Hi everybody,
I was wondering whether you could give me a few suggestions for night flying in the UK? Would you know of a list that is available somewhere or can you share your wisdom in what field may offer good rates for night landings, offer what services and have a good infrastructure as in hotels or rental cars available?
Thanks
Martin
A bit of info (in German) here.
To a large extent the answer depends on whether you want just some “night time” logged, or want to fly in the middle of the night, or just when it is seriously properly dark.
Now, in the “winter”, you can log night time at a number of airports here in the UK, starting with my base EGKA which closes 2000 UTC on most days.
Biggin Hill closes 11pm IIRC but charges some big chunk after ~9pm. Others late options include Bournemouth, Oxford, and probably places like Exeter, Norwich…
If you want H24 operation, there is very little that’s affordable. In the south there is only Cardiff and Southend, both with a hefty surcharge, with the latter ~£200 after 10pm. East Midlands and Doncaster sound familiar too, with EM used heavily for night cargo. I did my FAA night x/c stuff, with another pilot doing the same thing, between Cardiff and Southend, in the goode olde days when they cost 20 quid, staying in some very cheap motel nearby. Oh the days of collecting useless logbook entries 
Southend should be good for rental cars because they now have Easyjet going there, but the rental office opening hours might be geared to the flights.
We used Southend to do a most enjoyable night time circuit of London last Thursday. Friendly to light aviation and easy to use, just don’t cross the red line on the apron on foot. There is a Holiday Inn one hundred metres from the light aviation exit. During that flight the runway lights were on at Biggen Hill, Farnborough, Blackbushe, White Waltham and Elstree but not Stapleford. I think them all being open might be a Thursday night special. Leicester is also known for a Thursday night special.
Previously we have used Oxford for night flying. Easy, friendly and cheap. There is an acceptable pub B&B about a ten minute walk from the terminal. Off the top of my head it is The Highwayman.
During 2013-2015 I did my night flying from Humberside. Back then it was easy, friendly and cheap. I was lodging locally so did not need a hotel but IIRC there is one on site.
Yes, Southend has a surcharge between 11pm and 6am winter (22pm-5am the summer),
When I inquired for a night rating over there, someone told me that before the surcharge they used to have students scoring all the required 5h for night rating in one night (call it Southend late party), then when I asked about diversion options if their runway vanishes, I got a big question mark…there is not much in night alternates in the UK south-east, you may have to go to Belgium or France? Or to probably Norwich?
So really, as Peter mentioned it depends on “night time locally” or “get ready for another 200nm” ?
In 2012, I did my night flying training from Coventry but last I heard it no longer opens late.
Finally, I have done a small amount of night flying at Cranfield but it doesn’t open late and is a nightmare of very poor attitudes and random closures. Use only if the alternative is crashing!
Great – keep them coming ;)
I am actually looking for places to land for my trips from abroad and since “night” starts rather early these days I am looking for options.
Sherburn Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday until 8 pm or on request.
Ibra wrote:
there is not much in night alternates in the UK south-east, you may have to go to Belgium or France? Or to probably Norwich?
You’re looking at Stansted I think. That was my alternate when I had to come back and land at Southend at midnight after a near total loss of power on an engine (twin).
Southend were great, didn’t give me any sort of extra charge despite the tower and fire brigade having to stay about 2h extra. Not sure the outcome would have been the same at Stansted, but I wouldn’t have had many other reasonable options anyway.
Are Gatwick, Luton and Stansted open H24 for actual traffic? The Stansted AIP local copy says H24
but I am damn sure they don’t allow jet traffic during the night (same as Gatwick doesn’t). Very few UK airports have H24 jets (East Midlands is one). However under “EGSS AD 2.20 LOCAL TRAFFIC REGULATIONS” (further down that PDF) it does indeed look like you can do it H24 if you are GA.
Stansted EGSS used to cost about £300-400, most of which was handling, but this info is out of date. Gatwick is more like £600 now (same comment). I suppose if you are looking at a £200 surcharge at Southend, Stansted at say £300 is not a problem.
