These items posted about White Waltham sum up this most loveable of airfields to a tee. There are the members who hotly defend the place, and visitors, some of whom are warm in affection and others who have had a cool reception. It is a club; it does not offer good handling facilities of the type hoped for by Shy Torque, and the service and welcome can be excellent or poor.
I remember talking to Shy Torque before his departure, and he revealed the extent of the poor service he received. It was the sort of service which eHarding and Gorilla would find nothing wrong with, because they are using the club as a social facility, and would think nothing of traipsing though longish wet grass. However Shy Torque had a VIP on board, received very curt and unhelpful treatment from the radio operator (an ex-flying instructor at Waltham) and even though I was very apologetic to the pilot and his passenger, Waltham has lost potentially a few hundred pounds a year in landing fees, and suffered damage to its reputation. The pilot chose Waltham to land at as it was the nearest public facility to Windsor Castle, an occasional inhabitant of which the passenger was meeting.
In a service organisation, such as Waltham, there is no room for turning people away, making them feel trivial or not offering to help as much as possible. The problem is that there is no real service training except on the job. Many people are warm towards those they know, but exhibit more hostility or suspicion towards those they don't - I've noticed this to be a general human trait, and not one exclusive to ex flying instructors. Given the observations of nondom here, though, it may be that the management at Waltham would find it useful to spend more time on training and motivating their employees to provide consistent good service.