Luton area
 

I have to visit Luton shortly, but I hate to think what it might cost to land and be handled at Luton Airport. I have identified Little Staughton and Little Gransden as possible alternatives. Would anyone care to put forward others which might be closer? I have a PA-28.

Any comments will be much appreciated

Lysander

I have seen at least two SEPs parked at Luton, so it might be worth checking it out.

Try Cranfield but you'll need to get up the M1. Elstree is slightly further away but you can get the train direct to Luton so this may end up being cheaper and quicker.

How about Rush Green? Not sure if its available to visiting aircraft but could be worth checking out.

FC

A quick check of Nav Box tells me Panshanger is 8.8nm 119 degrees from Luton, so a road journey of appx 12 miles i would have thought?(straight line plus 20% usually works out close enough) But surely the cost of two taxis and you might as well drop in at Luton and do some ILS pratice and mix it with the heavies:ok:
Also try giving the club a call,
Luton Flying Club - more info »
London Luton Airport, Luton, LU2 9PD
01582 424 954

Luton are actually quite accomodating and not to pricey. I go in quite a lot for meetings and to drop the ife off for commercial flights. I tend to use Signature for handling 01582 724182. There are others including Harrods but they were generally more expensive. Signature can open an account if you are a regular user of there services and they handle at many airports.

Luton zone & RT
 

I threaded my way through STN and LTN over the weekend and did hear some bizarre RT.

Panshanger bollocked one of their members for causing "the old couple" in the bungalow to phone and complain that they'd flown right over the property. "Don't you know that you are meant to turn overthe lake?"
"Yes - but times that is not feasible"
"Oh well - just do your best!"

Then on the return leg an N reg resident of Rush Green got into an argument with a very calm female controller at Luton about what height he'd need to be at to enter the zone. She said 800' - he said the ground was 500' AND he continued digging himself in deeper. Eventually she gave him a squawk and they agreed 1000'. I just don't know why the silly sod just didn't accept the very reasonable initial clearance. Who would be a controller?:rolleyes:

In the past I've been into both RG and Panshangar - both okay.

Thank you all very much for your responses. I will check out the costs for using Luton, and it may well be that it will work out cheaper than taxis to/from another airfield into Luton centre.

Cheers y'all

Lysander

The owner of Rush Green charges a fiver a landing. You would have to book a taxi to pick you up as there are no facilities nearby apart from a scrapyard!

I'm surprised at the 800' request, the usual minimum is 1,000' on the Luton QNH which gives us 500' agl over the hill which is below the downwind leg of the circuit. If I'm entering the zone from the North I usually ask for 1,500' descending to 1,000' when entering the circuit.

RAF Henlow would be about a 30 min cab ride from Luton.

Landing in Luton area
 

this response may be too late...

I fly from Graveley & hence familiar with the Luton zone, I read all the posts, great suggestions, but, no one has mentioned that you need permission to enter the zone (which has been refused in the past) and strips like Rush Green are very short with buildings at one end etc. If you have no strip experience be very careful. if you are in a typical cessna or piper etc. you need to be well aware of your landing & take off distances. Luton will accept you - try calling Sean at Eagle Flight Training for advice. If you elect to go to Rush Green they are very friendly.

Thank you all. I have now done the trip and went into Panshanger. Not been in there before and the runway is excellent.

My client met me and we had our meeting at the Plume of Feathers pub in Tewin just north of the airfield. Excellent grub, and a good bit of business too !

Cheers

Lysander