--- title: Airfield Reviews - Whiskey Alpha Pilot description: Personal reviews of UK and European airfields from a GA pilot based at Elstree EGTR. Landing fees, cafe quality, runway quirks and honest tips for visitors. canonical_url: https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews language: en-GB date: 2026-04-30T14:33:29Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews. markdown-tokens: 1006 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ### My personal experiences flying into UK airfields. Flying into airfields around the UK and Europe. Here are a few thoughts and pointers based on my own experiences. Please note these are my own personal notes and experiences. If you are planning to fly into any of these, then use the usual aviation sources for correct information. ![Sandown Airport from Above](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/sandown-eghn/img-0718.jpg) Most airfields tolerate you. Sandown wants you to have a nice day, and it has rules to make sure you do. No hi-vis. No miserable people. There's a skeleton running the complaints department and a space rocket parked where you'd expect a windsock. I've flown in five times now, first as a nervous student, most recently with one of the share group taking turns at the controls. It's the place I'd send anyone who reckons British GA has lost its sense of fun. [ Read more: Sandown (EGHN): the Isle of Wight airport that bans hi-vis and miserable people ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews/sandown-eghn) ![Cessna 172 G-DCKK parked on the ramp at Beccles Aerodrome EGSM](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/beccles-egsm/IMG_0941.jpeg) A delightful little airfield in Suffolk with a good reputation for food, helicopters and parachuting. Air/Ground radio, friendly atmosphere, and on this visit, my shortest runway to date. The runway is normally a tarmac and grass mixture, around 450m of concrete with a 150m grass extension, but on the day we went the grass section was closed. Tarmac only. Less than 500m of it, apparently. That was the airfield's own answer when I rang to ask, by the way. "It is less than 500m." Very helpful. Thanks for that. [ Read more: Airfield Review :: Beccles EGSM ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews/beccles-egsm) ![Southend Airport Terminal Building ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/southend-egmc/Southend_Airport_terminal_building_02.jpg) Southend means different things to different people. To half of Essex it's the seafront and the world's longest pleasure pier, a mile and a third of Victorian ironwork marching out into the estuary. To the budget airline crowd it was a cheap way out of the country, an airport that cheerfully bills itself as "London Southend" despite sitting a good forty-odd miles from anything most people would call London. Then again, so is Heathrow, and nobody blinks at that. From a pilot's seat, and especially a student pilot's seat training out of Elstree, "London airport" mostly means one thing anyway. Controlled airspace, and lots of it. [ Read more: Airfield Review :: London Southend EGMC ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews/southend-egmc) ![Compton Abbas Airfield from the air ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/Compton%20Abbas.jpeg) Compton Abbas Airfield from the Air An airfield on top of a hill in Dorset. It's grass. That's most of what you need to know to understand the rest of this review. It is also owned by the film director Guy Richie - you know the one. 'Snatch'. 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. 'The Gentlemen'. I think there is a theme here. So I am going to love this airfield. Yes Mr Richie Sir.!! [ Read more: Airfield Review :: Compton Abbas EGHA ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/airfield-reviews/compton-abbas-egha)