[DarrenL]

Cambridge airport is just a short hop from Duxford and you can get a bus or taxi easily into the city, so if you're looking for somewhere to stay before/after the Duxford day then that could be a good shout.

[CloudHound]

Hello, unofficial advertising person for Northampton (Sywell) EGBK here

It has a wonderful Art Deco themed hotel on the aerodrome and a newly opened aircraft museum too. It’s in a central location so useful for an overnight stay if travelling up country.

If you have the time and catch good weather the Scottish island of Mull has an hotel with a runway an beautiful scenery.

I’m sure you’ll have a great visit to the UK!

[Gertie]

England in June? - the weather could be perfectly fine, but best to have a Plan B and a Plan C just in case.

[PaulB]

... and this being the UK, in summer, Plan C may be not flying due to the weather and going to the pub instead!

[Korenwolf]

Edward, if you do visit Duxford, let me know and I'll show you the toybox..

[MichaelP]

I like the responses to this enquiry very much.

Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s I used to fly to Switzerland during the summers, I made friends with people there, and I always had a brilliant time.

When Swiss aviators would visit Redhill Aerodrome I would hangar their aeroplanes in the Tiger Club hangar... This would cause a bit of trouble, “but Michael” I would say to the boss, “when I was in Switzerland they put your aeroplane in their hangar”, so we were only returning the favour.
Treatment for treatment, in those days I was well treated in Switzerland and so returning the compliment was important.

Reading this thread shows that there are still some very good people in Aviation in Britain.
This is the spirit I love to see.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Thinking.

I can absolutely agree about going to Duxford and/or Shuttleworth for all the excellent reasons given by other people.

As it's a flying trip, I'm assuming that our Swiss visitors would want their other stop to be an hour or two flying time away from there, not right on the doorstep (much as I like Sywell too, although a night stop there in the Aviator might work nonetheless) - plus with some interesting and perhaps different visiting to be done.

I'd suggest going North, or West to somewhere with a nice airfield and somewhere good to visit very nearby. Possibilities that occur to me...

- Newquay would offer stunning flying on the way there, coastal scenery, and and a pleasant seaside holiday time for a night stop.

- Wolverhampton / Halfpenny Green is a lovely friendly airfield, you'd cross a lot of England getting there, and a run into the centre of Birmingham would be interesting. (good shopping for non-flying other halves!)

- Caernarfon would give you a chance to fly over what we Brits laughingly call "mountains", and a really interesting day out from there would be for example Portmeirion - or just a little of the fact that you're in Wales with a different language and culture.

- Sherburn in Elmett is a lovely friendly airfield, and would be 20 minutes by taxi from York, which is a fascinating old city.

I think any of those would work very well for what you say you're after.

G

[kanga]

I note that this year 1 August, Fête nationale suisse (Schweizer Bundesfeiertag, Festa nazionale svizzera, Fiasta naziunala svizra), will be a Wednesday in the summer school holidays, so the Jet Age Museum at Gloucestershire Airport will be open ..

[souvenirs de mon enfance en Suisse Romande ]

[PeteSpencer]

Duxford is certainly a full day visit at least There is good hotel accommodation a 10-15 minute walk away at the Red Lion Whittlesford with the Holiday Inn Express next door .
On rail line to Cambridge.

[alanevans]

.....This year we wanted to explore the possibility of travelling to the UK. The idea was mainly to visit the Imperial war museum in Duxford. We can get to duxford in one day, after that the visit can be done on arrival or the following morning......Ed

Ed - when you are ready, send an email to
airtraffic at iwm dot org
You will be very welcome at Duxford.

From the flying point of view, the main point is to watch out for controlled airspace. Go to the IWM Duxford website
https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford/pilots
and click on "essential information for visiting pilots"
You can download helpful information and diagrams.

If you arrive in the UK via Dover VOR, you will quite likely want to transit Southend class D airspace. This is never a problem they are very switched on to GA, just call Southend Radar in good time. However, it is usually better to avoid Stansted controlled airspace. In addition to Southend, a radar service is available from Farnborough.

Hope you have a great trip.
Alan.

[Cowshed]

Halfpenny Green (EGBO), already mentioned above, is also fairly convenient for the museum at RAF Cosford (12 miles or so). https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

An airfield for beautiful coastal scenery is Swansea (EGFH) . The airfield is showing its age (hopefully a diplomatic way of putting it) and in bad weather is rather exposed, but the scenery on the Gower peninsula is fantastic (especially when the sun is out). There are a number of much-loved beaches along the southern side of the peninsula, and Rhossili beach at the western of the peninsula is worth visiting.

And a vote for the Jet Age Museum at Gloucester (Kanga has been unusually reticent) and Gloucestershire airport (EGBJ) itself (probably the best GA airport in the UK, but I am biased). The Jet Age Museum has its own grass taxi-way off runway 27. It’s a small museum, but got some interesting exhibits (generally with a local theme) and knowledgeable volunteers manning it. Its not open every day, so you would need to check.

[Edward]

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the late reply. I was very pleased to see all the positive replies I got! Sadly I won't be able to visit all of the places suggested, but that leaves plenty for me to return at a later date!

I did indeed see a lot of good things about the Shuttleworth collection while searching for this trip. We did chose to go to Duxford as it has better facilities including customs which we'll likely need on the way there!

As Ghenghistheengineer pointed out, we do try to cover a certain distance between stops so we can best enjoy some scenery while we fly. The suggestion of flying up to Caernarfon seems to tick all the boxes in that aspect, as well as Newquay for a night halt. Most of us are accustomed to flying over water, so no problems there. Lee on Solent seems like a well placed airport to brim the tanks and have some lunch before flying across France on the way back as well.

Korenwolf, that looks like some toybox! I'm sure we'd all be delighted to take up that invitation! I'll try and give you some more precise details on when we'd be there as soon as I can. I can imagine that you know the area rather well? Any tips on the best way of getting to Cambridge, as that's probably where we'll spend friday night?

The weather is of course the only thing we cannot organise when we go on such trips. Each year there is a plan A and a plan B, and we make the decision as to our destination a few days before the trip. Only then will we be sure of where we're going!

Finally, Golfhotel, that's great to hear! Switzerland is a great place to fly! If you need any documentation or info I'll gladly do my best to help you out with that!

Again, thanks everyone for your suggestions, looks like we're going to have a great weekend to look forward to !

Ed

[Genghis the Engineer]

A couple of links if you're going to Caernarfon...

http://www.caernarfon-castle.co.uk/

https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/


Lee on Solent is one of my favourite places these days - a very well run airfield, and several nice places to eat within 20 minutes walk.

G

[Paul_Sengupta]

Halfpenny Green (EGBO), already mentioned above, is also fairly convenient for the museum at RAF Cosford (12 miles or so). https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

I'd also point out that Cosford itself is quite convenient for Cosford!

Not sure about suggestions of Birmingham above - yes, it's fantastic to see the city centre mix of new shiny shops and old industrial buildings, but I think York or Cambridge would be nicer cities to spend the night in! (as mentioned, Cambridge is close to Duxford so you could leave the aeroplanes there, though it may be more convenient to fly the short hop to Cambridge airport - sign up for the club there and you get some money off the landing fee at weekends...google it!)

Oh, and your comment about "customs". In the UK we operate a system called a GAR. Someone else can post a link, but it means you can go to/from any airfield in the UK with varying amounts of notice (24 hours non EU, 12 hours common travel area, 4 hours EU).

[Rob P]

That last point is important. Duxford don't have customs any more than any other small field. You fill out the GAR and HMRC may, or may not, turn up at your destination.

Sounds like a good plan anyway, you should have fun

Rob P