Hi guys,
we are planning to visit a couple of friends in Nottingham and Birmingham in April and visit a concert in Leicester. We would travel VFR (probably in a C172b) and probably would fly around UK for a couple of days.
Flying in UK has been vastly covered here and I think I will find answers here for questions that might occur during concrete planning.
However, do you have tips for airfields to use in the area and places to visit while we are in the UK?
We would be likely to travel with two people, have a tent and aren’t afraid to use it, like Mogas or Avgas or UL91 for an endurance of 3h30 @100KTAS plus reserve, are equiped with 833, Mode S, ELT, VOR, ADF and DME as well as two tablets running skydemon and two smartphones with FlyIsFun. Two new floatation devices will be bought for crossing the channel.
Thanks for your advice in advance!
You can fly to any farm strip in the UK from Kathmandu if you want – just send in the GAR form. But these three are perhaps the most popular for Birmingham
For Nottingham, there is actually an airport there
Leicester also has an airfield, I’ve been past it lots of times but never had the opportunity to stop there.
… and Birmingham has an airport, too 
Famous for its crosswind. And supposedly not absurdly expensive if you pick the right handling agent…
Hi @Mh
I can help you with Birmingham (EGBB) and Leciester (EGBG)….
Birmingham EGBB
I was there yesterday! despite being a busy regional airport there were surprisingly friendly / accommodating. I arrived on an IFR flight plan and departed on a VFR the next day.
Mandatory handling applies – call Signature 0121 782 1999. You park on the south western apron. Exit the runway at Lima ideally for a short taxi. Signature actually do provide great handling they have a minibus which greets you, took me to my hotel (close to airport) to drop bags off and then to the NEC exhibition center. On the return i called them from the NEC and they collected me within 10 mins. Very friendly, have a lounge / planing area with free tea coffee soft drinks and snacks!
If you are visiting an exhibition at the NEC or i guess concert then the handling is 1/2 price at £46 which was good value for all the running about. The total cost for a PA32 for two days inc VAT was £121.00. There is NO AVGAS at Birmingham Jet A1 Only
Other options if you don’t need Birmingham and a 3000M runway… Coventry (EGBE) South East of Birmingham reasonable landing fee around £25 last time i went looked after by the flying school full IFR if needed, AVGAS by truck (good price from memory!) Wellesbourne (EGBW) South of Birmingham VFR Only landing fee £15 fro 4 seat A/C AVGAS or Wolverhampton usually called ‘Halfpenny Green’ (EGBO) three hard runways VFR only nice cafe and AVGAS would be good if your friends are in the North/ West of the city landing fee £10.00
Leicester (EGBG)
Leicester is brilliant! I used to fly 2/3 return trips a month for almost 2 years when my partner was working at Leicester Hospital.
The airport is 5 miles to the South East of the City. A taxi will cost about £14 – 15 to city.
The airport has three hard runways 2 x just under 500M and 28 / 10 the main runway at 935M the surfaces are good. Parking is on a ‘roundabout’ taxi up to it turn then push-back once you’ve shutdown. The landing fee is £12 for a single and around £10 a day for parking. They reduce the landing if you take 50ltr of AVGAS. Fuel was always reasonably priced.
A really friendly airfield in my experience and often let me land / take off after hours in the summer (get permission for this first!) as the radio closes at around 5PM.
The cafe above is often open late. I have an unofficial NDB approach plate they use for training which i have used to break cloud only a few times. if you would like it for novelty value only PM me.
There is now quite a lot of rotary training traffic at the airfield, just pay attention to the circuit direction and you will be fine.
Happy flying !
If you have the time, I’d suggest a stop at Old Sarum if you don’t mind grass. It’s a proper grass airfield…not a farmers strip. So the surface is good.
The reason I’d suggest it is because of what is around to see.
If you just want to walk, then the “Old Sarum” site itself is walkable and very intersting.
With a taxi, you can get to Sailsbury town. They have a very interesting cathedrial there. I’m not normally one for looking at Cathedrials, but decided to look at it while there previously (because it was mentioned in all the guide books!) and wasn’t disappointed. They have free guided tours which made a huge difference…I understood much more of the history as a result. The tours didn’t seem to be organised. They simply had offical guides hanging around and they found visitors and offered a tour. There was just two of us who got our own personal tour. There was no charge, and the guide refused any offer of a tip. Only when I insisted did they suggest that I could make a donation to the upkeep of the Cathedrial instead (where were boxes around the place for that).
If you stay on a weekday, then you can get car hire locally (all the car hire places seem to close at the weekend). With a car, Stonehenge and Avebury (which I found more athmospheric than Stonehenge) are easily drivable. Just a little too far for a taxi.
It’s really a high value location in terms of things to see nearby, and not too far off your route.
Colm
For Nottingham, I would suggest Tollerton rather than East Midlands Airport. They are welcoming with decent facilities and reasonably close to the city. For aerial sight-seeing in that area, a 1 hour trip will take you into the Peak District and see Chatsworth House, Ladybower Reservoir (where 617 squadron trained for the Dambuster raid).
You’re fairly central England there. Visits to Old Warden and/or Duxford for aviation history.
Coventry or Halfpenny Green (Wolverhampton) are viable alternatives for Birmingham. Coventry has an aircraft museum on the field, an old Roman fort just outside and a few good pubs on the doorstep – The Oak at Baginton is quite popular.
Do you have a theme or preferred area you want to tour round?
A few of my favourites: Compton Abbas, Popham, Welshpool, Caernarfon, Old Sarum (near Stonehenge), Breighton, Shobdon …..
Thank you all very much, these are very helpful tips and exactly what I was looking for :-)
Mark_1 wrote:
Do you have a theme or preferred area you want to tour round?
Not really. I have been to Wales gliding in the black mountains, once, but that was almost 20 years ago. So we’re open for everything because we haven’t already seen anything :-)
My wife does fly, too, (actually she will be flying the tour on the left sear I suppose) but I think we should not incorporate too much aviation. But you certainly have a great living history of aviation and we will incorporate at least some bits :-)
I was briefly thinking about flying direct, coasting out in Amsterdam and coasting in a bit south of Norwich, which is only an hour over water in our 172 (nil wind of course). Visiting Sollas would be a dream, but that would be 8 hours extra and I don’t know if they fit in the budget (timewise). I am not particular afraid of farm strips or grass runways with our light (999kg MTOM) 172-fastback.
Maybe we are flying with more aircraft (and pilots), but that I don’t know yet.
I’m based at Coventry have my maintenance done at Leicester.
Of you go to a concert in Leicester, you should fly there. I’ve done the trip to Germany from Leicester multiple times.
Amsterdam is a bit tricky as you fly VFR and class A is very low for the crossing.
I usually cross CLN-COA or TANET – KOK. The latter provides quite high FL both ways, but Southend and the Luton-Stansted gap is a Pain.
Germany is not a bad place to take off, you can get permission for a non Schengen flight easily. Contact your local police. For UK a GAR will do as Peter said.
Sywell is a nice airfield to land with it’s art deco buildings and good food.
Pack your high vis vests, for all airfields except Sywell.
Thanks. Yes I have seen we would fly a bit low around Amsterdam leaving the coast is around 1200-1500 ft but that doesn’t scare me :-)
HighVis West are on board anyway. But good reminder to use them then. Although I always prefer the smaller airfields over the airports, as long either they or I have enough fuel :-)
