: 166
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
My vote goes to: Westbury sub Mendip

I am not sure if it is still open, but when I last went there in a MS-880B around 1990, it was built on an old railway line, with cinder and an embankment that fell away either side. A few years later I know someone who managed to deviate on landing down the embankment, writing off the aircraft.

Westbury-sub-Mendip - UK Airfield Guide

I have to add, that not enough PPLs experience flying into airstrips, but it requires more preparation, research and revision on the performance data. Sadly I suspect quite a few clubs in this country discourage strip flying.
anchorhold is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 14:59
  #13 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: S.E.Asia
Posts: 1,953
Received 10 Likes on 4 Posts
John Lloyds old strip. Interesting approach to say the least and a runway made from old tarmac scalpings. Long closed so ignore that one.


Mike Flynn is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 16:26
  #14 (permalink)  

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,561
Received 402 Likes on 210 Posts
EGNF's a bit challenging (short) for those who can't land on the numbers (or find it in the first place)!
ShyTorque is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 17:43
  #15 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 568
Received 66 Likes on 18 Posts
I agree with the previously mentioned:
Nayland
Lundy
St Mary's to a lesser extent.

I should add:
Kersey (Suffolk) - rather short and sloping, but not as steeply as Nayland
Priory Farm - relatively short with a hangar at the Southerly end
Northrepps International circa 2000 - it moves from time to time, but the yr 2000 incarnation was short and sloping.
Bodmin - humped
Davidstow - very badly potholed
Roche - very short
Gweek International - very very short
Mendlesham / Mickfield narrow grass strip
Dennington - short
Needham - short
Lawford - very short
Milden / Harvest Farm - short
Belchamp Walter - short
Gt Cornard International - short, wires nearby
Somersham / Little Blakenham heliport - surrounded by HV cables and pylons
pilotmike is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 19:42
  #16 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Hellfire Corner
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The long-gone Canterbury strip ate a few aeroplanes.
ChampChump is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 20:58
  #17 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Moray,Scotland,U.K.
Posts: 1,775
Received 5 Likes on 5 Posts
Maoraigh1 is offline  
Old 19th Nov 2018, 23:39
  #18 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Glens o' Angus by way of LA
Age: 60
Posts: 1,975
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Any field without “strip” in the name e.g. stubble field, harvested pea field, newly sown barley field, cattle or sheep grazing field. Or “beach” if you want to lower the odds of bending your machine. As far as semi recognised landing sites, a mate has a ski jump type strip set up on the face of the Glens at the back of Auchenblae with power pylons just below the leap off point. Always a bum clencher on departure.
piperboy84 is offline  
Old 20th Nov 2018, 07:38
  #19 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: N.YORKSHIRE
Posts: 887
Received 10 Likes on 5 Posts
Closer to home for you. Hexham.
There's also Peterlee, Causey Park, Currock Hill, the other Peterlee etc. In fact you're pretty much surrounded by strips. Many not on the charts. Perhaps you're just not talking to the right people.
Flyingmac is offline  
Old 20th Nov 2018, 10:26
  #20 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Not a million miles from EGTF
Age: 68
Posts: 1,579
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Popham on a busy event day can be very challenging
robin is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.