We have a number of trip reports but no standalone thread on EGHE. A number of reports are also on the EuroGA airport database.
It is a basically easy airport. Good ATC, no hassles. Grass parking, without any big holes evident. They cut the grass to a reasonable standard but it could be a lot better.
The runways have sloping ends and you need to be careful. It takes some skill to touch down at the start of the runway without hitting it too hard; I prefer to touch down on the flatter part. The runways are not all that long so check aircraft runway performance carefully.
Not exactly cheap at £46 for a TB20 (1400kg) for 1 night’s parking but fine on the context of a nice trip. Strictly PPR via a form on their website; phone afterwards +441720424335 to make sure they got the email before you depart.
Pre-CV19 one used to walk up to the tower to pay but now you phone up a number at the local council and give them your CC details – +443001234105 option 5. On Saturdays or after 5pm this number is unusable so call the tower instead on +441720424569. But best to do the payment during office hours.
As with a lot of island airports, the “security mentality” is manic. If you walk too far away from your plane, towards the runway, e.g. to check out the grass for taxi, they get super excited and get palpitations, and this is even if you checked with ATC on the phone beforehand.
The islands are lovely – see some of the trip reports here, or this one. Lots of great walks and mountain bike riding. Accommodation is in great demand in the summer so hotels can be scarce, and they aren’t cheap. The owners basically hate booking.com and airb&b and most of them are found only on the tourist office website. The few restaurants can also be over-run at times. There are campsites which are good; I stayed at the Garrison Campsite for £11/night here.
Sometimes the airport simply closes to GA – here. Overall I think they don’t want GA there. They make zero provision for it and do nothing to help it. They just tolerate it, allowing it to park on the grass, from which a TB20 can get moving after some rain only just about, with full power. The airport milks the commercial service which is very busy – just like Alderney but that one is much more GA-friendly, allowing hard parking when they aren’t too busy. This policy probably excludes many types e.g. PA46 and above. I have seen a PC12 there on the grass.
Some private owners have built hangars, which can be seen near the GA apron. They are in a poor condition.
With CV19 they closed for a number of months but re-opened 4th July 2020, but banned day trips, for no obvious reason. I would suspect a quid pro quo with the council, to feed business to the accommodation owners, in return for GA being allowed.
This has finally appeared today:
This is good because it is a great destination even for a day trip. You can’t get a boat ride to the other islands then but the main one is still great.
