Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
Wombleton is a small private airfield in North Yorkshire, occupying part of the site of the former RAF Wombleton bomber training station near Helmsley. Today it offers three grass or hard runways for general aviation, set amid the rolling countryside on the southern edge of the North York Moors.
Wombleton (ICAO: EGHX) is a private airfield near the village of Wombleton in North Yorkshire, occupying part of the site of the former Royal Air Force station of the same name. For a visiting sim pilot it offers an interesting mix of wartime heritage and quiet rural flying, set in gently rolling farmland close to the southern fringe of the North York Moors.
The airfield lies in North Yorkshire close to the market town of Helmsley, about 3.8 miles (6.1 km) to the airfield's west, and roughly 11.8 miles (19 km) north-east of Easingwold. It sits just south of the village of Wombleton itself, which lies just south of the main Thirsk to Scarborough road (A170), and is within reach of the North York Moors National Park to the north and east.
Wombleton has three physical runways, all with a hard surface. Runway 09/27 is the longest at 3209 ft, runway 03/21 measures 3061 ft, and runway 16/34 measures 2796 ft. There is no ILS at the field.
The village of Wombleton, immediately to the north of the airfield, and the A170 Thirsk to Scarborough road a short distance further north both serve as useful landmarks when routing towards the field. The market town of Helmsley, some 3.8 miles to the west, and the wider North York Moors landscape to the north and east provide additional reference points for a pilot approaching from further afield.
The airfield began life as RAF Wombleton, opened in 1943 as a sub-station of RAF Topcliffe with concrete runways. It formed part of RAF Bomber Command's No. 6 Group RCAF, grouped together with the main station at Topcliffe and the station at Dishforth as No. 61 (Training) Base, later renumbered No. 76 Training Base under No. 7 (Training) Group in November 1944. No. 1666 'Mohawk' Heavy Conversion Unit was based there from October 1943 until August 1945, converting aircrew trained on twin-engined types such as the Vickers Wellington and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley onto four-engined heavy bombers including the Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster. No. 1679 Heavy Conversion Flight was also briefly based there in late 1943 and early 1944 before disbanding into No. 1666 HCU. After the war the RAF retained the station for several years, with the RAF Regiment using the site as a battle school, and No. 261 Maintenance Unit RAF was present from November 1945 to September 1946. A memorial to the Canadians of No. 6 (RCAF) Group and to the RAF and WAAF personnel who served at Wombleton during the Second World War was dedicated on 28 May 2001 and stands near the turning to the old airfield on the Harome road.
Wombleton aerodrome is now a private airfield, with part of the former RAF site also used for aircraft maintenance and the surrounding land occupied by a caravan campsite. The former Flying Control building from the wartime station still stands on the site. As a private airfield, prior permission is required before flying in.
