Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By Rob P
#1673906
Simples!

Move the Lancashire border a long way to the east. Clear all those tykes out, repopulate with good sturdy Lancashire folk and suddenly Lancashire has many more GA airfields.

It's not rocket surgery.

Rob P
JAFO, 2Donkeys, db liked this
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1673925
lobstaboy wrote:There are a lot more ex-RAF airfields in the vale of York than have been mentioned in this thread. Just saying...

True - I misread the question in the context of the 'soon to become ex-RAF' as opposed to long-since RAF. You could write a book on the topic! Sticking to those still in some sort of use:

There's a few where the original runways/infrastructure still in use. I can think of Wombleton, Rufforth, Pocklington, Finningley, Elvington, Church Fenton and Burn.
Plus Breighton, Sherburn, and Full Sutton all still active as airfields, but on new alignments/runways.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1673932
Flintstone wrote:
rikur_ wrote:.... but on new alignments/runways.




Just new designations because of the whole magnetism thing or summat else?

Completely new as I understand it. Not sure of the history of them (perhaps others can enlighten me) ...

the current Sherburn site is within the footprint of the old RAF Sherburn ... with a grass runway parallel to the old RAF runway, and a new tarmac runway further south.

the current Full Sutton is a new grass runway dating from 1990s, built just south of the long since removed concrete 05/23 runway. The old 16/34 remains as a taxiway/apron.

the current Breighton runway is grass runway built to the south and west of the original site
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1673933
Flintstone wrote:Just new designations because of the whole magnetism thing or summat else?


A lot of them use just a small fraction of the old airfield. Breighton use part of the taxiway and a bit of grass next to it. They have a great illustration on the website:

https://www.realaero.com/air.htm

If you go down to East Kirkby they just use a field and a bit of the hard standing.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1673955
Rumour is that Church Fenton went at agricultural land rates for ~ £3.5m (albeit I don't think I've ever seen a definitive source confirming this)
I suspect a lot depends upon the location and scope for redevelopment - e.g. at the time the District Council covering Church Fenton had a statement in their local plan stating that the site was not suitable for housing or redevelopment, and the bit of the site that was suitable for housing had been carved out into a separate sale.