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

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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#698859
Wonderful spot out on the Gower Pennisula. Two hard runways, 22/04 and 10/28. Both are well surfaced but undulate a bit and the intersection between 10 and 04 is dog rough and has a tendency to act as a ski jump ;-)

There's a parachuting club who drop from up to 10,000' and no overhead joins while they're about. The canopies land in the vicinity of which runway is not active.

Fixed wing, helicopter, and microlight school on site along with the air amublance so the circuit can get a bit busy on good flying days.
If you're there in the week be aware that the fastjets on their way to Pembrey ranges transit pretty close. They generally do call Swansea for traffic info and they're generally quite low by this point.

Air/ground are mostly very good, if occasionally given to sarcasm.

Landing fees are paid in the refuelling "hut" and are fairly typical.

Cafe is reasonable, very friendly and portions are large! It's only a pity there's no runway view.

The microlight club also have an R/C model aircraft shop if that's your bag.

It's definitely worth doing a bimble round Gower itself either on leaving or arriving. Local sightseeing traffic will tend to call "clockwise" or "anti-clockwise" and an altitude so everyone knows roughly what's going on.

One or two spots not marked on the maps tend to get used as unofficial reporting points. "Three Cliffs Bay" (easy to spot, the clue's in the name) just south of the airfield, and "Whitford Point", the disused lighthouse on the northernmost tip of the pennisula.

If you want to get into Swansea or out on Gower on the ground, the "green buses" that do the beaches and the circular tour stop right outside the airfield -- but only if you jump up and down like a maniac and wave at them. Otherwise they leave you standing there like a muppet. It's the 118 service. Day ticket is four quid and cheaper than almost any individual journey. Timetables etc are on the [url=http://www.countrygoer.org/wales/gowerexplorer.html]Gower Explorer page[/url]

There are footpaths all over Gower and one or two skirt right along the airfield boundary. The routes are gorgeous but signage varies from intermittent to non-existent, you'll want an OS map or similar.
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#708230
Yes indeed. I've idly wondered who would be the right person to ask to knock something better up. So many airfields of similar size and aspiration have a way better web presence.
By Spencercee
#781918
Leia, Im up to doing a mini webpage for Swansea providing basic info for pilots and other bits. If your up to providing me with some info that would be easy, as i know your a swansea flyer!

as I can see you wrote above 'Fuel is on tap' There could be a status bar saying, Avgas - Avialable. Jet - Avilable This would be easyer for pilots who may well be flying in and want fuel before departure, at least then they can go to Pembrey or Haverfordwest insted of going to Swansea just to be told 'none' avilable..

Thanks
Spencer
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#781951
Are you involved with the airport or will this be the "Swansea Unoffical Guide"? ;-) Not that there's anything wrong with that. I seem to remember the Kemble one being rather good.

It'd be a pity to lose a decent domain name though. It's registered to an ISP or webdesign outfit at the moment by the looks of it. Who knows who set it up originally...? Air Wales' lot? (deceased) Gower Flying Club (deceased).

What a muddle.

If it were simply a matter of knocking the tech side together I'd be happy to do that, or add info for someone else to do it, but sticking up another website to be maintained and have to go through all the SEO stuff so people could actually find it? I have no enthusiasm for that at all.
By malcolmfrost
#1264344
Just started looking at visiting as Rhossili bay is the 9th best beach in the world apparently, and the website is still not very good!!
The travel Cymru website is even worse, try searching Swansea airport, nothing, however it turns out the relevant stop is Blackhills, Fairwood Airport..
Buses (118) are at 9:33, 11:48, 14;03, 1618.
returning at 10:11, 12:26, 14:34, 16:00, 16:51.
http://planner.traveline-cymru.info/pdfs/timetables/SWCO118.pdf
Now had a look on Google street view, and the bus stop is out of the airport access road turn left and it's by Blackhills Lane. The bus also goes into Swansea.
Next trip maybe!!
Last edited by malcolmfrost on Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1264348
Have they re-rendered the building and taken the scaffolding down yet?
By malcolmfrost
#1270508
Didn't look too closely, but the building didn't look re rendered! Visitor parking is on the right as you enter the apron between B1and B2. Plenty of tie downs and chocks available. We needed them too! Landing fee was £14 and £12/night. Bus was fine, £3.70 to get into Swansea to pick up a hire car Enterprise is about 200m from the bus station on Oxford Road open until 1800, Avis only open until 1700. We're staying at the Parc-le-breos B and B which is about 10 min from the airport on the bus, then about 10 min walk from the Gower heritage centre (which does good coffee). It's nice, good sized rooms, good breakfast and a working farm with pony trekking. Very nice walk down to Three Cliffs bay. Rhossili bay is awesome well worth a visit, you can go on the bus if you haven't got a car.
Edit to add, I asked the Parc le Breos owner whether someone would come out and pick up people from the airport, and she said no problem, worth a call after booking. There is also a Traveline Cymru App for Android and iphone that works well for buses.
The airport is looking a bit tired, though everyone friendly and helpful
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1376101
Cafe giving it another go after longish shutdown. Will be open Fri/Sat/Sun, starting this weekend to coincide with parachuting competition.

Best current source of up to date info on activity and availibilty of food and fuel is the unofficial "Friends of Swansea Airport Facebook page run by a member of the flying club.