Netherthorpe Airfield

Netherthorpe Aerodrome

RAF Netherthorpe
Netherthorpe Aerodrome; RAF Netherthorpe; ;
	IATA: none; ICAO: EGNF;
Summary
Airport type	Private
Owner/Operator	Sheffield Aero Club
Location	Worksop
Elevation AMSL	254 ft / 77 m
Coordinates	53°19′01″N 001°11′47″W / 53.31694°N 1.19639°W
Website	Flying at Netherthorpe
Map
	EGNF Location in South Yorkshire
Runways
	Sources: UK AIP at NATS

Netherthorpe Airfield (ICAO: EGNF) is located 2 NM (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) west by north of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. The airfield is in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. It was opened as a civil aerodrome in 1935.

Netherthorpe is owned and operated by Sheffield Aero Club. The 18/36 runway at 382 m × 18 m (1,253 ft × 59 ft) is the shortest licensed runway in the UK,^{[citation needed]} and probably in Europe, and is barely longer than some helicopter landing pads (such as Penzance Heliport which is 375 m × 45 m (1,230 ft × 148 ft)).

Flying training is provided by Sheffield Aero Club and by the Phoenix Flying School. Aircraft maintenance is available from Dukeries Aviation.

Netherthorpe Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P601) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Sheffield Aero Club Limited). The aerodrome is not licensed for night use (though it was until the 1990s) and there are currently no airfield lights.^[2]

History

The First 'Privateers'

TBA

Sheffield Aero Club

Second World War

The first RAF personnel arrived at Netherthorpe on 28 June 1940. A plaque on the outside of the club house of Sheffield Aero Club records Pilot Officer Grosvenor Louis Edmunds (1917-1940) who crashed at Netherthorpe on the 6th September in lysander P1692^[3] and died in hospital on 13 September 1940. He was coming in to land from a photographic reconnaissance mission when his Lysander aircraft hit a lorry on the airfield and caught fire. His gunner, Sgt Letham, managed to escape. A portrait is inside the club house.^[4]

On 7 November 1940, 613 Squadron moved to nearby RAF Firbeck with its Lysander aircraft. Netherthorpe was widely used for secret operations, Lysanders taking SOE agents on missions to occupied Europe.

References

^ Netherthorpe - EGNF
^ Civil Aviation Authority Aerodrome Ordinary Licences
^ 613 sqn operational diary
^ Further details at Rotherham War Memorials

External links

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[aip-1] Netherthorpe - EGNF

[2] Civil Aviation Authority Aerodrome Ordinary Licences

[3] 613 sqn operational diary

[4] Further details at Rotherham War Memorials

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