Bookwork wrote:
"I can quite understand small, private strips, sometimes with planning restrictions, with no AIP entry, requiring PPR. But... Cranfield? Manston? Bournemouth? Duxford? All of these are quite capable of publishing any procedures and notifying changes via NOTAM. Why the need to make use of these airports so inflexible?" (
sorry, couldn't make 'quotes' work
Speaking for Duxford, there are two reasons why we ask for PPR by phone in advance.
One is as Ghengis said, due to the amount of warbird and display/practice display flying we have. I took phone calls on the Friday before Legends from students who wanted to call in or overfly. This day is probably the busiest or most complex of the year. The phone call allowed us to gently suggest that, whilst he/she would be welcome, another day would be better.
The second reason is that prior to introducing PPR, we had many noise complaints -- hundreds, due to overflight of the local villages, especially Duxford village. Last year, we had a handful, as the noise issue is part of the phone briefing.
Phone PPR works well for Duxford. We do accept casual traffic when not busy, at the FISO's discretion. However, this is always followed by a verbal expanation of why we want PPR when the visitor comes up to the tower.
Yes, procedures are published in the AIP. If you want to know how many pilots read and understand them, come and listen to some of my PPR phone conversations!
My personal view: PPR works for Duxford for specific reasons, but I don't think it is neessary everywhere.
Alan.