Welshpool Airfield
 

I don't know if any of you fly from there or plan to get a PPL there, but there's quite an interesting thread on Wannabes about the place. It's called "PPL at Welshpool?", or something like that anyway.

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Whirly
To fly is human, to hover, divine.

Isn't more like Welshocean or Welshpool sub sea at the moment?

Hiya Whirly,

I seem to recall that you learned to fly at Welshpool.

Did you fly with Moley?

Good guy, I believe it was his last day and he was in the back seat.

Very sad,

B

Whirlybird
I guess that you fly there often as it is not far away from your part of the world. What do you think about the flying discipline of pilots there? I have been there several times and twice had incidents. The first time I was on a 1-1.5m final (already made a call) while a PA38 pushed in front forcing me off. The second time I backtracked and the PA38 that was behind did not seem to care and kept coming in. I had to rush of the runway otherwise he could be on top of me. Seconds after clearing the R/W he crossed the fence. Other than that a real nice airfield with nice people.

Hi Beagler,

Yes, I did learn to fly at Welshpool, though I haven't flown from there for over a year. Haven't done much fixed wing flying in that time anyway.

I knew Steve Mole quite well, though I only flew with him once, on a checkout. Yes, very nice guy. The day they inexplicably flew into that mountainside was indeed his last flight on his last day, but he was in the front, doing a circuit check, when they made a last minute decision to go for a jolly. Not surprisingly, it really shook us all up at the time. How do you know him?

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Whirly

To fly is human, to hover, divine.

Hi AC-DC,

As I said in my last post, it's a while since I've flown from Welshpool, though I do fly in there now from time to time. I hadn't noticed they were any worse than any other airfield with A/G radio; some pilots are good, some don't seem to realise anyone exists but them. I don't know - what does everyone else think?

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Whirly

To fly is human, to hover, divine.

Hi Whirly, it's not the easiest airfield to find is it, especially when the wonderful Welsh weather takes a hand in it.....

There's a picture in the Welshpool clubhouse of an Aztec up to it's knees in water taken when the airfield flooded a few years ago. Must be pretty much like that now I'd have thought. Maybe they should think about doing seaplane ratings :)

last time I went (a couple of years ago at least 'cause I was in the Chippy) it was fine. Nice bacon butties too ;~)

The A/G operator was in the office however, out of sight of the field. that may explain some of the stuff others have experienced there.

SSD

Yup, Moley was a top bloke with an excellent collection of anecdotes. First time I met him he was exploding snowballs with firecrackers in the Mess at Wyton - scared the 5h1t out of the bar staff!

[This message has been edited by Ham Phisted (edited 08 December 2000).]

Obviously Moley was into ordnance... my neighbour remembers doing a magic act one night and Mr Mole replaced the blank with a live round for the crack!

I knew Steve as a friend of a friend. At the time I was flying regularly at Solo, Humberside and I took on the job of going out for an hour to show him the local landmarks, he was part time there and intending to become full time on leaving Welshpool.

Totally devastated when I heard the news... how could a guy who spent all that time steering Tornadoes around mountains fly into one in a modest Cessna?

Just enjoy your life as it pesents itself I suppose.

B

PS I put the smiley up because I couldn't think of anything better for him.

Speaking as a chap who first flew from Welshpool BEFORE they put the runway and hangars in, then as a PPL and finally as an instructor I rate the place very highly from a GA enthusiast point of view.

Its cheap, rulebook-lite, suffers no snobby "club atmosphere" and its cheap.

What people have to remember is that its a really challenging airfield and thus allowances should be made. You´ve got a 1500ft circuit with less than 300ft agl in places! This makes for an unusal pattern further complicated by noise abatement.

The runway is small and usually with a crosswind and often some odd wind changes at low level. Couple this with a totally honest basic Ground/Air radio environment with up to 7 training aircraft in the air at one time and what you have is - as I say - a real challenge.

Too many visitors pitch up with v. little prep. They expect ATC and are snotty when they don´t get it. They are not prepared for the unusual circuit height. They expect the place to be peaceful and dozy when they actually produce over a PPL a week.

ALl that said, more challeng equals more reward. Its a lovely area to fly in and there is actually a lot to do within 4 miles of the airfield for day trippers.

In a decade that has seen so many GA airfield closures we should all be cheering for a start up success story like EGCW.

The runway was 2.4ft under water last time I was back there!

WWW

Must go! I can feel a little trip coming on, possibl y over the Xmas hols if this bl**dy weather lets up!

Welshpool is a sh!t hole. the manage ment are w@nkers. Moley RIP was supposed to be on my QFI course, (as was)

Like i said, good man RIP.

Purple, I suspect your comments stem from your distress at the loss of Steve. I agree management are not very loveable but they have built a very busy school and club from and empty soggy field in the middle of Wales in under 10 years...

WWW

Doc400
I think that you will like the aifield, make sure to fly over lake Bala and prepair your Nav!

An ex-Welshpool instructor who still lives in the area tells of safety issues and falsified maintenance records there.

An ex-RAF navigation instructor flies a Cessna into a mountain, and no-one has any idea why.

A number of PPLS and instructors who used to be at Welshpool say they will go back if and when the present management changes.

Any connection between all of these? Who knows.

If you want to create a conspirance theory take it to jet blast......

The posting time defines the level of alcohol intake and therefore the spelling

I wasn't drunk, it's a serious issue, and I'm not the one seeing connections - I'm just passing on what I've heard, from a number of sources.

I thought long and hard before posting on this subject - and I decided that people have a right to know, even to know what might be idle rumours, before they decide to ignore them.

And perhaps when there's this much smoke (and there is a lot, believe me), there might just be at least a tiny little fire...

Yeah yeah. Ex employees muttering dark nothings mate. I came stright from flying RAF a/c to Welshpool and so was quite snotty about maintenance - I had NO worries or issues of consequence apart from one long running dislike of an aircraft that was eventually taken out of service by management as a result.

Steve Mole flew himself and 2 others into the side of the mountain. End of story really. Nice chap, perhaps too comfortable in that setting after many years in the back seat of a Tornado.

Management are not universally liked but thats true wherever you go.

I've seen far dodgier going ons at Sleap, H/Green and others...

WWW

I find it really sad to read this kind of thing. I started at WPL when it was a grass strip, flying with the airport's owner Bob Jones (yep, even before your time WWW!). I worked with Pool for 4 years at weekends operating the A/G - please don't berate me for that, it was a good service then. In the end due to being shouted at by the boss in public (never was good with being shouted at!) we went our seperate ways. It's just celebrated its tenth birthday (did anyone notice?!) and has a surprisingly good safety record for such a busy GA field - obviously I know of the accidents but they are, sadly, to be expected.
We lose too many airfields in the UK as it is each month, let's try and be positive about the ones that we do have.
The current operator Pool (note! Not owner!) won't be there forever - but you have to admire them for having stuck it for the past ten years.
Total Aviation Person - maybe I worked with you, we're all a little f*cked off at the way we were treated - I think WWW is the only one who's left with a "thank you" but there's nothing to be gained from making pretty slanderous (well libellous, but this board is more spoken than print (if you see what I mean!)) statements about things which you might think you know, but don't really know 100%. Let's all just sit back, wait for Pool to go into "retirement" (forced or otherwise) and then enjoy what is one of the best (in terms of facilities) airfields that is available in the UK!

TAP, I was refering to MY alcohol intake, not yours. Apologies if it was misconstrued.

See, the spelling got better

I have read these comments with interest, one point that seems to be missing is that regardless of "disgruntled" ex employees, and the so called numerous rumours there are several serious (and unequivocal) points to be taken into consideration which go above and beyond rumour.

Any business can only have so many disgruntled ex-empolyees - which I believe now to be well in excess of 40 over a period of 8 years.

The safety factors brought into question by ex students, staff, ex staff and the local MP are a matter of media record, not to mention the content of the TV investigative programme carried out by HTV.

Overall these considerations are above, and well beyond what one would rationally expect to see of any well run business, the fact that we are talking aviation is surely of an even greater concern.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions....

Actually, when you put it like that...

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Hiraeth boys, hiraeth...