Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
RAF Kinloss lies on the southern shore of the Moray Firth in Moray, Scotland, and was for over seventy years one of the RAF's principal maritime patrol bases, home in turn to Shackletons and Nimrods. The airfield closed to routine RAF flying in 2011 and the site became Kinloss Barracks in 2012, though its long runway was retained for some years as a relief landing ground before being formally withdrawn from aviation use. For the simulator pilot it remains a fascinating slice of Cold War and wartime Coastal Command history rather than a field to plan a live approach to today.
RAF Kinloss was a Royal Air Force station near the village of Kinloss on the Moray Firth in north east Scotland, opened in 1939 and closed to regular RAF flying in 2011. It is best known as the long-standing home of the RAF's maritime patrol force, first Shackletons and then Nimrods, and is of interest to sim pilots chiefly for its rich Coastal Command history and its unusual afterlife as an army barracks with an airfield that has, until recently, been kept usable on an occasional basis.
The airfield sits beside the village of Kinloss on the Moray Firth coast, close to the town of Forres and only a short distance from RAF Lossiemouth, with which it shared a long and often friendly rivalry. For many years after RAF flying ended, Kinloss was retained as a relief landing ground for aircraft based at Lossiemouth, though it could not be booked by other aircraft for diversions or refuelling. The military aerodrome traffic zone associated with the field was formally withdrawn in January 2022, and it no longer forms part of controlled or notified military airspace in its own right.
The field has two parallel hard runways aligned 07/25. The main runway, 07/25, is 7,577 ft long, with a hard surface and lit. A parallel runway, 07L/25R, is shorter, listed at 6,383 ft for 07L and 6,487 ft for 25R, also hard-surfaced and lit. There is no ILS. Fixed-wing flying at the airfield ended in 2021 following the permanent closure of the runway.
No radio frequencies, navaids or instrument approach information for the airfield are given in the sources consulted, and with the closure of the runway and the withdrawal of the military aerodrome traffic zone in January 2022 there is no longer a routine air traffic or radio service at Kinloss.
No published circuit heights, joining instructions or noise abatement procedures for Kinloss are given in the sources. In its later years as a relief landing ground for RAF Lossiemouth, use of the airfield was restricted to based or authorised aircraft rather than being open for general diversions or refuelling stops.
The site was surveyed in 1937 and land at Kinloss Home Farm and neighbouring farms was compulsorily purchased in January 1938 for a new flying training school. Construction by the contractor Mowlem began in March 1938, with three C-type hangars, support buildings and three grass runways each about 3,301 ft long laid out by August that year. RAF Kinloss opened on 1 April 1939 under No. 21 Group, with No. 14 Flying Training School equipped with Airspeed Oxfords, Hawker Harts and Audaxes, and later Harvards and Ansons. In late 1939 the station hosted detachments of Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys from several squadrons flying anti-submarine operations, and Spitfires of No. 609 Squadron were briefly based there to defend Home Fleet ships in Loch Ewe. No. 45 Maintenance Unit formed at Kinloss in April 1940 to store and fit out new aircraft, handling a wide range of types including Blenheims, Wellingtons and Halifaxes. The German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 brought increased operational flying, and No. 19 Operational Training Unit formed at Kinloss the following month to train heavy-bomber crews on Whitleys and Ansons. After the end of the war Kinloss passed to Coastal Command, adapting Lancasters for anti-submarine and search and rescue work and later operating Neptunes, Shackletons and, from 1969, Nimrods, becoming the RAF's principal maritime patrol base and a key Cold War watch post over Soviet naval activity in the Norwegian Sea. In July 1962 the station was granted the Civic Freedom of the Royal and Ancient Burgh of Forres, the first time any military unit had been so honoured in the burgh's history. Nimrods from Kinloss flew operationally as late as 2003 in support of Operation Telic. Plans to replace the Nimrod MR2 with the Nimrod MRA4 were cancelled in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, and regular RAF flying at Kinloss ceased on 31 July 2011. In November 2011 it was announced that 39 Engineer Regiment (Air Support), Royal Engineers, would move from Waterbeach Barracks to Kinloss, and on 26 July 2012, after 73 years as an RAF station, the RAF Ensign was lowered for the last time and the site became Kinloss Barracks. The runway was thereafter maintained as a relief landing ground for RAF Lossiemouth and used by the Moray Flying Club. Flying briefly resumed in 2020 when the first RAF Poseidon MRA1 arrived in the UK and operated temporarily from Kinloss while Lossiemouth's runway intersection was resurfaced, with Typhoon training also relocated there during that closure. Fixed-wing flying at Kinloss ended for good in 2021 with the permanent closure of the runway, and the military aerodrome traffic zone was formally withdrawn in January 2022, prompting the Moray Flying Club to relocate to Lossiemouth. In November 2025 Lossiemouth-based Typhoon and Poseidon aircraft used the former airfield again in a short-notice exercise to practise operating from an austere environment.
The site is now Kinloss Barracks, home to 39 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, and is an operational British Army installation rather than an active civil or RAF airfield. The runway was permanently closed to routine flying in 2021 and the associated military aerodrome traffic zone was withdrawn in January 2022, after which the Moray Flying Club, which had previously used the field, relocated to RAF Lossiemouth. The airfield is nonetheless occasionally reactivated for military exercises, as in November 2025 when Typhoon and Poseidon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth used the runway to practise short-notice austere-environment operations. There is no scheduled fuel, air traffic service or general access for visiting aircraft, and the field should not be regarded as available for planned diversions.
