Chatteris
CHATTERIS: Private airfield
Note: All four of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: Chatteris Leisure Ltd
Users: Micro-lights and parachuting
Location: 4 nm S of March
Period of operation: ?
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runways: 01/19 620x11 grass 03/21 525x11 grass
06/24 570x11 grass 11/29 425x11 grass
16/34 480x11 grass
2018: I may well be mistaken of course, but looking at the Google Earth picture above, (the fourth picture), it does appear that CHATTERIS now had six runways available. Any advice will be most welcome. If correct these are:
01/19 590 grass 03/21 480 grass 05/23 475 grass
06/24 425 grass 10/28 370 grass 14/32 350 grass
NOTES: In 2012 an AAIB report (EW/G2012/08/16) made for interesting reading. The pilot and passenger were visiting from Ireland in a Samba XLA, EI-JIM. Before departing from DUXFORD the pilot had made a call to CHATTERIS and was informed: “…it was a busy parachuting airfield, given a frequency to call on arrival, and advised to consult a flight guide for airfield information.”
“The pilot positioned for landing on the grass Runway 23 which was listed in a commercial flight guide as being 11m wide. Just before touchdown, the aircraft’s right wing contacted vegetation to the right of the runway, causing it to yaw through 180° and depart the runway about 200m from the threshold. In his report, the pilot stated that the wing had struck vegetation over 1 m high, and that the runway strip was in fact only mowed to a width of about 6 m. The aircraft has a low-wing configuration of 10 m span.
I feel rather sorry for this pilot. The pilot is of course ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft, but, pilots also have to rely on other sources of information. As pointed out many times elsewhere in this Guide commercial flight guides sometimes contain a surprising amount of incorrect information for certain locations. In addition you would certainly not expect to find vegetation allowed to grow this high immediately adjacent to runways, taxiways and aprons etc at a busy airfield.
I can imagine non-pilots reading this thinking it seems quite remarkable that the pilot didn’t spot such high growing vegetation so close to the runway. There are at least three reasons for this:
1. It can be very tricky indeed to judge the height of vegetation/crops etc when approaching from above.
2. On short finals the pilots main attention is directed toward landing the aircraft safely, and especially so at an unfamiliar airfield.
3. It is a fact of life that it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to spot an almost invisible hazard especially if you have no reason whatsoever to suspect its presence.
I have no doubt at all that this pilot has been considering the benefits of hindsight. Should he really have taken the chance of landing on a 11 metre runway in an aircraft with a 10 metre wing-span? I think the answer is – YES. This was not a farm airstrip where such hazards can be foreseen. Should he have explained when making the original telephone call that his aircraft had a low wing of ten metres? The answer, in hindsight, is of course – YES.
I wonder if you can help me? I have been thinking of exploring for many years the commercial possibilities of bottling hindsight as a non-alcoholic beverage. The precise formulae still escapes me but the quest is obviously well worthy of persuing as, when perfected, it will make both me and you fantastically rich.
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