Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Continent: Europe

Country: United Kingdom

Region: England

Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood
Location	Doncaster, South Yorkshire
IATA code	DSA
ICAO code	EGCN
Airport type	Commercial
Website	http://www.robinhoodairport.com
Overview map	[ ]
Communications
Tower	128.775
Ground
Clearance
Approach	126.225
Departure	126.225
ATIS	134.95

Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood Airport is situated south of Doncaster. It is the newest airport to open in the UK, formerly RAF Finningley. Due to still being relatively new, it is very quiet in terms of movements. This has picked up for summer 2009, with a few new operators commencing flights, however it's not the sort of place you would want to spend an entire day at though, unless you take a good book! Well worth stopping by if you're in the area though, and the authorities are very friendly to spotters.

Official Spotting Locations

There are no official spotting locations as yet.

Other Spotting Locations

Runway 02 end

From the airport turn left, and head for the A638. Turn left to head south on this road. Take the first road on the left (High Common Lane). This road runs between the A638 and A614. There is a layby on the northern side offering good views and photography of aircraft landing and departing on runway 02.

Map of this location: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=465625&Y=396545&A=Y&Z=3

Alongside the runway

From this location, continue straight past the end of the runway and you will come to a roundabout. Take the first exit, onto the Old Bawtry Road. This road comes closer to the runway and then runs parallel to the runway for most of its length. This offers good views of all traffic landing and departing on both runways, and there is parking for the entire length in a layby that seemingly stretches the length of the runway. You are at the same level as the runway and about 40-100ft from the side of the runway. A 300mm lens is plenty for most traffic.

This spot is good for photography until about 13:00-14:00 before shots start appearing backlit, and is better when 20 is in use for touchdown/rotation shots depending on how far along you go. The location is also popular with the locals and on a sunny afternoon there will be dozens of cars parked watching the planes.

Regular Traffic

The airport goes through phases of being quite busy, interspursed with hours of nothing. Unfortunately much of the movement occurs before 9.30am and after 7pm, with only 2-3 movements in between. Most days there is no activity at all between 8am and 1pm.

Consult the schedule before setting off to avoid hours of nothing. This can be found here for Summer 09:

http://www.egcn.co.uk/Index_files/dsaschedule2009summerrev1.xls

For Summer 09, the traffic has picked up quite a bit. Regulars you can expect to see are the following:

Thomsonfly (737/757/767) FlyBe (DHC-8) Ryanair (737-800) Wizzair (A320) Thomas Cook (A320) BH Air (A320) (Once a week) BMI (A320) (Once a week)