Yesterday I flew for the first time in 7 weeks, and it felt great to be back up in the air! Our second child was born at the beginning of July, so things have been pretty hectic since then (getting settled in to a new routine), so flying had to take a back seat. Now that things have started to settle down a bit, I saw the forecast for Wednesday was looking good, so booked the plane and decided to visit Great Massingham with a friend (another pilot, who’s also in the sportcruiser group)
Great Massingham is a pretty village in Norfolk, north west of Norwich in the South East of England:
The airfield is a former RAF base and features the typical triangular layout: 04/22 (900m x 20m), 28/10 (450m x 20m) and 13/31 (400m x 15m). The history of the airfield dating back to 1940 is available here.
Before flying to Great Massingham, PPR must be obtained. I phoned the number listed in Skydemon and was told to email my details instead. I then popped a quick email with the usual details to the owner and permission was granted by return a few hours later. A bit of a faff, but pretty normal for UK airfields…
A short one hour hop North East from our base at Firs Farm, it was an easy flight. We departed at 10.30 and flew nearly direct, skirting around Benson’s MATZ and Cranfield’s ATZ. Approaching Great Massingham you must speak with Marham zone to penetrate their MATZ. This was granted straight away, and they asked us to stay with them until turning final, at which point we switched to safetycom.
Our first approach in to runway 04 resulted in a go-around, as we weren’t sure whether we were looking at the runway or at a disused airfield! We did a low pass over the runway and – whilst not in the best condition – we saw nothing to be overly worried about, so went around in the circuit and landed on our second approach.
Final for runway 04, Great Massingham village to the left
The runway and taxiways are clearly very old and haven’t had any visible maintenance done to them for a long time. There are many cracks in the concrete, but these are easily avoided if you’re vigilant.
The C cabin is next to the hangar at the south side of the airfield, so we did a quick backtrack of 04 and parked up on the grass. There is only parking for about 4 or 5 aircraft here, which is one of the reasons why Olaf (owner) insists on PPR. Inside the cabin is an honesty box for the £10 landing fee, and lots of information on the local area.
Chris inside the cabin.
We walked in to Great Massingham village, simply by following the public footpath from the south of the airfield, along a path which crosses a field before reaching the churchyard. Come out the other side of the churchyard and you’re in the village. A nice looking tearoom is directly opposite, which at 12.00 had a queue of 10 or so people waiting to get a table, so it seems to be very popular!
The church and the tearoom.
Across the other side of the village green is the Dabbling Duck, a gastropub which serves a range of larger meals as well as bar snacks and pizzas from their wood fired oven. We’d booked a table for midday, and on arrival were the only people there, so joked that it was a good job we’d booked! However within about 15 minutes, the place was full, so it really was a good job we booked in advance else we’d not have been able to get in.
The Dabbling Duck and Chris.
Food was good (but not as great as I had hoped from other reviews), then we had a little stroll around the village before returning to the plane.
Fish and chips.
The footpath from the village to the airfield takes you across a field with horses in.
On departure from runway 04, just as I was rotating, a flock of pigeons crossed the runway from left to right. One struck the propeller and although I could see no obvious damage I elected to abort the take-off and brought the plane to a stop. The noise as it hit the propeller was a very light ‘ping’, rather than a loud bang that I would have expected. My first bird strike!
We back-tracked the runway and observed the dead bird and what seemed like thousands of feathers littered all over the place. You’d never think it was from only one bird, but it was. We shutdown and had a very close look over everything. The prop had a couple of feathers and a few blood splats, but was surprisingly unscathed. Similarly, the only evidence of the incident on the rest of the plane was a tiny blood splat in the corner of the windscreen. We were very lucky. We retrieved the bird from the runway and set back off.
The unlucky bird
This time, the departure was uneventul and we continued back on a similar track to our outbound leg. Noticeably different on this leg though was just how busy it was in the air compared with the morning. There were gliders everywhere – at one point we saw 30 or so in a cluster right ahead on our route via our FLARM reception from Sky Echo, so gave them a wide birth. The traffic service from Marham, Luton and Benson was warmly welcomed.
Me on the way home.
Landing back at Firs Farm later that afternoon, another 2 hours flight time logged. It was a very short and relatively easy trip, but with the bird-strike and exceptionally busy glider activity on the way home it wasn’t as easy as I was expecting. Goes to show that even the short and simple flights can throw curveballs.
Skydemon Route.
Great! Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations on number two!
You dealt with the pigeon well – what’s your propeller made from? Great Massingham looks like it’s worth a visit.
Capitaine wrote:
Congratulations on number two!You dealt with the pigeon well – what’s your propeller made from?
Thanks! The propeller is a Woodcomp Klassic 170/3/R
NicR wrote:
Our second child was born at the beginning of July, so things have been pretty hectic since then (getting settled in to a new routine)
Well done. I likened the transition, going from one child to two, was a bit like going from owning a Cherokee 180 to an old Piper Navajo in terms of complexity and generally increased chaos.
Dabbling Duck is one of those things I have been meaning to do for years when visiting England. The food looks good, but maybe not as good as the hype would have built it up to be. I think it would be a good stop if you were passing that way.
Good report. thanks
NicR wrote:
Approaching Great Massingham you must speak with Marham zone to penetrate their MATZ. This was granted straight away, and they asked us to stay with them until turning final, at which point we switched to safetycom
I was told that the procedure at Gt Massingham (on the ground and in the air) is to announce your intentions on the Marham frequency, maybe a regular there could comment
Looks like a nice airfield & picturesque village to spend the day !
WilliamF wrote:
Well done. I likened the transition, going from one child to two, was a bit like going from owning a Cherokee 180 to an old Piper Navajo in terms of complexity and generally increased chaos.
Dabbling Duck is one of those things I have been meaning to do for years when visiting England. The food looks good, but maybe not as good as the hype would have built it up to be. I think it would be a good stop if you were passing that way.
I love the analogy. I’ve never flown a Navajo, but think I’ll give it a miss based on this :-)
I had high expectations for the Dabbling Duck after seeing so many good reviews. I’d like to give them another chance during a dinner service if I am passing that way, but wouldn’t make a trip there just for food again.
GRIFF wrote:
I was told that the procedure at Gt Massingham (on the ground and in the air) is to announce your intentions on the Marham frequency, maybe a regular there could comment
From the PPR briefing – on your approach, you must contact Marham if they are open, otherwise you should make blind calls on the Marham frequency. In the C cabin there is a comprehensive briefing document for departure, which details the letter of agreement between the two airfields. You must attempt to phone Marham ATC whilst on the ground and inform them of your intentions if you’d like a MATZ penetration. I rang them, but they were quiet so essentially said don’t worry, pass your details once airborne and we’ll sort it out. All very easy.
WilliamF wrote:
Dabbling Duck is one of those things I have been meaning to do for years when visiting England. The food looks good, but maybe not as good as the hype would have built it up to be. I think it would be a good stop if you were passing that way.
The Dabbling Duck serves nice food and is somewhat over-hyped on the UK GA scene, but I believe there’s a reason.
Depending on what part of the country you live in, nice pub food may or may not be quite common. Being on the edge of the Cotswolds I can find similar pub food in any number of villages within a 10 mile radius, but in other areas such fare may be a bit less ‘everyday’.
What makes it noteworthy and a popular destination is being a short walk from a zero-hassle GA field with a cheap landing fee. On that front there are not many comparables.
Nice trip report. The cafe opposite the pub is really very good and I found it perfect when visiting earlier this year on a similar sunny day.
Well handled bird strike
