MD600Driver, thanks for the note on Grantley Hall, I will avoid them no matter what type of transport I’m using on the day. Also, good to list these locations on the HCGB blacklist and the ongoing thread “Helipads & Hotels: Requests, Recommendations & Rip-offs
Helipads, hotels and Others: Requests, Recommendations & Rip-offs as noted above.
B2N2, you exemplify the internet post preamble of “
I don’t know anything about X, but here’s what I think about X”. You seem more of a disgruntled salary jockey with condemnation of anyone that flies privately with their family and friends.
In 15yrs of flying in the UK, I’ve never paid a hotel/restaurant/pub a landing fee when I am landing there for either breakfast, lunch, dinner or an overnight stay – no one should, it sets a bad precedent.
For the American posters that don’t understand how this works in Europe (particularly “B2N2” who thinks we should pay a few hundred pounds to land and bring them business by having dinner or booking hotel rooms):
- private flying for pleasure/recreation is far more common in Europe than US and self-fly-hire rental is easily found and available (it’s not all CPL factories; you can actually do this for fun)
- we have a large number of hotels/restaurants/pubs available to land and the vast majority are free, so long as you are eating/staying.
- the comments above regarding “facilities” are laughable; because those of us who actually do this know we’re merely instructed to land on a bit lawn or an adjacent field. Out of around 80-90 private sites I’ve landed in the UK only 1 even has a windsock – and it is situated right next to a tree rendering it useless (it’s really just for show as the hotel appreciates pilots visiting).
- approval procedure is normally just giving them a call; maybe filling out a form and possibly sending a copy of your insurance in some instances. Any mention of a landing fee is met by “no thanks, I’ll book elsewhere” to which they reply they’d welcome a visit in the future, if driving – to which I reply “you just tried to charge me £250 and you think I’m planning a future visit?