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RAF Woodvale is an active Royal Air Force station near Formby and Ainsdale, a few miles south of Southport in Merseyside, best known today as a training base for university air squadrons and air cadets. Built in 1941 as a night-fighter station for the defence of Liverpool, it later became famous as the last RAF airfield to operate Spitfires on routine duty, and it remains a working military aerodrome with restricted civilian access.
RAF Woodvale is a Royal Air Force station situated in the area known as Woodvale, close to the towns of Formby and Ainsdale and about 4 miles south of Southport, Merseyside. It is operated by the RAF under No. 22 Group (Training) and is home to university air squadrons, an air experience flight and a volunteer gliding squadron, making it of interest to sim pilots as an active, historically significant military field rather than a civilian general aviation strip.
The airfield lies to the south of Southport, adjacent to the towns of Formby and Ainsdale, in Merseyside. It is a Ministry of Defence site controlled by No. 22 Group (Training) within the RAF's training organisation.
Woodvale has three physical runway pairs, all hard-surfaced and lit. The main runway, 03/21, is 5,366 ft long in both directions. Runway 08/26 has declared lengths of 2,512 ft on runway 08 and 2,828 ft on runway 26. Runway 16/34 has declared lengths of 1,894 ft on runway 16 and 2,797 ft on runway 34, the difference between directions reflecting differing declared distances rather than separate strips. There is no ILS at the field.
Published frequencies for Woodvale include an air-ground frequency of 121 MHz, approach frequencies of 121 MHz and 282.57 MHz, and tower frequencies of 119.75 MHz and 278.2 MHz.
The station sits in the area known as Woodvale between the towns of Formby and Ainsdale, with Southport itself a short distance to the north, making these settlements useful ground references when approaching the field from the surrounding Merseyside coastline.
Woodvale was built as an all-weather night-fighter airfield intended to help defend Liverpool, but it did not become operational until 7 December 1941, shortly after the peak of the Liverpool Blitz in May of that year. The Polish 308 (Krakowski) Squadron was the first unit to arrive, on 12 December 1941 from RAF Northolt, remaining until April 1942. Other Polish squadrons, including 315 (Deblinski) and 317 (Wilenski), also flew Spitfire IIs and Vbs from Woodvale as RAF units rotated through for rest periods away from southern England, defending Merseyside during their stay. Anti-aircraft calibration and target-towing units for all three services also operated from the airfield, and in April 1945 it briefly served as a tender to the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm station at Burscough, HMS Ringtail, under the name HMS Ringtail II. After a period of inactivity, Woodvale reopened on 22 July 1946 when the Spitfire Mk.14s of No. 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, moved in from Speke; the squadron re-equipped with Spitfire Mk.22s in February 1949 and briefly flew Gloster Meteor F.4 and F.8 jets between May and July 1951 before moving to RAF Hooton Park. The Temperature and Humidity Flight, flying Spitfires and Mosquitos, was based at Woodvale from 1953 to 1958, and in 1957 the last operational flight by an RAF Spitfire, in connection with this meteorological unit, was flown from the station. No. 5 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit moved in on 1 January 1958 and operated target-towing Meteors until its disbandment on 30 September 1971. Since 1971 Woodvale has remained a training station. Liverpool University Air Squadron moved in from RAF Hooton Park on 2 July 1951, and what became Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron arrived from Barton Aerodrome in March 1953. No. 10 Air Experience Flight formed at Woodvale on 25 August 1958, and No. 631 Volunteer Gliding Squadron moved in from RAF Sealand in March 2006. From 1971 the station also hosted the annual Woodvale International Rally, which grew from a model aircraft show into a wider vehicle and aircraft event before being relocated to Victoria Park in Southport in 2012 and permanently cancelled after its 50th running in 2019.
RAF Woodvale remains an active training station under No. 22 Group, hosting No. 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force, No. 10 Air Experience Flight, Liverpool University Air Squadron and Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron flying the Grob Tutor T1, together with No. 631 Volunteer Gliding Squadron operating the Grob Viking TX1. As a military aerodrome, prior permission is required for any civilian flying activity. Aircraft based at Woodvale do not conduct night flying on weekdays or at weekends, and there is no official public viewing area for aircraft at the station. A BAe Hawk T1A serves as the station's gate guardian, having replaced an earlier Jet Provost in November 2017.
