Originally Posted by
Expressflight
Hang on a minute Mr Flynn, are you saying that only professional pilots are qualified to post on PPRuNe? If that is so how come people like me have been allowed to join and post regularly for so many years? I never advanced beyond being a very rudimentary light aircraft pilot but my aviation experience is I'm sure as great as yours but in different areas of expertise and has certainly enabled me to contribute to the knowledge base of PPRuNe.
Getting back to NWI, since retirement it is now my local airport (although my then company did operate an aircraft from there some 15 years ago) and I use it regularly with its useful, but limited, number of destinations. I wholeheartedly agree with you on the subject of the Airport Development Fee and I consider it a drag on the airport's potential to attract new operators and routes. It has to be borne in mind though that the catchment for NWI is relatively small and it was really the demands of the oil and gas industry that gave it the basis upon which to develop more leisure oriented routes over the years. The "wonderful small airports" that you frequent no doubt have their own commercial advantages enabling them to achieve this; perhaps serving tourist resorts or wealthy communities and the like where revenues are sufficiently high. There are few small airports that I can think of which achieve a "wonderful" rating but there are a number which I have enjoyed using over the decades. Not many of them are in Europe however. I wonder if you have used EXT recently: now there is an airport that takes you straight back to the 1960s.
I'm not knocking your views in general but think that a little more realism is perhaps required.
Don't start him any further Expressflight, he has posted for years on the Norwich Thread under 2 names Jay Sata and then Mike Flynn with one tracked agenda, he will go back through your posts and come to conclusion, like my own which mostly have been spotterish which I agree with so of course that makes me a non pilot despite just recently qualifying and now flying out of Norwich each and everyday. Perhaps a picture of me doing that would satisfy him but then why should someone have to justify there credentials on a forum.
Your views are excellent despite being a non pilot and your opinion on the airport is certainly very good and I'm sure everyone would love to see the £10 finally go one day. As I do think that is the only thing stopping new operaters to the airport now.