Ascot flying sites
Note: This map is only of the general location of the Ascot racecourse.
ASCOT: RAF Packing Depot
NOTES: It would seem certain that in 1929 the RAF Packing Depot had moved from RAF ASCOT to RAF SEALAND in CHESHIRE. A packing depot prepared disassembled aircraft for export to foreign bases and received returning aircraft in turn. RAF SEALAND was of course also a pretty major operational aerodrome but it does beg the question as to whether or not RAF ASCOT had an associated airfield or airstrip? It would seem this is likely but is anything known?
ASCOT PARK POLO CLUB: Helicopter landing area
Location: More or less on the site of the SMITH'S LAWN aerodrome
Landing area: 120 acres of farmland
ASCOT RACECOURSE: Helicopter landing area and airstrip
Note: Pictures taken by the author when flying along the 'low-level' route, through the Heathrow zone and ..."not above 1200ft" at dusk in October 2016.
ASCOT RACECOURSE HELIPORT
Needless to say, especially during Royal Ascot, this venue attracts very many of the rich and famous, quite a few arriving by helicopter. The pictures below taken from Google Earth © dated 2018.
ROYAL ASCOT CRICKET CLUB
Note: Both of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©. It appears this helipad/landing area was first marked out roughly around 2010? Situated just W of the A330, it is within the racecourse. No doubt a very good earner for VSIPs on major race days.
NOTES: In the Helicopter Sitefinder by John B Frost published in 1998 there are no details regarding where helicopters are landed but it does make mention of a 15/33 runway for fixed wing aircraft. In 2014 and 2015 the Red Bull Air Races took place here, possibly using this runway? Is any more known?
RED BULL AIR RACES
In August 2015 ASCOT had been selected as a venue for a Red Bull Air Race. The dates were the 15th and 16th. The west end of the runway was in front of the main grandstand. Orientated 08/26 and probably around 600 metres long.
The air racing route extended from across the horse racing course to encompass the golf course just to the east. I think that other Red Bull Air Races took place here in 2014 and 2017, perhaps in other years as well?
A video for 2015 can be see at: https://youtu.be/VRCwSaD2kNo
ASCOT see also SUNNINGHILL
Terry Clark
This comment was written on: 2017-12-25 20:06:05From 1996 until last year, Asot Park Polo Club operated from a site at Westcroft Park about one mile west of Chobham, Surrey on Windlesham Road and about 200 yards from my home. Smiths Lawn was used by The Guards Polo Club (apart from its warime uses as an RLG and a Vickers dispersed site)
Terry Clark
This comment was written on: 2018-01-05 02:22:33Novellist and vet James Herriot mentions Ascot Racecourse in one of his books when he was learning to fly, however I believe he was flying out of nearby Winkfield Row from a field which later became winter quarters for Billy Smart's Circus animals. There was a T2 hanagr in this field until about 1980.
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