Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lasham Airfield is a large private aerodrome in Hampshire, some 3.6 miles north-west of Alton, and home to the Lasham Gliding Society, the largest gliding club in the world. Built as a wartime RAF station in 1942, it retains a single long hard runway that today sees a mix of intensive glider operations, aero-tow and winch launching, and the jet maintenance work of 2Excel Engineering, making it a fascinating but demanding destination for visiting powered-aircraft pilots.
Lasham Airfield lies in the Hampshire countryside north-west of Alton, on the north side of Lasham village. It is owned and operated by the Lasham Gliding Society, one of the world's largest gliding clubs, and shares its single long runway with 2Excel Engineering, a company that maintains jet airliners in hangars on the airfield's south side. For a simulator pilot the appeal lies in this unusual combination of a wartime fighter and bomber station turned into Britain's premier gliding centre, with the occasional large jet also using the field.
The airfield sits within the area worked by Farnborough Approach, whose frequency is listed for the field, and pilots overflying Lasham are asked not to descend below 3,618 ft QNH because of the density of gliding activity below that height. It is located roughly 3.6 miles north-west of Alton, on high ground to the north of Lasham village, with Basingstoke lying to the north and the Farnborough control area to the north-east.
Lasham has a single physical runway, 09/27, of 5,540 ft with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS at the field.
Farnborough Approach can be contacted on 125.25 MHz, and glider operations at Lasham are conducted on 129.9 MHz. There is no instrument approach or other navaid associated with the airfield.
Powered-aircraft pilots wishing to visit Lasham must obtain prior permission and a briefing on the airfield's hazards before arrival. These hazards include dense concentrations of thermalling gliders, with up to 100 gliders sometimes airborne in the vicinity at once, winch-launch cables that can reach up to 3,000 ft above the ground, and occasional movements of large jet airliners associated with the resident maintenance operation. Aircraft overflying the field are requested to remain above 3,618 ft QNH to stay clear of glider and winching activity.
The airfield lies immediately north of Lasham village, with the diverted Alton–Basingstoke road (A339) passing to the west. Avenue Road, running east–west along the north boundary of the airfield, is a useful linear feature for orientation, leading east to the Golden Pot public house at its junction with the B3349 Alton–Odiham road. Alton itself, some 3.6 miles to the south-east, provides a larger town reference for those approaching from that direction.
Lasham Airfield was built on farmland in 1942, a construction that required the wartime diversion of the Alton–Basingstoke road around the west side of Lasham village; the new road, built by Italian prisoners of war using concrete sets, still bypasses the village today. Opening under Army Co-operation Command's 38 Wing in November 1942, the airfield passed to RAF Fighter Command in mid-1943, hosting squadrons flying Hurricanes, Typhoons and Spitfires, before becoming a base for the Mosquitos and Mitchells of No. 2 Group's tactical bombers later that year. Notably, on 14 April 1944 six Mosquitos of 613 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Robert Bateson, flew from Lasham to bomb the Gestapo's Central Records Registry in The Hague at a height of 50 ft, destroying incriminating resistance records with great precision. In the nights around D-Day, squadrons based at Lasham attacked enemy supply lines and armour in Normandy in support of the landings. The RAF ceased operations in 1948, though General Aircraft Ltd continued testing military gliders at the site. Recreational gliding became the airfield's principal activity from 1951, after Major Tony Deane-Drummond re-established the Army Gliding Club there following its removal from Odiham. Dan-Air Engineering set up its maintenance base at Lasham in 1954, drawn by the ample hangar space and a newly resurfaced runway, and went on to convert Comet 4 jetliners there in the 1960s. During the same decade, the Royal Aircraft Establishment's Space Department sited satellite tracking dishes, including one housed in a large white dome, on the south side of the airfield; these have since been removed, along with most of the wartime buildings. The Lasham Gliding Society purchased the airfield from the Ministry of Defence in 1999, and a memorial to those who served at Lasham between 1942 and 1948 was dedicated at the airfield entrance in September 2006.
Lasham is home to the Lasham Gliding Society, the largest gliding club in the world, and gliding remains the dominant activity, with large numbers of gliders regularly airborne and winch launches a routine feature of daily operations. The airfield also hosts 2Excel Engineering, which maintains jet aircraft for various airlines in hangars on the south side of the runway, so visiting pilots may see large airliners using the field alongside the gliders. Powered-aircraft visitors require prior permission before arrival because of the density of gliding traffic and the presence of winch cables and jet movements.
