Protesters
I go into Turweston EGBT for fuel and maintenance.
The airfeld - an ex WW2 bomber base - was re-opened 9 years ago and has become an excellent GA site. Well worth a visit.
The owner has pumped lots of money into it - a new hangar is almost complete.
THere were noise complaints initially. However, provided that pilots strictly observe the published circuit procedures and operating hours, these have reduced to almost nothing.
Well....
That was the case until somebody decided to move next to the airfield 18 months ago with his Polo ponies.
Since then, he has become an absolute pain in the butt. He has become chairman of the (then) fairly dormant Action Group - stirred them up - and is now lobbying his MP and the Local Authority.
The actions of this one idividual are causing great concern to those who rely on the airfield for their livelihood.
Isn't it staggering that somebody can actually make the decision to move next to an airfield with his skittish horses and then cause so much grief when the locals had otherwise learned to live with it.
A salient point also is this - legally, it is irrelevant to any defence to point out that the protester is a newly arrived nimby!
The concern is that this horrid little bloke ( I have met him - he is horrid and also vertically challenged!) will actually cause some problems because - when you are operating an airfield with such stringent planning restrictions there is bound to be the odd and otherwise totally inoffensive glitch.
Last take-off on Sundays is a ridiculous 4.00pm. Try turning somebody away at 4.05 when they are inbound from a long flight - tired, kids getting twitchy etc. . Do you tell them to divert and get a taxi back?
He complained about somebody doing a circuit over his house and scaring his horses. Again not interested in any reasonable explanation (the aircraft in question had burst a hose and was losing pressure - potentially risking a U/C problem hence the quick circuit in contravention of the normal published procedure).
Anybody else out there have a similar problem?
BB