speaking from personal experiance, I found the USA to be absolutly superb for the GA Pilot
, no landing fees anywhere, no one could do enough to help you when you landed at their airport, controllers were generally patient and helpful to the students/ low time pilots, and there was a general "good" atmosphere everywhere you flew
. I flew into Orlando Sanford, and being told "you are number 2 to the 747 on short finals
" is an experiance I will never forget
- and then doing a short field take-off off the 10,000 foot runway was rarther amusing as well... but I digress...Unfortunatly GA in the UK seems to be all about profit, and I know a lot of operators hands are tied due to sky high fuel tax, operating cost etc etc, but if it carrys on like this then GA in the UK will be non-existant in 10 years
- In the US I could hire a C-150 for £40 an hour wet, and fly to anywhere I fancied, and din't have to worry about landing fees, handling fees etc etc, In the UK It is almost doubling the cost of an hours flight ( whats an average p28? £130?) by the time you have added on fuel surcharges, landing fees, parking fees etc etc
Very sad state of affairs