Cost of UK flying
Hi soaringhigh650,
To all the items so far listed, I should like to add the following.
The UK has a population about 20% of that of the entire US, living on an island just slightly smaller in area than Wyoming State.
This population is heavily concentrated in the South-East of this island, which means there is considerable demand for land, which pushes up the cost of any form of land use, whether it is an aerodrome or anything else.
Hence the cost of operating something as land-intensive as an aerodrome is enormous. You can pay thousands of pounds a year merely to park or hangar your aeroplane and in the South-East at least hangarage is in desperately short supply. This is a persistent problem if you own a wood and fabric aeroplane.
We also have stringent laws governing land development, so it becomes extremely expensive, time-consuming and difficult to create new hangarage.
Any attempt to create a new aerodrome, or even reopen an old wartime USAAF airbase currenty under growing crops, would surely cause a storm of protest from the local noise nimbys.
The only reason we still have as many aerodromes as we do is because many have indeed survived after World War II. Over the years since then, however, we have gradually lost a long succession of aerodromes as building developers with pots of money have gradually got their grubby paws on one aerodrome after another, or previously recreational aerodromes have become 'regional airports' strictly for commercial air transport and from which general aviation has been systematically and deliberately 'priced out'.
BP.