Club Guidelines
Welcome to Green Dragons! Here are our club guidelines and rules together with basic site and airspace information.
Our sites are all on privately owned land that we pay significant annual rents to fly from, these sites are close to London and Biggin Hill Airport. These rents are paid by Green Dragons Airports for the flying school with the club membership fees making a small contribution, therefore any additional support and using the GD shop are very much appreciated!
In addition to the GD school these sites are shared with other non-flying activity businesses such as the shoot and equestrian sports. It is paramount that we maintain excellent relationships with our landlords and these other businesses.
Please don’t fly alone on any of our sites unless pilot rated and even then we advise against it. You don’t need to be accompanied by another pilot, anyone will do, this is just to help and/or raise the alarm in case of an accident.
Please announce any intention to visit our sites on the WhatsApp groups. This allows GD to deconflict our activities with the other farm users and encourages other pilots to join you!
Local airspace
Our sites border the Biggin Hill ATZ. Under no circumstances fly into the ATZ, if you do the tower will see you and potentially shut down Biggin air traffic and call the police. This has happened in the past albeit not with GD pilots.
ATZ (red circle) shows proximity to Kennel (Orange), Warren Barn (Purple) and Pilgrims (Yellow) farms
Biggin tower should be notified for all powered flight sessions from any site and all free flight sessions from Pilgrims. Free flight sessions from WBF that expect to go high should also notify the tower.
The controllers are very friendly and are expecting your call on 01959 578552. Just tell them the site and the activity, i.e. “We have paragliders / paramotors operating from Warren Barn Farm / Pilgrims Farm today”.
The controllers will then alert all local air traffic that speaks to the tower. If you are unsure whether the tower has already been called by another pilot then call the tower, they would rather receive duplicate calls than not be called at all. After calling the tower let everyone know in the WhatsApp group to avoid loads of duplicate calls. They will usually ask you to call them back when finished, last pilot to leave should do so.
Airspace ceiling at all our sites is 2500ft AMSL as we are under the London TMA. Powered pilots and pilots attempting XC from Pilgrims must also be aware of the Gatwick CTA (1500ft to 2500ft) that lies to the south of the M25 where the ceiling drops to 1500ft AMSL. These restrictions lead to the corridor between Pilgrims and the M25 being very busy with general aviation.
SiteS AND rules
This is not a site guide in the traditional sense, new members please arrange for an onsite briefing with a club coach or CFI.
Warren Barn Farm
Please use the Slines Oak Road entrance next to GD HQ. Please don’t drive on the grass unless having been told to as this is usually being cropped for hay. Google map links to main takeoffs:
Toilets are located near GD HQ, we pay for them so please use them.
Shoot
During the winter (1st Oct - 31st Jan) we share the farm with the shoot. Please don’t arrive at any of the WBF sites during this period without first asking / checking on the WhatsApp group. Quite often we can work around the shoot and fly some take offs whilst they shoot others but this requires careful coordination that must go through CFI.
Horses
Horses use WBF a lot. Large equestrian events will be notified to GD club members should they prevent flying from one or more take offs. Outside of large events we operate a live and let live policy with the horses and try and avoid each other. If you see a horse rider entering the field you are likely to land in then wait for it to move through before launching. Similarly, horse riders that see you in the air should wait before entering your landing area, if they do not then please land as far from them as possible.
Powered flights
To avoid noise complaints from our neighbours do not fly over the village and do not hang around over the take off. Please take off and leave the area. To further reduce complaints take off windows should be called on WhatsApp, all pilots should take off within 20 mins, then another window cannot be called for 2 hours. This is to prevent a continuous stream of noisy activity throughout the day.
Pilgrims farm
Please park in the layby, cross over the road and walk down the steps into the field. The North downs way traverses the top of the field so expect to see a lot of walkers. If you land in the bottom field then use the stile to cross back into the take off field. Don’t take off from the adjacent fields to the east and west. The ATZ is located over the golf course behind the take off two hundred yards from the road and Biggin tower can see us flying this site, try to stay south of the road to create horizontal separation. Calling Biggin before flying is mandatory. Google map links:
Kennel Farm
This is the flat tow field and occasional power site, also perfect for ground handling. Please enter through the gate by the football club and keep to the edge of the field when driving around it. Google map links:
Weather station
The club weather station is installed on WBF and can be accessed here:
https://holfuy.com/en/weather/1301
The same data overlayed on a wind rose for our sites is here - note image below is not live, for live data visit the link!
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