firm or anecdotal of people taking the p1ss and claiming free landings?
Anything you hear here is anecdotal!
I've certainly arrived at airports and stood behind irate pilots demanding a free landing fee on the basis of a divert.
Cranfield are party to the scheme but have tended to be understandably unsympathetic when somebody arrives down the ILS having ostensibly been flying to one of the local VFR-only fields.
Weather reports are not often wrong by a mile. If you take off aiming for a VFR-only destination, you'll normally be aware before departure of the risk of being forced to divert - and yet you willingly depart. It seems to me that you pay under those circumstances.
On the other hand, you depart under CAVOK skies with CAVOK forecast everywhere, and suddenly find yourself in thick cloud down to 600 feet, perhaps there is some justification. I reckon that really happens once in a blue moon.
Ultimately, this scheme is great news, something for nothing in Aviation doesn't come about very often. Once you think beyond that though, how often *should* it really be necessary for an airport to foot the bill?
2D