Horton-cum-Studley
HORTON-cum-STUDLEY: Private airstrip (also known as VENTFIELD FARM)
Note: These three pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
This appears to be a most unusual set of circumstances. The first two pictures show the 'runway' as being clearly defined, but zooming in it appears to be far too rough to be used? But, the 2014 picture appears to show a strip about half the width of the original runway which could be used.
If anybody can kindly offer advice, this will be much appreciated.
Operated by: Red Baron Aviation Services?
Location: Roughly 5nm NE of Oxford city centre
Runway: 01/19 585 grass
Period of operation: From 1996 to - ? Possibly used again circa 2014?
NOTES: I landed here in the evening with my very good friend and fellow pilot Guy Browning on the 29th June 1996, after being given an invite to a ‘Fly-in’ at HORTON when visiting HINTON-in-the-HEDGES. It had been poor weather nearly all day and hardly anybody had turned up for the opening 'Fly-in' ceremony. It may have been just another regular 'Fly-in' of course - but something in my memory suggests it was something a tad more significant - just possibly held to celebrate the opening of the airstrip?. In those days we barely needed any excuse to fly into a hitherto unvisited farm strip.
After a flying instructor took-off and performed a ‘spirited low-level’ fly past I took-off determined to show-off too. With the wheels just off the ground I held it down for a few seconds to gain speed then pulled back, climbed and banked left sharply to create a good spectacle. With the strip mainly surrounded by trees to the east I probably quickly encountered a tail-wind in the climb because the aircraft seemed to refuse to go upwards!
Quickly levelling the wings, and with nowhere else to go, the next few seconds of flight seemed to take ages. A steep turn is not an option at low airspeed.The only option was to keep full power applied and keep the airspeed pinned to ‘best angle of climb’ speed. We just cleared the trees by a few feet.
As the saying goes, “I learnt a lot about flying”, in those few moments. Years later a very experienced pilot asked me what the two most dangerous words in aviation were? I couldn’t answer of course, but felt a chill when he said the answer was, “Watch this!”. How true.
We'd love to hear from you, so please scroll down to leave a comment!
Leave a comment ...
Copyright (c) UK Airfield Guide
