The last time I visited London I recall City Airport would have been best placed to serve GA operations covering Central London.

But I heard government policy dictating that the airport should only serve airline flights?

Pressumably Biggin is even more empty these days now Cabair has gone, or are they still trading? No doubt there is still plenty of airbourne traffic though given the location between the Gatwick, City and Heathrow zones.

I thought the reason, or one of the reasons, why City was pretty much a no go for light aircraft was to do with the minimum rate of climb requirements?

The lack of IAP in one direction (03 is it?) may change in the future!;)

The slight issue with Gatwick CAS is well documented and not an impossible hurdle to overcome.:O

If they ever did want to become a 'big commercial airport' (and I don't know if they ever said they did) they don't any more. Biggin Hill Airport Press Statement (From News Shopper) They seem to do ok with the floods of BizJets they get a lot of the time.

Maybe true for an ILS, but not for all types IAP's although many £££££££'s will be required by Biggin to prove this.

The road transport in and out of Biggin is, I agree, crap!

Airports like Biggin would be wasting their time trying to become another Gatwick. They never can. They need to provide good service to GA of all sizes, and work on that. Same applies to Shoreham, incidentally.

Some real nonsense being said here...

Biggin's problem is a planning restriction that they've been trying to overturn for some years, without success. They're not allowed to handle ticketed flights.

The transport options (lack of them) don't help, but if the desired aircraft can't get there in the first place, that's not the issue.

If they were taking EasyRyanJetAirs, it wouldn't be too much hassle to have a dedicated coach service to/from East Croydon, Orpington and Bromley South, from where the train services to Central London and other destinations are actually very good.

The service provided to GA at Biggin is nothing short of excellent. It's not much more than we pay elsewhere these days, landing fees are comparable to Shoreham, Redhill, Fairoaks, Southend, Blackbushe, Le Touquet and plenty of other popular GA destinations.

Years ago I suggested to TAG that a 'second level' operation was feasible at Farnborough for those types who don't need handling, limo service etc. My suggestion not surprisingly was ignored, one of the reasons being the number of annual movements allowed. Now this limit has been raised, maybe someone should re-visit this suggestion, after all Farnborough already has Cat 1 ILS on both ends, and runway 24 could be Cat 2 with some minor changes eg revised lighting, 3 deg GP.

Elstree has to be the closest - if you don't drive then just get the tube either Northern line or Jubilee lines terminate a short cab ride away.

I'm not sure how you are getting over an hour journey time to Biggin Hill however as from Vauxhall you'd be able to drive to Oxford in an hour and a half!

Driving from from Pimlico, (mid-morning, weekdays), I usually allow:
White Waltham: 50 mins
Wycombe Air Park: 60 mins
Redhill: 70 mins
Elstree: 90 mins! (I only did that once...:ugh:)

Of course, Hammersmith Flyover is currently messing up anything to the West.

How is it nonsense? There is no space for an ILS on 03 and the transport links are not good. This remains to be the case even if Biggin could handle ticketed flights. All of these issues would need to be resolved not just one of them.

Listing other expensive airports doesn't really make a case for Biggin not being expensive, though I will say that of your list Redhill and Fairoaks are on the better end of the spectrum, particularly if you join the flying club at Fairoks. Biggin and Southend are expensive, and there's no two ways of looking at that. No idea about Blackbushe or Le Touquet, but lets not forget there are still places around London where you can land for £10!

On the broader issues regarding Biggin Hill and possible expansion - There is little doubt it is the ambitions of the airfields controlling operator to
have aircraft movemements considerably increased - However each time such permission from the authority is sought they have come up against strong and active opposition from a poweful local residents group who - rightly or wrongly - forsee the granting of permission to operate scheduled services - or landing permission granted for arrivals of larger jets - would
result in Biggin becoming a replica of Luton.

Certainly Biggin has expanded its hangerage out of all recognition to the
Biggin of but a few years ago - and while the amount of jet traffic is
at the moment quite reasonable (for some) it has to be said there is little faith or trust in assurances or pacifying from either the Airport Authority or from Bromley Counci regarding any future expansion plans for Biggin.

...

I've done a bit of flying out of Blackbushe, which is only a 35 minute drive for me from Twickenham. However, there is no hangarage available there, so probably not an option in this case.

Sorry Brian but actually the movements have declined over the years as the GA sector reduces. We are no where near approaching the 125,000 movements permitted under the operating lease. Back in the 70's and 80's we could reach that figure just with flying club traffic alone!

The corporate market continues to expand, hence the increase in the number of hangars catering for them. All the locally based limo drivers know the best ways in and out of London.

I have a related problem in that now I have lights on my strip I would like to be able to fly to London in the evening AND fly back taking off at 2300+

Is there a (not too expensive) airfield near London that has lights and is open at that time (with or without ATC). I have always assumed not .... but does anyone know better?

As an amusing aside, a product I am just finishing the development of in my business (electronics but not at all aviation related) will be a great solution for SMS activated pilot controlled lighting :) SMS to turn on, off after X seconds (X from 1 to 100,000), or off with another SMS.

At the moment I just phone the wife .... in due course I'll make something so I can turn on by clicking the VHF

Sorry I've got to say it:
That's a quaint way of turning your wife on.

:rolleyes:

03 would be solved with a GPS approach and they already have a plan for the transport problems, else they wouldn't have been trying to lift the planning constraint for all these years.

Other big airports manage with rubbish transport. Been to Luton recently? The single rail station is a bus ride away and has less trains per hour to London than Bromley South. East Midlands doesn't have anything. Bournemouth is desolate, as I found one night when Ryanair dumped me there at 2300 due snow, instead of Gatwick. It was a 5 mile walk to town/hotel/rail.

Biggin would too. It's not hard.

Isn't there/wasn't there a VOR/DME procedure to runway 03? If not why not, the minima will only be about 100ft higher than ILS.

Thank you all for your replies.
It's very difficult to find hangar space around London.
Seeing so many aircrafts parked outside made me wonder if it's so good for the aircraft to be hangared.
Your aircraft in generally not in front when you need it.
Sometimes nobody is here to help you.
Every time you have to help other flyers, it's not that I don't like helping, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and I dare not refuse to help.
Birds love hangars, and especially my aircraft, I think rain is better for the paint than birds.
So I'll base my aircraft in Denham where I'm taking my CPL course, at least until I get my CPL, and my aircraft will be outside.
Denham is less than an hour drive from Vauxhall bridge, it's not so easy by train, but quite feasible.

I'll visit all the airfields you mentioned.

Another drawback of Biggin Hill is the lack of preflight briefing facility in the vicinity of the remote hangar.
An airfield you didn't mention is Stapleford. I think it must be an hour drive from Vauxhall bridge, it seems to be usable at night. But I don't know if they accept private flyers.