During the week commencing 9th June 08, the NHS saw fit to send me on a course at Woking in Surrey, by chance this is where Fairoaks Aerodrome is located.

On the 9th we finished our days training at 16:00, the weather was warm and sunny so I decided to get a taxi out to Fairoaks (unless your going there by Car, Taxi is about the only easy way to get to the airfield from Woking) for what I hoped was a pleasant evenings spotting. I had heard from several forums that they are not very spotter friendly which always makes me cautious, what I found was the opposite. There are several signs around the Alan Mann hangers which say "No spotters beyond this point" which purely from a health and safety aspect I can fully see why they are there. I doubt many seasoned spotters would intentionaly wander into any active area on an aerodrome, aside from that the staff seemed friendly and as long as you stay in one of the 2 car parks, the flying club bar area or on the public footpath around the airfield they are happy for you to be there. The bar is very resonably priced and offers a good range of bar snacks, butties and beverages and the seating area offers a good view of the airfield. Several GA types were constantly in the circuit and some twins were also arriving and departing up to about 19:00.

After 3 hours the tower closed for the day and the traffic dropped off significantly, so a steady walk the 7 miles back to my hotel at Bridge Barn was a nice relaxing finish, with a couple of pints of Surrey's finest to help me along that is.