There was a brief opening in the weather so we did a nice day trip to Wales.
The route went slightly south of the best bits of Snowdonia (mostly at 5000-6000ft, and Flightaware lost the tracking after a descent through a hole in the cloud cover)
The messy UK airspace opens up once past Brize and this entire route can be flown VFR at 5000ft, which is a nice safe way of flying given the UK’s relatively new no-prisoners infringements persecution process 
The flight was largely above an overcast but we still saw some nice scenery through the holes in the cloud
The cloudbase was generally about 2000ft AGL on the way there but flying on top is a lot easier.
Now going along the long beach towards the airport. The beach looks great but you want a warm summer day
Final runway 35
The tarmac is mostly in a very good condition and, based on other ex mil airfields, will probably stay fine for many years. The ~£10 landing fee won’t fund any large maintenance but given the widespread “boycott any place above £10-15” campaign that’s been running for many years on UK GA chat sites, they don’t have much of an option.
The tower appeared disused but apparently isn’t. The airport was however pretty well deserted as far as flying went. The military and the MOD left about 20 years ago
There is 100LL and Jet-A1
A number of planes are in this hangar so there must be some activity on nicer days, but I was still surprised at seeing nothing, on a Sunday, and with flyable wx!
An interesting jet
with four model plane jet engines
Cloudbase near the terrain here now
The town (a 15 min walk) is a popular tourist spot in the summer, with Portmeirion being just a short distance away. A local pilot kindly gave us a lift into the town.
The most edible item on the menu, but hey this is Wales 
Oak milk? Not really a thing here… The food was actually good though.
We walked up some local hills. You can see one of the 3 runways here
Loads of nice wild garlic. If you eat enough of it (we eat lots) all your friends are true friends
The world’s smallest train station
A cafe / flying club which apparently shut in covid and never re-opened. However, one of the locals advises that the flying school is operating.
Same wx on the way back, at 5000ft, but it was raining by then
Back home And the rain started there too…
Llanbedr can be flown to just with a website action – no need to contact for PPR – and this is becoming less and less common in the UK.
There are lots of great walks in the area.
Other trip reports to EGFD are linked below, and there is more info on our airport database.
Looks like you got a lot out of the day despite the March weather. I really liked Llanbedr and will definitely return.
Yes; a great location.
The wx there was fine. Only the return trip would have been tricky “legally VFR”.
The beach would be very nice on a nice day.
The thing I find spooky is how huge the place is, how easy the flying there is airspace-wise, yet how little activity there seems to be. And in the long run the landing fee can’t keep it going.
Lovely place
I did few gliding expeditions there, it gets busy in July-Sep, except the year when Redbull asked to empty the hangars to do one of their stunt of flying two Extras in the hangars
It’s a great destination, really nice on a good summer’s day and I will certainly go at least once this summer. The beach walk through the dunes is fantastic.
Peter wrote:
The thing I find spooky is how huge the place is, how easy the flying there is airspace-wise, yet how little activity there seems to be. And in the long run the landing fee can’t keep it going.
I’m unsure exactly what the setup is. Clearly the military moved out sometime ago – a quick google suggest the Welsh Government are the current owners of the site – various (mostly implausible) aviation-related uses have been proposed, but it seems some small flying school has the current lease to operate, presumably at close to zero rent. The lack of activity is due to it being in an area of very low population density with the (always a challenge) additional factor for coastal airports of half their catchment area being water.
The sustainability of such a large facility with such little activity is clearly dependant on the condition of the tarmac. No-one is going to spend the many millions required to refurbish it when it becomes necessary, so long-term it will become less and less useable. Worst case it closes completely, best case they try to keep a small bit of one of the runways in a useable condition and stay open. Enstone EGTN is a bit like this – three runway WW2 bomber base, 800×18m of one runway kept useable, plus some grass options.
This is decades away though, so make use of it now!
Llanbedr appears to be closed to visiting aircraft for the “foreseeable future”. I attempted to PPR there yesterday and the website throws up the following message:
AERODROME CLOSED Higher demand for aerodrome bookings means the aerodrome is now normally closed to PPR for the foreseeable future. Visiting aircraft will be welcome for special events and regular fly ins to be notified on the calendar asap. Permission for visiting Company traffic strictly PPR contact the AD MGR
I called the manager who basically said that they are too busy with hosting events and commercial operations such as drone/radar testing, so they will only be open to visiting aircraft on certain pre-arranged fly in days. Essentially they make a lot more money from some company renting the place than from a few visiting SEPs. Understandable from a business point of view but a shame nonetheless.
Yes, that is the problem with all those “private” aerodromes in the UK. They can do what they want, and decide so on a whim.
Any privately owned AD can do this. That is what “private” means. You own the land… the vast majority – close to 100% – of European ADs are on private land, and cannot be forced to accept traffic.
It’s just that some of the owners are more arrogant than others. Llanbedr is already pretty quiet, in the middle of nowhere, but quite scenic.
What should have happened is that the local council should have retained the freehold and offered an operating lease to the operator, with a requirement to operate it as an AD. That’s the EGKA situation, for example.
If you cant get into Llanbedr and you want to get some Welsh Fresh Air and a Good Welsh Welcome, you can always fly to Pembrey EGFP and have a cream tea at Amelias (on the field) and then a walk (or cycle) to the beach
Llanbedr seems busy with flight tests :
Some kind of civilian UAV info
