Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1606168
chevvron wrote:
JoeC wrote:Ah, York Aviation who were appointed by Peel to study Sheffield City. Peel said the airfield was not viable and picked up the land for £1.

York Aviation who said Fairoaks wasn't viable as an airfield when in fact it's actually making a profit (just).



Consultants are sometimes commissioned to provide evidence for a case rather than make an objective assessment. There may be equal evidence for a different case but that's for someone else to make.
rikur_ liked this
#1606177
PaulB wrote:The Beeb is reporting this which may be tangentially related about the sell of of military airfields.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43841401

When was Molesworth last used by civil fixed wing aircraft?
There haven't been any runways there since they built the cruise missile bunkers about 30 years ago.
#1606762
Almost all of those on the MOD list have (a) been closed to military flying - and been unavailable to civil GA for many years. No point in fighting for something we don't have.

Most of them have been earmarked for closure for 20 - 30 years. My surprise is that it has taken this long for the MOD to get around to going public.
#1606779
TomMc wrote:Almost all of those on the MOD list have (a) been closed to military flying - and been unavailable to civil GA for many years. No point in fighting for something we don't have.

Most of them have been earmarked for closure for 20 - 30 years. My surprise is that it has taken this long for the MOD to get around to going public.

But not all.
Halton has a microlight club and a light aircraft club both providing flying instruction using civil registered aircraft. There are also one or two privately owned aircraft there.
Henlow also has several civil registered aircraft based there.
#1606786
I am a current member of Henlow flying club which has off the top of my head six aeroplanes. BTW it is a civilian club on a military airfield. There are also more than a few privately owned aeroplanes based there, they are kept at a different part of the airfield so I am not sure how many. The local authority does not want Henlow to become a housing estate any more than we do and said so as soon as Whitehall said that it was being released for housing. Recently we were asked to send our support for a local plan showing it remaining as an airfield. I imagine that Whitehall always wins in these cases but one never knows.

I was a civilian member at the military (but mixed) Halton Aeroplane club from 2007 to 2015. Off the top of my head, the aeroplane club has six aeroplanes; the micro-light club (purely military AIUI) about the same; the various gliding establishments (not counting the VGS, killed by contractorisation of maintenance AIUI) add dozens of gliders with tugs and winches; and I would guess there are about half a dozen privately owned aeroplanes.

Both are grass airfields on very wet ground (Henlow stayed open all this winter which Halton rarely managed in my time) and already in over-developed areas. So Whitehall is guaranteed to have them built on!
#1606794
When I was flying with 613GS (RIP) at Halton in the '60s/70s we rarely had a winter where we didn't lose a couple of months flying due to a 'soggy' airfield hence we would 'bolthole' to Bovingdon before 617GS moved in from Hendon.
When Bovingdon closed, 617GS moved to, of all places, Manston - hell of a trek every weekend if you lived in Middlesex which most staff did.
See what I've done there? 3 airfields perfectly fine for GA and all closed.
#1606877
Irrepressible resurrection of developers' dreams of creating supercity by merging Gloucester and Cheltenham, squeezing out Staverton, and having Kemble as its airport. Meanwhile, of course, other developers are eying up Kemble. At least Staverton for now has support of local Councils, who own it

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... al-1472239