long GA Flight - CPL qualifying XCountry
 

I am planning qualifying cross country (for CPL training) in C152 from Stapleford. Cash is tight so looking for airfields with free or inexpensive landing. Don't mind if they want you to uplift fuel which I will have to do anyway. Should be 150 nm north of Stapleford so roughly north of Sheffield. I know Sherburn and Netherthorpe allow for that but they are a bit close. Will land in North Weald or Damyns Hall on return.
Any suggestion much appreciated.

Loads of airfields around there.

Leeds East (Church Fenton)
Breighton
Full Sutton
Bagby
Elvington

Are all obvious choices.

Why not go to the Channel Islands?
Duty drawback plus cheap fuel and a nice area to visit. Combine it with another stop in France for a good day out.

And why not “live a little” ....

North Weald or Damyns Hall... really? (Is there a sarcasm emoji?)

It also might be worthwhile looking to see if there are any free landing vouchers in the magazines for airfields that might otherwise charge a fee. (I don't know if they explicitly exclude QXC flights. I can't see why they should).

When I did the qualifier (Didnt get CPL in end) it needed two intermediate stops, is that not the case now. I did Fairoaks-Blackbushe-Leeds-Glenrothes (Fife) this covered the 300nm requirement. Blackbushe was a cheeky one as had a landing card there:O

Not trying to be negative, but if it's tight to do the CC flight how will the actual course pan out, it ain't cheap.....

Fishburn is a nice spot so long as the surface is dry - 180nm from you: http://www.fishburnaeroclub.btik.com/FISHBURNAIRFIELD

Manchester Barton is 144nm from you, but you'll never do it in under 150nm - check if it qualifies, interesting trip, nice people, cheap, good lunch to be had.

Rufforth East is 153nm from you, free, friendly but you'd better be happy with lack of ATC and a shortish (albeit good hard) runway. https://airsportstraining.co.uk/rufforth-east/

Or how about you go West? Dunkeswell is cheap and friendly, 152nm, and you can easily stop somewhere like Old Sarum on the way back for a cheap sandwich and fuel.

G

This is my first post on pprune. Thanks for amazing response everyone. I have better picture in mind now. Planning first weekend of March.

x933 - it's a useful list. Remember seeing Breighton free landing voucher often in Flyer or Pilot magazine. Will check this/next month's issue.
Mark 1 - Would love to fly to Channel Islands but unfortunately it will require cross-channel checkout with an instructor beforehand, where I fly from so unfortunately defeats the purpose of saving extra couple of quid.
Duchess_Driver - What's wrong with North Weald and Damyn's Hall. This was supposed to be my second stop but having second thoughts now as there are other options.
Phororhacos - Good advice. Will check this month's issue.
PA28181 - North Weald and Damyn's Hall were supposed to be second landing options. Having some family commitments at the moment so running out of cash. But expecting Bonus at work place which should cover the costs. It has been a juggling act so far with money as well time but will get there somehow.
Genghis the Engineer - Cool advice going west. Just learned that Oxford is free with fuel uplift so that is an option too.

Bear in mind that the 300nm is a total, rather than the computed straight lines between target airfields. As long as your log shows suitable turning points and an appropriate duration then it is plausible. IE don't fixate on the first airfield being a set distance from home, work out a sensible way to get there while achieving the requirements. I've had a number of CPL courses recently where the candidate has been turned away from another ATO because their experience does not show straight line distances, but their logbook shows what was actually flown!

In an ideal world, view it as experience building: have a number of flights where you went reasonably far afield during a nice day out, that will make the CPL that bit simpler as a course.

Good reminder LastStandards.

Can I suggest this website as a good ready reckoner - I've put a simple route in this link (that happens to be a smidge over 300nm and visits two inexpensive airfields that both do a good lunch), but you can change it and play all you like.

Great Circle Mapper

Alternately, SkyDemonLight is more capable, also free, and a good way to play around with routes (he says playing with it for the weekend's flying at the moment). It only really runs on Internet Explorer, to save you working that out for yourself.

G

Sandtoft is an excellent destination in that part of the world that meets your price criteria.

How do you make the weather gods laugh? Tell them when you plan flying. :D

SkyDemon Light is also a free iPad app which is how I use it