Useful airfield information and home of the forum's fuel price league tables.

Moderators: deltacharlie, GlosOps

By The Westmorland Flyer
#702026
Carlisle is a GA friendly airfield with a decent bar/cafe and reasonably priced fuel. It offers excellent access to the Lake District, southern Scotland and on to the Western Isles. The airport is open seven days a week 09:00 to 18:30 local time except for Christmas day, Boxing day and New Year's day.

Carlisle is full ATC, with an approach and tower service, provided by a single ATCO on 123.6MHz. Carlisle has no radar but you will be assigned a conspicuity squawk code, currently 4677, whilst you are working us. You can obtain a Flight Information Service from Carlisle Approach, ranging as far as Penrith VRP to the south, Haltwhistle VRP to the east, most of the Solway area to the west and Langholm VRP to the north. Outside this area an excellent FIS is available from Scottish on 119.875MHz. The Carlisle ATIS is on 118.425MHz or by telephone on 01228 574123.

The airfield is PPR (01228 573641) but you'll often get in without PPR with just a bit of an ear bashing from ATC. Be warned though that we sometimes cannot accept non PPR aircraft, especially if there is some sort of military event in the area. Carlisle does not subscribe to the Strasser scheme but informally the airport management has indicated that it would be willing to waive fees in the event of a genuine emergency.

Carlisle has two runways. The main runway, 25/07 is 1837m long and the 07 end has a bit of a ski-jump that can make the perspective look a little odd until you are on very short final. The other runway is 01/19 and is 938m long. A third runway, 13/31 has been out of use for many years but it is surprisingly easy to line up on it when you really wanted 01/19, especially if joining right base for 19 from the west. Ask me how I know!

Visual circuits are variable but ATC will always try to give you the most expeditious join. Normal circuit height is 1000ft QFE. There are NDB/DME procedures good down to around 600ft for both 07 and 25. The NDB is CL/328kHz and the DME is CO/110.7MHz. Clearance through the overhead is almost always possible, usually not below 2000ft but ATC will try to accommodate lower level transits on request.

Avgas is available during AD hours and is competitively priced. The pump is on the north side of the apron, to the left of the bright red fire station. Avtur is delivered from tankers to wherever you park your aircraft. If you require fuel it is worth mentioning this as you get within a few miles of the airfield and with a bit of luck Tommy will be waiting for you when you arrive.

Landing fees are currently (Jan-09) £8.25+VAT per half tonne. This is discounted by 40% if you pay cash/credit card on the day. Thus the landing fee for a PA28 class aircraft is £17.08 cash, including VAT. If you insist on being invoiced then the minimum invoice value is £25.00.

The airport bar is pleasant, represents good value and has recently been redecorated. Food is cooked to order, anything from the ubiquitous bacon butty for under two quid through to an all day full breakfast, various soups, main courses and desserts and freshly brewed coffee. Note that the bar is only open between about 10:00 and 15:00. Outside these hours, snacks and drinks are available from Ops, where you pay your landing fees.

There are two group A flying schools at Carlisle, plus a microlight school. In addition there is quite a lot of helicopter training and the military like our airport bar, so there's often Tuccanos and Hawks parked up on the apron during weekdays. We also have a few business jets based at or regularly visiting the airfield but there are no schedules services at present.

The area around Carlisle airport is an area of intense aeronautical activity. A few miles to the east is the Spadeadam range and it is commonplace for military fast jets, helicopters and C130s to be heard operating in and around the range. Carlisle will always be able to advise the status of Spadeadam range and will try to obtain transits if really necessary, though the range is easy enough to avoid and that's the best thing to do if at all possible. Spadeadam is always closed at weekends and usually closes by lunchtime on Fridays too.

Carlisle is an ideal stop off when coming from the south, en-route to the west of Scotland. The scenery around the Solway and the Lake District is stunning, offering some of the most impressive flying in England. There is good accommodation available in the small villages surrounding the airport and I can help with ideas if wanted. I'm often at the airport (warning! I look after the air traffic engineering department!) so if you think you're likely to fly into Carlisle please do let me know and if I can I will endeavour to meet you.
Last edited by The Westmorland Flyer on Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
By KNT754G
#702111
Spadeadam range and it is commonplace for military fast jets, helicopters and C150s


Did you REALLY mean C150s or perchance might that be a typo for C130s?
By The Westmorland Flyer
#702122
KNT754G wrote:Did you REALLY mean C150s or perchance might that be a typo for C130s?

Oops, more haste less speed. Corrected, thanks.
User avatar
By Dominic
#736333
Went into Carlisle today. What a lovely airfield, very friendly staff and the All Day Breakfast is the best I have had!
By Bill Haddow
#736685
SherburnPilotDom wrote:Went into Carlisle today. ...the All Day Breakfast is the best I have had!


So did I, but I had the breakfast plus the brocolli soup. Back in my site days I would have described the soup as having a 70mm slump, excellent stuff, kept me going till supper.

For fun, ask the cook how many baguettes she has, then put £2-10 on the counter and demand all of them; when she looks puzzled, point to the price list where it says "ALL BAGUETTES £2-10" :lol:

It's also worth asking why they call it an "All Day Breakfast" when it's not available after 2:30 pm :roll:

Bill H
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By mmcp42
#736692
did the 1st post in this thread get truncated just after "and the fees are"
??

Yes. It's the "upper ASCII" bug in the conversion routine.
Liam's fixed the "front page" fuel table, but not the rest. He's on the case.
By RickRouse
#738331
I've been to Carlisle a few times, it's a quirky but interesting airfield. I agree the food is great. The only thing is that sometimes it sounds like that tower are speaking from inside a bucket with an echo. Or maybe thats just my interpretation.
By steviem
#738478
I'd endorse the above with regard to the helpful ATC, (did me a little IMC practice there a while back) and the top quality brekkies.

One minor thing for IMC'ers using the gCap plates. The DME arc used an arrival part of the IAP is NOT shown. Make sure you download one from the AIP.
By dane-ger
#743645
I had the unexpected pleasure of visiting Carlisle due to a weather diversion a couple of weeks back.

The food was fantastic at the cafe and the people friendly and helpfull. So much so that I even got a lift back up North from one of the instructors from Border air training. So a huge thankyou for making me feel so welcome.
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By Steve H
#960294
I have not yet flown into Carlisle, but I did drop in while driving past on my way back from Scotland (with the wife rolling her eyes 'not another bl**dy airfield!).

I am surprised that no one seems to have made much mention of the excellent Solway Aircraft Museum that is also on the airfield. I spent a rushed but happy half an hour there clambering up into the cockpit of the Vulcan and Canberra and ogling the Lightning, Phantom, Vampire and Meteor.

Well worth a visit if you have any interest in aviation history.

Check out their website here: http://www.solway-aviation-museum.co.uk/
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By joe-fbs
#1034507
Ref' the comment in the OP, I notice from this month's AOPA magazine that Carlise has joined the Strasser scheme.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1034539
Excellent! So would I get a free landing rather than a b*ll*cking for landing way after hours and abandoning my aeroplane up against a fence in the middle of the night, having not made it as far as Glenforsa, or even Prestwick, because of the weather as the daylight faded? :D
By The Westmorland Flyer
#1245376
Carlisle Airport is still there! We are STILL waiting to get the final go-ahead to redevelop the airfield, unencumbered by judicial reviews and the like - hopefully some time in the next few months. Due to shortage of ATCOs, the airfield is typically Air/Ground for a couple of days a week and likely to remain so for the immediate future. You can find out what service you'll get when you call for PPR. Obviously if it's A/G then the instrument procedures are not available, although the NDB and DME may still be operational.

The Cafe is still service great food at reasonable prices but is currently on winter hours of 10:30 to 16:00. the hours should be extended as we get to late spring - Ops will be able to tell you the opening hours when you call.

Landing fees are £9.00 for microlights and £10.80 up to 750kg, then £10.80 per half tonne thereafter (all inc VAT). Fuel (Avgas and Jet-A1) is still rather expensive at the moment but I'd like to think something will be done about that before much longer.

As previously mentioned, Carlisle has now formalised its long-standing informal arrangements regarding satety-related diversion fees by joining the Strasser scheme.

In addition to two Group-A schools and a Microlight school, we now also have a Gyrocopter school based at the airfield.