Tatenhill Airfield

Tatenhill Airfield (ICAO: EGBM) is a licensed airfield operated by Tatenhill Aviation Ltd, located 4 NM (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) west of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England.

Tatenhill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P813) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Tatenhill Aviation).^[2]

Tatenhill is a medium sized general aviation field built, like so many, during the Second World War.

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, which continued in varied training functions until 1944 when it was used by a munitions unit after the disastrous explosion at nearby RAF Fauld. 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.

References

External links

• Tatenhill Aviation Limited
• Exploring RAF Tatenhill