What utter rubbish Madam B,
I don't have to defend what I or any of my FI's do. If they are breaking the law that is one thing, but here I doubt they are. Courtesy works both ways.
If YOU have a problem, it is up to YOU to deal with it.
Personally I know all the sites used by microlights within an hours flying from my home base and know which we can use if required and which we can't. How did we achieve this? By talking and meeting up with others.
If you want to stop this practise then get off your ar*e and talk to the "offenders," why waste bandwidth if you aren't prepared to do anything.
The old maxim, put up or shut up seems to apply here.
Your reckoning about the short field performance of a light a/c is also flawed. How much experience do you have in these a/c? Have you ever tried to get one into a short field? Have you thought about holding a fly in for local clubs etc. to explain about your "problems"?
If your strip is longer than 400m, then most light a/c should be able to get in if flown correctly. Tell us where you are and some details of the runway and I'll tell you what's possible since you don't seem to have the answer.
Don't bleat about FI's and schools being discourteous, do yourself a favour and do something about it. Otherwise you're just whinging and that is just annoying.
I did in the past have an instructor who went off and practised approaches at a nearby microlight strip and used to do the same for PFL's. I didn't know, so I couldn't change anything, but the airfield was contacted by the strip's owner who asked that we ceased and desisted. I found out who it was and was very annoyed it was one of my chaps (one of the reasons he no longer works for us) so a flea in the ear worked and he never did it again.
According to the ANO if you are infringing on a notified airfield then you should let them know somehow, either by radio or PPR, it is poor airmanship to just make approaches of any kind to the same place without contacting the landowners or people who may be affected.
I vary the places where I make my students practise their PFL's, but there are one or two places I'll give them a failure near a strip to check on whether their field selection is any good. i.e. it's no good going for a muddy field if there is a massive disused airstrip just off to your right.
It is up to you as professional pilot (if you are one) to do all you can to try and limit the impact you and others have on your surroundings. If that means you have to ring a couple of grumpy s*ds and tell them to stop doing PFL's onto your strip, then so be it. Not exactly difficult is it.........
Last edited by Say again s l o w l y; 14th December 2005 at 18:40.