Sat Jun 08, 2019 5:36 pm
#1698849
Has any formite brought this airfield yet? Would be a great base for my jodel.
Flyingfemme wrote:Considered it but life’s too short to argue with local authorities who think of it as a cash cow offshore oil industry facility.
Joe Dell wrote:Interest on a loan at 3.1% .
chevvron wrote:I don't know when exactly it became 'helicopters only', but it was unlicensed apart from having licensed ATC and the declared distances for the helicopters were only sufficient to allow a FATO for public transport helicopters and much less than old fixed wing distances.
Lowtimer wrote:Having not been a chopper jock I've never been in there and always stayed far enough away not to notice the layout until just now.
A bit of tinkering with Google Earth suggests the threshold to the main runway in the direction of the prevailing wind is only 180 meters from the main road with quite high street lights, and the final approach is near as makes no difference straight over the top of someone's house on the other side of the main road. None of which is really ideal as that's going to be about the 50 foot level for yer average light single, about 35 feet for anyone indoctrinated in the strange notion of three degree approaches. Cue world+dog dialling 999 on their car phones and reporting "a plane just missed me and seems to have crashed in a field", with a great deal of general hassle ensuing.
I know very little of helicopter ops but presumably on arrival they used to descend within the airfield boundary. I can imagine doing that myself in something suitably low-speed and responsive in a curved glide approach, like a Super Cub. But it's not the sort of place that looks terribly compatible with visiting fixed-wing pilots who aren't very much in practice with the location.