Sturgate
STURGATE: Military aerodrome later civil aerodrome
Note: These three pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Note: Other colour pictures by the author unless specified.
Military user: RAF Bomber Command 1 Group
1481 (B) Gunnery Flt (Hawker Hurricane)
1520 BAT Flt (Airspeed Oxford)
Operated by: 1980s to 2000: Eastern Air Executive Ltd
2010: Eastern Air Executive weekdays, Lincoln Aero Club weekends
Flying school: Post 1945: Lincoln Aero Club
Gliding: 1970s only?
Maintenance: Eastern Air Executive
Location: S to SE of Heapham, NE of Upton, 4nm ESE of Gainsborough
Period of operation: Military: 1944 to 1953, but then used again by USAF SAC fighter units until 1964. Later civil to present day.
Note: Private flying was recorded in 1975 and 1985
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014
Runways: WW2: 07/25 1829x46 hard 02/20 1280x46 hard
14/32 1280x46 hard
1990/2000: 09/27 820x46 hard 14/32 460x46 hard
NOTES: In late 1944 the RAF had 685 personnel based here with 286 WAAFs which is a ratio of about 2.4 men to 1 woman. I’m not at all sure this might be a record in this respect but I’m pretty certain this was a happy station in those days! Any comments? According to an entry in Wikipedia STURGATE was opened in 1944 as RAF Sturgate and was planned as an operational bomber air station, but opened too late to see active use in WW2.
THE LINCOLN AERO CLUB
In the May 2006 edition of Popular Flying magazine, an article was published by Glennis and Steve Elders to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Aero Club, and this seems well worth recording, at least in part, as it is so revealing of so many aspects of GA activity since WW2 especially. "No account of Lincoln Aero Club would be complete without mention of the founding father, Tom Hayes. A plumber by trade and successful businessman. In 1951 Tom had acquired a Taylorcraft, G-AIRE, which he flew from the airfield at Boston as Lincoln had no flying club."
"After a couple of years he managed to build a hangar and operate from a farming friend's field, close to his Lincoln home and this worked well for a year or so until changes on the farm set Tom looking for an alternative arrangement. Of course in 'Bomber Country' there were many disused airfields and a number were quite close to Lincoln."
"Some like Wickenby and Skellingthorpe were still being used for disposal of war time bombs, whilst others had been returned to agriculture and were in a sad state of repair. However, Bardney, some six miles southeast of Lincoln, was in relatively good condition, the runways having just been relinquished as a military vehicle storage depot." See BARDNEY, KIRTON-in-LINDSEY, BLYBOROUGH and HEMSWELL for more information regarding the history of the Club.
MORE HISTORY ABOUT STURGATE
"Lots of hard work and expense followed once more, to repair the control tower and erect a hangar, but by the late seventies the Club was back on its feet with a more modern fleet consisting of a Cessna 150, Beagle Pup and several Condors offering training for the PPL, Night Rating and IMC."
"The Club has remained at Sturgate since 1975, and after a hard start it has become very well established." (My note - still going strong in 2017) "As well as refurbishing the control tower to turn it into a club house and weekend operations centre, the original blister hangar, (My Note 'Blister' hangar), has been replaced by two large modern ones housing some 20 aircraft. Sadly, flying training had to discontinue in 2002 when the airfield became unlicensed."
PERSONAL NOTES
My one and only visit to STURGATE was when flying in from SANDTOFT, on a day tour of Lincolnshire with a pilot friend from TOP FARM in the Piper PA-28RT-201 Cherokee Arrow IV G-BMVE on the 29th September 1997. We were delighted to find a Grumman G-44 Widgeon. Such an aircraft was, and I believe still is, a very rare example in the UK; perhaps the only example if still based in the UK?
Possibly this is a 'Super Widgeon' as it appears to have the six-cylinder 270hp Avco-Lycoming engines installed.
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