It’s a shame this airfield will go. I had always hoped to drop in there. I know a chap who keeps an aircraft there so I hope he’s able to sort something out.
most of those in UK SE are only open “for love” rather than “financial benefit” !
Most services to GA are done for love and without financial benefit 
Like running a forum 
Well, maybe selling £3 bacon butties and fry-ups (with 100,000 calories and free 3×20mm DES stent vouchers) at an airfield charging £10 (the UK GA “boycott threshold”) is a good little earner
Well, only 46 minutes from Headcorn
Jujupilote wrote:
Google Maps gives 1h drive between Canterbury and Lydd Airport.
Shame that Maypole is closing, most of those in UK SE are only open “for love” rather than “financial benefit” !
There is Headcorn with 20min walk then 40min train to Canterbury?
Thanks for telling us. It is a shame and Canterbury/Maypole was on my to-go list.
This kind of real estate operation is not surprising to pilots unfortunately….
Google Maps gives 1h drive between Canterbury and Lydd Airport.
Cambridge is also about to close IIRC. Glad you enjoyed this trip when it was possible.
Someone posted about this on some UK site. I asked him why the owners could not get together to buy it. That, after all, is the most blindingly obvious thing. Normally the answer, never actually spoken, is that in GA almost everybody is trying to get a free run on the back of somebody else, until the whole thing collapses, and then all spill out on pilot forums and complain about it… In this case, apparently, the based pilots did actually try to buy it, and had a good proposal:
We had the solid base of a consortium but given the news that all the interested parties were going to keep it as an airfield we didn’t develop the consortium further. Then the owner took it off the market he told us that he hadn’t got the right offer and he expected to be there for another 5 years. Nothing further was mentioned about the sale until two months later when we received an email headed ‘Notice to vacate Maypole Airfield’. So we just wasn’t given the chance to make an offer to be honest…
Looks like a deal was done with a property shark, under the table, and they got shafted. Very sad. But there is no planning permission, so the value (to the shark) is pretty well indeterminate.
Lydd EGMD remains an excellent GA airport. I do a practice ILS there most times I do a local flight; £24. But the roads in Kent are mostly in the wrong place.
Maypole airfield now definitely sold, to people who have not interest in operating it as an airfield.
It is now closed due to Corona anyway, but will not reopen again.
The entire northeastern part of Kent is now totally devoid of any real airports or airfields, sadly.
Great report, thanks for that!
@RussSheffield: sorry, I don’t know which blue lines you mean.
@Peter_Mundy: yes, but we had some good headwind. Also, runway 20 is very slightly downhill. Had there been no wind, the takoff run would have been more like 450 meters I would say.
It shows again that taking off from grass runways is not a matter of maths, but of judgement. Every grass runway is different, and they are never the same from one day to the other. Got to maintain a healthy respect for them. Anyway, As I said, my impression was that it was well kept, so if it hasn’t been raining a lot the days before the flight, I would say Maypole is a “solid” option of the northeast of Kent.
Really enjoyed that trip report, thanks for taking the time to share.
