Pilot reviews of Kingsmuir Airfield

As the owner of a Cessna 182 with poor prop clearance, I am always keen to ensure that when landing on a grass strip I get a full brief on the state of the runway. I was very impressed indeed with Kingsmuir Airfield, it is an immaculately maintained strip, a credit to its owners & deserving of a visit.

The landing fee is at pilots discretion and well deserving of the £10 that I placed in the tin in the "clubhouse" which has toilets! We had a lovely day in St Andrews which is a 10 minute taxi ride away. As mobile signals are poor it may be wise to pre-book the taxi where possible, Golf City taxis know where to come. Grass strips just don't come any better than this!

Visited March 2011. Hugely friendly, very quiet, looks deserted and info on the web kind of implies it's not open any more but it is! They mowed it especially for us, and it was as smooth as a bowling green.

Watch the crosswind as you take off over the trees (we left in gale force conditions mind you and even a Cessna 182 became nigh-on uncontrollable at 100ft in the roll-over from them before we cleared it) but in normal weather conditions it's a beautiful stop. They don't seem to have many long-distance arrivals, though. We were the only people we could find in the log ever to have come from Oxford. We'd go back, definitely (now we've sorted out the plane's electrics)...

Not often seeing anyone there, other than on weekends, but the place is really kept in a pristine condition, with a very smooth short-grass, good-length runway

Since the Skydive club left, many more aircraft have been visiting than previously so there can be quite a bit of action on sunny days. Don’t, therefore, assume no one else will be about! For the time being, blind call on 129.9 although this may change to Safetycom in the future.

Otherwise, everything in the previous review holds good.

The strip (06/24) is 600m of well-drained smooth grass, fairly level and has a large windsock mid way down. There is a model aircraft strip on top of the 'hump' at the 06 threshold. Please don't land or taxi on this as the model flyers spend ages getting it really smooth! This airfield can be tricky to spot - even for the locals - so have a good look at the map and the aerial photographs at: http://content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/. The runway has rough areas to either side and the actual runway edges are sometimes difficult to make out, especially when landing into sun on 24. Final approach to 06 is over trees and a power line and, at touchdown (on the back-slope of the 'hump'), there can be turbulence from trees on the right when the wind is from the E to SE. There is a road immediately short of the 24 threshold and since this is very close to the clubhouse, look out for traffic crossing at the last moment!

When the parachuting club is operating, the lively clubhouse will sell you tea/coffee/snacks at very reasonable prices.

There is no one to collect landing fees but an honesty box sits outside the parachuting 'ops block' and the owner appreciates a few quid for your visit.

Don't forget to say hello to the pilots usually found tinkering with their aeroplanes by the hangars opposite the clubhouse!