Tatenhill Airfield
Encyclopedia
Tatenhill Airfield is a licensed airfield operated by Tatenhill Aviation Ltd, located 4 NM west of Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....

, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Tatenhill Aerodrome has a CAA
United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority
The Civil Aviation Authority is the public corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of aviation in the United Kingdom. The CAA head office is located in the CAA House on Kingsway in Holborn, London Borough of Camden...

 Ordinary Licence (Number P813) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Tatenhill Aviation).

Tatenhill is a medium sized general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 field built, like so many, during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

The field was built in 1941 as a satellite for Lichfield Airfield (a now disused field to the south which has been converted into an industrial estate). It was used as a bomber crew training field named RAF Tatenhill
RAF Tatenhill
RAF Tatenhill was a medium sized Royal Air Force airfield built, like so many, during the Second World War. It stands about 5 miles west of Burton on Trent at an elevation of 439 feet. It was originally known as RAF Crossplains....

, which continued in varied training functions until 1944 when it was used by a munitions unit after the disastrous explosion at nearby RAF Fauld
RAF Fauld Explosion
The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot...

. Flying at that time was limited to only a few flights a week as the explosion site still contained large amounts of live munition.

After some years of disuse, when the ground around the runways was returned to agriculture, the airfield was obtained by Allied Breweries of Burton for use in connection with their business, being a suitable location for many of their visitors to fly in directly and also for the brewery to operate their own aircraft.

Over a period of time, the number and variety of aircraft flying out of the field gradually increased and, although still unlicensed, traffic levels were rising.

In 1987, the airfield was taken over by Tatenhill Aviation as a General Aviation field and gradually built up as a viable operation. The field was licensed in the 1990s and a flying school started. Additionally, there is a busy M3 aircraft engineering business doing servicing and repairs and a JAR145 approved avionics business is located there as well. Both Jet A1 and 100LL fuel are available.

The design was the wartime RAF standard of three co-intersecting runways, east-west, north-south diagonal. While the north-south and southwest-northeast runways are now only used for aircraft parking and one has a new reserve hangar built at one end, the east-west one remains in everyday use. It is licensed at 1190 metres and is capable of handling a large range of General Aviation aircraft. This runway also has lighting, enabling both night landings and training for night ratings. A non directional beacon is installed but there is no let-down procedure.

The only runway in use is 08/26. The grass is now only used for taxying, 04/22 and 17/35 are only available for aircraft parking.

Tatenhill Airfield has many advantages. A hard runway allows flying to occur under a range of weather conditions which would not permit flying from a grass strip. The field is well clear of controlled airspace (Class A or Class D) which means that local traffic has priority, with no problems of interaction with commercial traffic and the consequent long delays in the air and on the ground. However, its position is still close enough for radar cover from Manchester, Birmingham and East Midlands.

The location of Tatenhill allows it to be easily reached by road from many towns in the Midlands such as Burton, Derby, Lichfield, Ashbourne, Stoke, Stafford and the northern suburbs of Birmingham, for example.

Tatenhill is now home to the Staffordshire Air Ambulance.

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