Base Locations
Shoreham Airport has been adopted as the Club's main training location. This is because of the absence of Controlled Airspace locally, and
the availability of VATSIM ATC services several nights a week. Members can start their online flying experience here in the company of other
beginners and, via the Club TeamSpeak server, obtain help from experienced members also flying from this pretty seaside location.
Real World Shoreham Airport is the oldest licensed airfield in the UK, and has a beautiful Grade II listed art deco building which is not
only a Control Tower but also a full scale Passenger Terminal.
Opened in 1931 as Staverton Aerodrome, Gloucestershire Airport has been progressively developed during the last 85 years into the UK's busiest
General Aviation aerodrome. It lies just four miles from Cheltenham, home of prestigious horse-racing, literature and music festivals and only
six miles from the cathedral city of Gloucester. It has a full Air Traffic Control service within its ATZ and Approach control facilities as well.
On VATSIM, it caters for the needs of virtual GA pilots with procedures that closely replicate the real aerodrome. There are 3 runways in the
traditional ex RAF 'A' layout, plus a short grass runway. The main runway has instrument procedures including a CAT 1 ILS on runway 27.
The Club established its base at Gloucestershire in December 2004 and adopted one of the hangars for its use. Regular Club evenings have been
held on Tuesdays at the airfield ever since.
In April 2018, the Club decided to open this small airfield in Yorkshire as a new northern base. It is located in an area of outstanding
natural beauty 11 nautical miles south west of York. During the Second World War it was used as a Royal Air Force station and Blackburn Aircraft
built almost 1700 Fairey Swordfish naval torpedo aircraft at their Sherburn factory. Today it is home to a busy real-world
Aero Club who have kindly rented us one of their hangars and allowed us to build
our own small Clubhouse next to theirs. As an uncontrolled airfield (Air/Ground Operated), with one hard runway and three grass runways and
mandatory overhead joins, members will enjoy a new experience and new challenges at this friendly airfield.
"Biggin on the Bump" was an airfield which played
a pivotal role in the 1940 Battle of Britain and still today
has that feel of "something historic happened here".
The
Club built a full scale base here with an operational centre,
clubhouse and hangar, and had operated from Biggin Hill since
its formation in February 2004. Its long main runway could
accommodate even the largest of the Club's aircraft and it
once featured regular VATSIM ATC. In April 2018 though, the
real world Biggin Hill told the Flying Clubs based there to
move out as the airport needed to concentrate on the expanding
business aviation business. To
realistically mimic the real world, therefore, the Club
said a fond farewell to Biggin Hill, and on 23rd of that month
had a nostalgic fly-out to its new northern base at Sherburn-in-Elmet.
