I have a theory that West Wales is the area of mainland UK that is most difficult to get to by fixed-wing light aircraft – excepting supercubs and other vstol types. Aberystwyth is about an hour north of Aberporth airport, an hour west of Welshpool and an hour and a half south of Llanbedr. There is a little strip about 10 miles away in Peniarth, but you have to go inland to Machynlleth so it’s still an hour away. If there are any other local strips I don’t know of them.
Playing with Google maps, the most inaccessible inhabited area seems to be Wallog, a little inlet just north of Aberystwyth – 1 hour 5 minutes to Aberporth. 1 hour 24 to Welshpool and 1 hour 6 minutes to Peniarth.
It’s a shame, because it’s an area where an aircraft could potentially be quite useful. It takes 4 1/2 hours to get to London by train – which is longer than it takes to fly to Orkney from London including checkin times etc and a stop in Aberdeen… I haven’t looked into it in detail, but when I learned to fly in Scotland, it seemed that there were quite a lot of small strips scattered around the islands and highlands, and that they were valued and quite well utilised for medevacs etc.
Would anybody like to suggest any other candidates for the most inaccessible area of the UK?
Maybe too far north, but are you aware that Llandedr now really seems to open up for GA?
Much of the UK is relatively inaccessible like that, if you are looking for a “proper” airfield.
But “inaccessible” is relative. A Maule is different from a Jetprop. There are small private strips everywhere – in the region of 400m, sometimes more. For example I was told by the police who once “interviewed me” that Sussex has 82 such strips. Some of these are listed in a guide but a number of those listed in there aren’t very happy about it. Under the UK’s planning regs they have to run for 10 years without significant complaints and then they can apply for a certificate of lawful use, so most of them are trying to keep a low profile.
Possibly western Wales suffers from a lack of money….in the same way Peter alluded to for eastern Kent….the west of Scotland (mainland) is similar in terms of a lack of airfields….notwithstanding that the western isles are littered with them…
If you meant “axis” of inaccessibility then it runs down the west of the UK!
Llanbedr is about an hour and a half away so no closer than the alternatives I mentioned, though always nice to have more options. I am aware of two strips near Tywyn, but not of any others, and although it’s only 10 miles away it still takes over an hour to get there.
A plane landed recently near my parent’s house in a field with a 10 degree slope and foot-long grass, so granted there are options if you have the right aircraft.
I hadn’t realised that people in Eastern Kent were so hard up. I suppose another factor is that the wartime airfields will be clustered down the East coast because it’s closer to the continent.
