At one end of the scale are farm strips where the landowner is prepared to sacrifice crop-growing space for enjoyment of a hobby.
The sacrifice is far more than surrendering productive land. If you figure the average farmer will make about £150 an acre ( subsidies included) if all goes well then a 10 acre field being utilized for aviation will ‘only’ cost about £1500 per year in lost farming revenue. The real costs are incurred in the maintenance of the field and the upkeep and purchases of equipment to do the tasks properly and efficiently. I along with several private aircraft owners I know deliberately do not count the ongoing costs of owning and flying the 100 odd hours a year as it would make your eyes water, the same applies to maintaining a simple grass strip to a standard that it can be relied upon to land safely on in all but the foulest days. Every year I have either a major refurb, repair or purchase of the mowers, toppers, spreaders, rakes, rollers, harrows, aerator or tractor. The drainage which cost £20k to put in plus the cost to level the field only lasts so long then I’m back annually patching, leveling and subsoiling all the time burning diesel on a tractor that costs thousands to fix. Fortunately I have friends and fellow pilots who pitch in their time to cut the grass and other chores on a regular bases otherwise it would be a lot of effort for me do do by myself. The 5 or 10 quid some grass strip owners charge for landing on lightly used rural fields doesn’t even come close to making a dent in their costs. They, like myself, do it for the love of flying and also because they don’t want to be the guy that’s neglected the chores then have some poor student come in on a diversion going arse for elbow because the long grass got tickled up in the spats or the nose wheel dug in due to poor drainage. Most strips are maintained to a standard far above what the owner themselves actually need to operate safely from.
Based on what my grass strip costs to maintain, I shudder to think what those guys with asphalt runways & taxiways, lighting, hangars with utilities, access roads, outbuildings, security systems, gates, fences and insurance spend each year. I can see a lot more fields going the way of Old Sarum when young Jack or Jill get the call informing them their daft old uncle out at the airfield has made his last 3 pointer and George Wimpey has been on the horn talking telephone numbers.