Originally Posted by
chevvron
Unlike Biggin, Schipol has a plentful supply of runways, several of which are in use at any one time, and they seem to have added another runway every time I've been there.
Haha - so true.. I often hear from people who fly commercially there that they spend longer on the ground getting to the runway than in the air coming back to the UK. But if you land on their "GA" runway you still share it with a large number of jets, and they fit you in very easily without any issues!
Biggin Hill did have several other runways... 29/11 until very recently, Charlie used to be a runway, and there were several grass runways there at one point too! When I was training, 29 would frequently be in use at the same time as 21, without any issues. I don't think that's the issue, the issue is that Biggin seems to think that the 20 or 30 jets they get on a busy day don't mix with the likes of SEP and MEPs.
Even with a single runway, Gatwick handles this number of movement per hour at their peak, not per day!
So yes, I am a little upset about the loss of "light" GA at Biggin Hill... I feel as though now people in the South and South-East of London only have Fairoaks (also under threat I heard and no IAPs), Thurrock (no IAPs), Blackbushe (no IAPs), or fly out of Southend who also have hard runways and IAPs (and still welcome light GA).
The only other options who still accept GA, are Lydd, Shoreham (who currently doesnt have IAPs due controller staffing), Southampton, Cambridge or Oxford which have hard runways and IAPs and none of these are particularly close to London...
(hard runways are important due to wet weather, lights are important because some of us land at night, and IAPs are important because some of us fly approaches regularly...)