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
Little Snoring Airfield is a private, unlicensed grass and hard-surface strip near Fakenham in north Norfolk, built as a wartime RAF bomber and electronic warfare station and now home to the McAully Flying Group and microlight manufacturer The Light Aircraft Company. It offers straightforward VFR access in uncontrolled airspace, with a single hard runway retained from the original three-runway RAF layout.
Little Snoring Airfield lies just north of the village of Little Snoring, a couple of miles east-northeast of Fakenham in north Norfolk. Once a full Royal Air Force station, it is now operated by the McAully Flying Group, a small private syndicate, and also hosts The Light Aircraft Company, which builds the Sherwood Ranger biplane microlight on site. For a sim pilot the appeal lies in its wartime pedigree, its relaxed, informal general aviation character, and the surviving relic of a much larger Bomber Command airfield still visible in the surrounding fields.
The airfield sits in uncontrolled airspace in north Norfolk, immediately north of the A148 and east of the Little to Great Snoring road, close to the village of Little Snoring itself. Fakenham lies about two miles to the west-southwest. The former RAF Sculthorpe site lies to the west, and low-flying military aircraft can occasionally be encountered operating from that direction, which is why visiting pilots are advised to use strobes and landing lights.
The airfield retains one physical runway, 07/25, a hard surface 2704 feet in length and lit. This is the surviving portion of what was originally the longest of RAF Little Snoring's three wartime concrete runways, the other two having been broken up in 1983 and no longer used for flying.
Little Snoring has no air traffic control and is not licensed. Pilots make blind calls to Little Snoring Traffic on 118.130 to report position and intentions once the airfield is in sight. There are no navaids or instrument approaches associated with the field.
Circuits are left-hand and flown at 1,000 feet QFE. An overhead join is recommended, particularly because non-radio traffic also uses the airfield. Pilots are advised to use strobes and landing lights, since low-flying military aircraft can be operating from the former RAF Sculthorpe site to the west of Little Snoring.
The airfield lies north of the A148 and east of the minor road linking Little Snoring and Great Snoring, making the village and this road junction useful references for a first approach. The old wartime control tower, though derelict, still stands near the airfield and can help with visual identification, as can the pair of surviving T2 hangars on the south side of the site.
RAF Little Snoring opened in July 1943, built as a satellite and dispersal station for RAF Foulsham some six miles to the south-east. It was quickly upgraded to full station status under No. 3 Group and initially housed Avro Lancaster IIs of 115 Squadron and 1678 Heavy Conversion Flight. From December 1943 the station passed to No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group, and de Havilland Mosquitoes and Bristol Beaufighters of squadrons including 169, 515, 23 and 141 flew electronic warfare and night intruder operations over occupied Europe. The station suffered a Luftwaffe attack in April 1944 that put it out of action for some time, and by the war's end twelve Lancasters and forty-three Mosquitoes had been lost on operations from the airfield. Flying ceased in September 1945 and the site passed to care and maintenance, briefly reactivated in 1950 for a civilian-contract anti-aircraft co-operation unit flying Spitfires, Mosquito target-tugs and Vampires before final closure in the early 1950s. The site was sold into civilian hands in 1958 and taken on by the Fakenham Flying Group, later renamed the McAully Flying Group in memory of founder Elwyn
Little Snoring is today an unlicensed, privately owned airfield operated by the McAully Flying Group, which does not charge for landing or overnight parking, though donations towards upkeep are welcomed. Facilities include a private hangar and a clubhouse with pre-flight briefing facilities, kitchen and toilets. The site is also home to The Light Aircraft Company, which manufactures the Sherwood Ranger microlight. Prior permission is not required to visit by air.
