Hampstead Norris & Firs Farm
 

Hi

Does anyone know anything about the strips at Hampstead Norris or Firs Farm, just north of Newbury?

I may well be moving to work in one of the villages nearby & I was wondering if there were any friendly groups operating from there...would be very handy!!

(Sorry, don't have a copy of Lockyears to hand...!)

Thanks
BFA

Not sure about groups but I can recommend several very very good pubs in the area! As far as I am aware, it is disused but I moved from there three years ago. Work in a nearby village? Wouldn't be Compton would it?

There is/are group(s) which fly out of Brimpton, just to the east of Thatcham. Oxford isn't that far, neither is Thruxton or White Waltham!

Cheers

Whirls

Yes, there does seem an abnormally fine range of hosteleries in the vicinity... :O...stayed at the Curridge Inn, which was rather splendid.

Office is in other direction actually....near Hermitage. Distinctly non-aviation related (oil business would you believe).

According to the 1:500K, there's an active there right by the CPT VOR on the old RAF site. Drove past the other day, but all I could see were the old gun emplacements on the perimeter. I swear I saw a PA28 doing CX earlier in the day from Curridge though....:sad:

Either way, must be one of the most airfield-rich zones in the UK....but an airfield on your doorstep for those long summer evenings just seems too good to be true!

Hampsted Norris is a privately owned strip on the Compton (CPT) VOR. There is a resident Tiger Moth based there. Sorry, dont know any more than this.

You could always try Brimpton, about 5nm south east of Hermitage; details in Lockyear (and Pooley I think).

BFA, I fly from Brimpton, which you will find in the Pooleys and VFR guides and on the charts. There is a club but no training facility or aircraft hire. There are a couple of syndicates but I have no idea if they are full at present. There is another airfield with a crowd of users on the eastern edge of Thatcham (Siege Cross), I don't know who operates it but I can find out if you need to know. I am fairly sure that there are only private aircraft owners there, no training or hire facilities. Moving further out there is Popham, Chiltern Park and Bourne Park. Popham has microlight training and GA, Chiltern Park has a microlight school. I don't know what is at Bourne Park other than a few private aircraft and a restoration business.

I guess it all depends upon what you want to do. If you have a GA aircraft and just want somewhere to park it sometimes then I guess all of the sites is good enough. If you want to hire a GA aircraft then you may be out of luck. If you have a microlight of your own then all of them may do. If you just want to go somewhere to chill out, have a cuppa and see a few aircraft I would look to Brimpton and Popham. Chiltern Park has a club room but it was empty on both occasions that I have been there. I don't think Siege Cross has a club house but stand to be corrected.

Do you fly? What? Have you access to one? Tell us more.

First of all, thanks for all the feedback, guys!

Yes, checked out Brimpton's website & was rather confused quite how "open" the club there was ...there was mention of the Provosts & Safir, but nothing about any aircraft hire. Seems a nice & convenient spot to fly from. Didn't know about the strip near Thatcham.

If you hear about any shares going at either would obviously be interested to know, if you don't mind PM'ing.

Most time on Cessna, but last year or two been mostly taildragging (Cubs, Tigers), which is where is the fun really lies (right?!). Would be open to both, depending on type/cost/location etc. though.

Popham, WW & Blackbushe all seem pretty reachable too, but nothing like a plane on your doorstep, huh?!?

Just need to be careful of AWE Aldermaston - they tend to get a tad upset if you fly over them!!

Cheers

Whirls

yes, indeed. :uhoh:

You'd never believe what was lurking in the bucolic country lanes round there, would you?!?

What's really weird is Welford has nothing round it....

Nice to see British pragmatism alive & well :)

Ssshhhh .... Nobody's supposed to know Welford exists ..... along with the other bomb dumps near Greenham Common.

Cheers

Whirls

Well, they'd better remove the spur off the M4 (with signs) then.....;-))

I am going to relocate back to Berkshire and I recently visited Brimpton. They were very friendly and it's a nice place - no aircraft for hire, but there are two syndicates currently looking for members (both 172s I think). If you call them I am sure that they will give you the relevant phone numbers.

I used to live near Welford and at that time I was flying from White Waltham. I knew about Firs Farm because the Jockeys that lived nearby used to be flown out of there to different racecourses around the Country. However, I am not aware that there are any resident aircraft there.

DeeCee...cheers for the info. Think I should give Brimpton a ring. Those smooth, well-tended 550m can’t help but keep your landings sharp too!

If Google Earth is anything to go by (?!), Firs Farm had a taildragger parked there the last time a satellite passed by...

There's an interesting WW vs Denham debate elsewhere on the forum. Shame Denham is a bit of a stretch from the Newbury area....

Going to give Popham a good look too...seems a place full of what flying should be all about!

BFA

I never visited Denham or Popham, but really liked WW. Good atmosphere and nice aircraft, including a couple of new 172s.

The guys at Brimpton also told me that there are 'a lot' of private strips around their area. I never found them when I lived there!

Looking forward to moving back once we sell our house - might take a while.....

I just noticed the two threads on Firs Farm & Hamstead Norris - see below. Let me know if you can't find them.

DeeCee

OK, how cool is this?!?
 

I must be stuck in the 20th century or something, only just found this....& it's been lurking on PPRUNE all along:

http://fly.dsc.net/u/Search

Just put in your place & up pops a list then satellite images of all the stips in the area.

Some don't exactly look like they could host an aircraft (wrong co-ordinates, fields turned over for other uses, fully disused?), but a couple right in close to Newbury & Thatcham.

"A lot" seems to be about right!!?!

BFA

There is also a bit of local flying around Hungerford but I am not sure of details.

There are two strips at Thatcham, one at Siege Cross and the other one about 1/2 mile away; you can see them both on www.flashearth.com

I tootled over the fence at Welford at 20 feet not knowing what the site was. I was in a balloon and it was day 2 of the Gulf War :\. Plod took a lot of photos of me.

Why is the site marked as a disused field, navigation purposes only and not an exclusion zone ???? At least I now know what "Works Unit Only" means on the huge red sign on the M4 eastbound slip road.

Monocock is based near Thatcham, and flies from his own strip. PM me and I can tell you which is his, I think.

Slightly off topic but interesting!

Cheers

Whirls