Fellow microlight pilot Adrian and I decided to see if we could make it to one of the local farm strips to the north of Barton.
Rossall Field, which is the base for attitude airsports, a small microlight school where flexwing, fixed wing and quite rarely, tailwheel microlight flying is taught, came recommended to us by another pilot. Rossall Field is a farm strip at Tarn Farm in Cockerham, Lancashire with 2 runways (both with reciprocal bearings). Runway 02/20 is 305 metres long and 11 metres wide, and there is a shorter 10/28 runway which is just 270 metres long. Compare that with Barton’s shortest runway (which I have operated from only once, during training) which is a generous 398 metres long and 60 metres wide!
Rossall Field is close to 2 other microlight sites and Cockerham’s parachute dropzone, so correct field identification is really important.
Spotting the site proved to be just as difficult as the time I tried to find Ince Airfield (still not landed there yet!). A grass strip with a farm next to it, from 2,000 feet looks pretty much like any farm with green fields! And there are lots of those in Lancashire!