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

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By MichaelJP59
#803695
Thought this would be NOTAMed but doesn't seem to be yet.

The Sandtoft runway is being resurfaced and will be closed 23/11/09 - 4/12/09.

Should be a lot less bumpy then:)
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By joe-fbs
#830240
Flew into Sandtoft last weekend and it's highly recommended. Lovely smooth hard runway. Cheerful people on the radio. Just a tenner to land a 172. No charge for my overnight parking (and they lent me a ladder and a broom for defrosting on Sunday morning). Let me off one landing fee because I bought 80 litres of avgas. Decent cafe with both big breakfast and Sunday roast. Both Doncaster and Humberside radar were more than helpful on the way in and out respectively. Doncaster radar also no bother for the couple of local flights I did while there. Local taxi arrived in fifteeen minutes to run us into Doncaster.

Top place.
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By joe-fbs
#1241574
I visited Sandtoft yesterday, by road but thought I would update this thread. The airfield has in recent months gained a new owner and a new airfield manager, a very can-do character in the meeting I had with him. The runway, cafe, etc. are all in nice condition. From the cafe I had a decent chilli and potato followed by an excellent slice of Bakewell, both at very reasonable prices.

Most interestingly, given the paucity of night flying destinations open after 1800L which are not large airports, I found that they do ad hoc night flying until quite late on Wednesdays and Thursdays. They said that one should call before setting off as they can only do it on 23, not 05. If they are open late they do also open the café.

Contact details are

01 427 872 034

sandtoftairfield at aol dot com

Web site is not much more than a place holder at the moment http://www.sandtoftflyingclub.co.uk
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By joe-fbs
#1403299
Flew in on Sunday (after having a look at a local strip and deciding I am not up to that sort of thing). Still very friendly with nice runway and cafe building. Cafe not as good as it was but still acceptable. Food was OK for the (low) price but rather limited. No Sunday roast and no breakfast in the afternoon. Person in the cafe was very much of the attitude that we should be grateful she was there rather than that we were spending the money that keeps her employed. Everyone else there was a model of friendliness and helpfulness. Still only £10 to land.

We drove off (my sister lives nearby) to Finningley (Doncaster - Sheffield) to watch the Vulcan return from Scotland. It would have been great (and more convenient for my sister) to have landed there but at c.£70, depending on how much you can talk the handling agent down to, no chance. If I want / need night or IMC facilities in the area, I use Humberside at about half the price of Finningley.
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By joe-fbs
#1453822
Sat in the sun at Sandtoft. All as above except the food is now better and the service friendlier. Still cheap as well.
Spot-on all round.
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By joe-fbs
#1486706
Crikey what a turnaround, in the few months since I was there the cafe area has been extended and decorated. Also, all-new staff, very friendly and helpful. The refurbishment includes some excellent indoor and outdoor play areas for small people.
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By joe-fbs
#1533810
Today we decided to go somewhere a bit fancier than the airfield cafe (which I notice now serves alcohol for your passengers' convenience!), so got our local family to collect us and have a fat roast dinner at The Reindeer, about a mile to the west at the five ways crossroads. All very pleasant, don't know about price as brother-in-law beat me to the bill! It does rooms as well.

http://www.thereindeerinn.co.uk

Airfield still as described above.
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By joe-fbs
#1553713
I can confirm the excellence of the waffles. I also had today the "Posh Fish Finger Sandwich", two very high-end fish fingers wrapped with lettuce in a tortilla . A light bite (if you don't eat all the chips) that leaves room for the aforementioned waffle. Thanks also to the CFI for on-air advice about the various local wind gradients in the rather gusty cross-wind. I haven't had to do two go-arounds for a while!

Facilities for very small people are excellent, my sister brought her grand-daughter over to show us. The play area, high chair and baby change room were all sampled and approved.
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By joe-fbs
#1561444
Dropped in today for fuel when Doncaster ran out.

Talking to the very friendly staff and management at Sandtoft, they now have:

- PCL (Pilot Controlled Lighting) for night flying. Routine use until 2130 local, after that its for emergencies.

- Rotors running high rate pressure refuelling for jet helicopters

- Work in progress on a small runway extension and overrun space on 23.

They have also been working for two years on a GNSS approach and reckon it will probably take another two to implement.

I reckon there was more cake there today than even PS could want!