London Oxford Airport - pleasantly surprised
 

After the renaming, addition of radar, runway upgrade, business jets, swanky executive terminal &c I was nervous of flying in to Kidlington. I was worried about punitive nav fees, snooty staff, &c.

Nothing could have been further from the truth: it's not cheap but at less than £19 for an NDB approach, procedural, and landing, it is noticeably cheaper than Cambridge or Coventry (similarly equipped) or Shoreham or Gloucester (no ILS).

Coffee was decent and reasonably priced, too. I'll be going back, if I want that sort of thing, i.e. NDB practice. Not that it's exactly far (11 minutes airborne on the return trip!)

Tim

Agreed, I have been a few times and it's lovely place and they are very friendly towards those who might not arrive adorned with neatly pressed uniforms, or about to embark on a sunny holiday in some bizjet. The food was lovely too.

But is it that much cheaper than Cambridge? I'm due to fly there and do some holds for my IMC revalidation and I dont recall them being over prices for a couple of holds and a couple of approaches.

PiperArcher

I pitched up unannounced a few weeks ago and politely asked for a full stop, taxi and off again (paid over the phone by card when I got back - spur of the moment). They couldn't have been more accomodating - and in this day and age of little "big" airports it's nice to see somewhere that doesn't pin GA with a landing fee which similar to what the flight in cost. Well worth a visit.

P.S Don't rock up unexpected. This is bad.

I might be wrong but I remember Cambridge as being the wrong side of £20, certainly.

Tim

Yep, Cambridge was £25 for GA landing fee when I was there a few weeks ago.

Agree on Oxford, passing through the overhead recently on a Friday evening ATC was very very busy and doing a great job managing everyone's needs when not everyone was being considerate. Beware if you haven't booked a slot though, there were quite a few orbits going on to wait for a suitable slot.

Free landings with a modest uplift of fuel (just at weekends)? Free cup of coffee (more than you get at Florence spending €700 on handling/landing!) Nice staff, v helpful. Convenient bus into town from Langford lodge.

All round an A+ experience.:ok:

Just don't walk around the apron with a camera - I was asked on both occasions that I've flown there not to take any photos airside due to the 'private jet owners not being happy with it'. Seems a bit silly to me when you could just stand in a field at the end of the runway and take photos of them airborne! I've worked with plenty of private jet owners and I'm fairly sure most that I know wouldn't even batter an eye lid at having their aircraft photographed.

Either way, agreed that the ATC was great and the staff were otherwise welcoming. If you arrive when the GA cafe is closed, they invited us in to the handling agent lounge where we had a free coffee and a great view over the airport.

Long ago, before it was known as "London" Oxford Airport, I flew into Kidlington in a Pegasus glider, after trying for six hours to fly 500k. Exhausted, unwilling to chance it in bumpy Port Meadow, I radioed for permission to land on the grass runway. No delays, no hesitation, they said yes. So I landed on the grass, opened the canopy, struggled out of my parachute and the cockpit, and tried to stand up, and couldn't - fell over! (from exhaustion and sitting in the same position for so long). In the tower, they all stood up in concern, and set a ground crew to help. And didn't even charge a landing fee.

Technically, each unplanned landing in a glider is an emergency, and that one could have been, and I was very grateful for their kindness.

You could get sarcastic about it being called "London", but then you could read this...

A wee trip to London | News | guardian.co.uk

P

Pilotage,

Nothing new there then. There was a rumour going round the bazaars a while ago that Mikey the Pikey was, after yet another bust up with the authorities at Dublin, going to move his Irish operation to Dublin (Shannon) airport!

However, whichever way you look at it, Kidlington is nowhere near London.

All The Nines;

Part of the camera stuff is due to military development work at ECUK. There are some quite unusual aircraft to be seen there.

Radar now monday to friday 09:00-17:00 shortly to be from open to close, and if you try sneaking through the IF approaches without calling them they can read your mode S and know just who you are.

Lovely place, first flew in there with my Grandad in 1970 when I was 8, did my commercial there and go there a lot, and they are genuinely keen aviation people.

SND