Elmsett
ELMSETT: Private airfield (also known as POPLAR HALL, POPLAR HALL FARM and....WHATFIELD?)
Note: All four of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: 1980s to 2000: Mr T D Gray, Poplar Aviation Ltd
Flying Schools: When IPSWICH closed in 1997 (?) the Horizon Flying Club and East Anglian School of Flying moved here
Gliding: 1981: Essex & Suffolk Gliding Club*
Location: On Poplar Hall Farm, in/near Elmsett, 3nm NE of Hadleigh, 3 nm S of WATTISHAM
Period of operation: 1970s to -
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runway: 1992: 05/23 800x70 grass
2000: 05/23 850x68 grass
2001: 05/23 890x26 grass
2009: 05/23 listed as being about 750m long in Light Aviation magazine
Note: What I find interesting, is that if I use the measuring tool on Google Earth, (going back to 2000), this runway appears to be consistently 780 metres long!
NOTES: In the mid 1970s it appears that only one aircraft was based here; Cessna 175A G-ARMN registered to Mr H A Claireaux.
Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide' tells us that in May 1980 he saw the Kenyan registered Cessna FR172J Hawk XP here: 5Y-ATO. A rare bird indeed in the U.K.?
*I could well be barking up the wrong tree here. Was this originally the WHATFIELD/HADLEIGH gliding site used by the Essex & Suffolk Gliding Club? Any advice will be most welcome as I cannot find any evidence of another 'airfield' in this vicinity.
In the February 2012 edition of Light Aviation magazine an excellent article describes how a group of nine members of the Henlow Aero Club, flying five aircraft visited seventeen airfields and airstrips, mostly within East Anglia. The ‘fleet’ included the unique Trago Mills SAH-1, G-SAHI and the Thruxton Jackaroo G-ANZT. What interested me was the unorthodox departure by two aircraft from ELMSETT; “The wind had further increased and was now rather a challenge for the Jackaroo and Turbulent. We spoke to the locals and were allowed to take off into wind, pacing out our ‘runway’ and taxying up to the hedge before departing directly into wind.”
I mention this simply to illustrate that use of an ‘approved’ runway is not always strictly necessary. Indeed, over the years I have used at least a couple of non-approved runways although I should emphasise that permission to do so must always be sought - and invariably the term ‘at your own risk’ will be involved. Quite rightly too. Today of course the heavy-handed onslaught of ‘Health & Safety’ very often deters people from using their own initiative. So, very nice to see that ‘good airmanship’ prevailed on this occasion.
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