Pilot reviews of Perranporth Airfield

Had a great flight there. Very helpful with great cheap food. Fuel is also a good price

I had a very pleasant weekend based at Perranporth in G-OJAG (C172) with a trip out to the Scilly Isles and tours round Mounts Bay and Lands End. A very friendly welcome, but didn't hear much on the radio as the chap who operates it multitasks that duty with cooking in the cafe and operating the fuel pumps! Very reasonable £15 landing fee and £7.50 overnight parking.

We flew into Perranporth on the 15th August in our Archer and unfortunately had an incident which grounded the aircraft.

The guys at Perranporth could not have been more helpful and even managed to get us a lift over to the Isles of Scilly in their Arrow.

They went well above and beyond and I cannot recommend the airfield and staff highly enough

Flew into Perranporth on Tuesday 8 July from Henstridge and flew out to Blackpool. As always, the airfield is a lovely destination and it's future seems pretty secure at present. A friendly welcome and an offer of a cup of tea or coffee, (the café was closed on this day), was most welcome after dodging showers all the way from Dorset.

Refuelling was easy and quick with parking on the grass adjacent to the tower afterwards.

On departure, a 30G35Kt wind was "sporting" to say the least due to rotor turbulence from the cliff tops. However, having been here before, we were prepared for it and once past the cliff tops, all was smooth once more.

Perranporth is one of my favourite airfields and I am very pleased to see it thriving and getting ready for its future.

Visited Perranporth on 18/06/2014 in G-ROLY a C172 based at Netherthorpe. Route was IFR via TNT and BCN VORs at 5000ft or so with a lot of cloud around. The cloud soon cleared a little near Cornwall and we had a useful traffic service from Newquay radar.

We had arranged PPR with Perranporth prior to departure and there were no issues in finding the airfield. The A/G operator requested we make blind calls after the initial contact due to him needing to go downstairs. We landed on runway 05. The runways are all in good condition and there were a few local aircraft present.

We were offered the 2 remaining Cornish pasties and a drink with some chocolate cake to finish by the very friendly staff. A lunch was taking place inside with a group of elderly people but we sat out in the warm weather.

The staff were most helpful in getting us refuelled and we learned the recent sale of the airfield had fallen through however it should still survive which is great news.

We filed our flightplan and this was activated upon departure with no prompting by us, great help!

We flew the return leg but decided to have a tour of Lundy Island (by air) en-route.

A great airfield and one we will use when we get round to planning a trip to the Scilly Isles.

The airfield is just as previously have written. It is a great airfield, located on the cliffs which makes a dramatic scene and is fairly easy to locate. I was very grateful to the Tower/A/G for staying open 35mins after closing as we were delayed leaving Goodwood. The Tower even ordered a cab for us, which arrived minutes after we landed. Newquay APP helpful as were all the radar services, note that all the Military close down before 5pm. Only £8 into Perranporth and a good range of hotels. Thoroughly recommended and indeed it is exactly what makes private flying so worthwhile.

My son and I flew in from EGBO (Halfpenny Green) on Thursday 16th August 2012 in a Diamond DA40 G-OCCL. It was part of a "hours building X-country exercise" for his CPL, having attained his PPL in just 3 months this year. We took off after spending about 1 hour at Peranporth for Exeter (shorth stay) then back to EGBO.

The approach and landing was a bit awry, wind was gusting around 23-25 kts but Simon handled the landing like seasoned pilot and he's only 18yrs old and started flying only in January of this year.

The people at the airfield (two in the tower) were friendly and courteous, and we had a couple of drinks from the vending machine located in small cafe area at the base of the tower.

The take off was equally as challenging but yet again Simon took it all in his stride in a calm confident manner

I flew into Perranporth on Sunday and decided I had to write a review of the visit as it was TOTALLY deserving.

I flew out of Dunkeswell in my Skyranger 912 and had a great flight down to Perranporth. On approaching the Aerodrome I contacted the tower and was given great service including surface conditions (18-22 knot crosswind) - which although it sounds normal is actually quite rare when using GA aerodromes. My approach for 09 was over the water (and the cliff) at the end of the runway! A very new experience which gave stunning views. They also gave me advice of turbulence over the cliff. The Skyranger with a MTOW of 450KG is really at it's limit in these conditions and they were professional and VERY helpful.

I landed and taxied over to the tower where the guys were very welcoming and charged me an extremely low landing fee of £4.50 + vat (the benefit of a low weight aircraft hey?).

They also advised me on getting to either St Ives or Perranporth towns as I was desperately in need of a pasty! I opted for St Ives as it was a nice walk along the cliff path. Got to the beach and had the obligatory pasty and ice cream in the sun and walked back to the airfield.

The guys were a credit to the aerodrome operator and the day's flying made me realise how priveliged I am to be a pilot and part of the GA community.

For any of you reading this, how many times do you get in your plane and just fly around in circles, or go to the same old local airfields? It's very easy to stay in this comfort zone and be fearful of going to somewhere different in case they are pretentious or think they are an international airport. It sounds silly but I am sure many people stay in this comfort zone and deprive themselves of the real pleasure of actually going to places because they are worried about complicated procedures they haven't used for ages or critique from controllers etc.

Many of you reading this may be far more seasoned pilots than me, however if you are just a normal pilot and are thinking about going to Perranporth - unsure about whether to go or not then rest assured you will have a truly rewarding experience, beautiful scenery, a warm welcome and service, so head to Perranporth - you will be really glad you did!

I will definately be going back to Perranporth and can't endorse this great Aerodrome enough. Try it out - you won't be dissapointed.

Finally, many thanks to the guys at Perranporth - it was one of the best day's flying I've had in several years!

Jay

The cafe, A/G and parking/tie-down are excellent and the location is second to none. the runways are a little worn and anything but flat, but not bad condition at all. The approaches over the cliffs are pretty unique as stated by a previous poster.

We flew to and from the Scillies on the Saturday (27th) after signing an out of hours indemnity for a late return. The advice on local procedures was super and made the flight VERY easy.

We stayed at "Penkerris" in St Agnes - lovely B&B - and ate at the Railway Inn (excellent food, friendly (dog's too) and a PPL as the landlord!). Can also recommend the Driftwood Spars also in St Agnes and the Watering Hole (actually on the beach) and the Seiner's Arms in Perranporth town.

This is a great destination and is one of the best preserved WW2 fighter airfields in the UK. We did the coastal walk fron St Agnes to Perranporth (town) on the Sunday and the coastal path goes along the old fighter dispersals and you can explore the well-preserved fighter pens and shelters - great fun!

For those few of us who think taking our dogs with us adds to the fun, then Cornwall is very dog friendly - including beaches, pubs, B&B and taxis.

Highly recommended.

Enjoyed the day out in Perranporth, the beach is nice there, next time I'll bring the surfboard! Huge thanks to the tourist information centre (http://www.perranporthinfo.co.uk) who helped me a lot. Great flight, everyone who has a day to spare should defently go there.

Ever had an airfield owner come and help wash your aircraft,refuel and welcome all flying and non flying visiters the warmest of welcomes, they do at PP.

Well done all at PP you have restored the faith in GA aerodromes to which some can only follow!!!!

On backtracking to the hold we were treated to a low level flyby by an RAF Hercules which really made our day, now where is that camera. What a really terrific place for a day out.