If you want to go to the southside unescorted (no club therefore no escort and the fire service cannot escort you) then you need a pass that requires you to buy a pass from Cardiff security and thus you need a Discloseure Scotland CRB check. I operate 757/767 and am Cardiff based which means I have been in posession of a full Cardiff pass for more than a decade. This Cardiff pass is valid for everywhere in the whole world EXCEPT for the southern half of my home base. Sure, my northside pass is technically provided by my employer but why do I need another CRB check for the opposite side of the tarmac? After all, I have a basic CRB, and advanced CRB and a Counter-terrorist CRB check to my name from my time teaching the military. The cost of another pass is the same as 2 months parking+landings at the farm strip.
Cardiff parking was going to be double if I plonked a hangar-trailer on site, despite the trailer occupying less space than with the aircraft wings unfolded. The reasoning was that they wouldn't be able to utilise the space that the trailer occupied whilst I was away, and so I needed to pay them twice what I'd pay if the aircraft was merely sat there with its' wings folded out. Utilised by what? Nobody goes to Cardiff because of the charges!! Wouldn't they prefer 'a little income' to 'no income at all'?
I cannot get the thought out of my head that they'd rather not have GA at all. No hangars, yet there are hangar lease scheme all over the country where hangar manufactureres rent hangars out to airfields for a percentage of the sub-rent. I could've had 30+ spaces at another well-known airfield filled with willing renters but the owning authority would still rather have their large hangars empty (no rates to pay) than 30 pesky owners utilising their expensive tarmac. Instead there are airframes rotting in the weather whilst empty hangars await the arrival of IKEA. Kinda like the chicken-and-the-egg scenario. The airfields expect the aircraft to pay the bills but the reducing numbers of flying schools make the airfield charge more to visitors and local GA until there isn't enough GA to make the airfield run. I used to do airshows and deliveries in the US and the difference over there is staggering. The local council help keep their airfields afloat with transport links etc so that there is income generated that ultimately helps the area. I would often arrive in a spam-can and be collected in an airconditioned van that dropped me off to the terminal where I'd get a coffee whilst paying my $5 (charity donation) landing fee. "Fuel, sir?", they'd say, and someone would rush over, top up the tanks, wipe the screen and then return to bring me the bill whilst I picked my choice of free doughnuts. Compare that to "The only international airstrip in the whole of Wales". PPR, mandatory handling, no easy access. WHY would anyone want to visit CWL?
At the same time, Cardiff etc are grabbing more airspace. Who for??? I understand that some days at Cardiff there are barely enough movements to get into double figures (of which I am often one of them).
I wanted to run a strip withing the Cardiff zone but that became a problem due to the lack of a radio/generator and the likely requirement for a mode-S transponder. Next time you fly, ask various radar services for a mode-S transponder check. They probably can't see your mode-S, or has Cardiff gained that facility since I last visited Radar? So my own strip plan died for lack of a mode-S onboard my aircraft only for the whole deal to become another expensive disaster area.
Obviously, this is just my experience of Cardiff and the airfield may have changed beyond all recognition since I last tried to operate GA from there.
