Shoreham out of hours

[Rescue One]

Overheard conversation last Friday evening (4/7/08), pilot flying out of Sherburn on route to Shoreham and for some reason Sherburn had delayed his departure apparently, so contacted Doncaster to contact Shoreham to ask if they would consider waiting 10 minutes (20:10 Local) for his arrival. A short time later a very apologetic controller said that Shoreham were not interested in waiting but if he wanted to pay £50 per minute they would stay open. Is this normal in the south ??. I assumed the aircraft was based there.

[READY MESSAGE]

Blimey.....I thought Hawarden was expensive to extend....
Aren't you allowed to operate out of Shoreham out of hours, all be it unlicensed?

[akaSylvia]

I ended up coming into Shoreham late with a passenger that needed dropping off. They were very helpful and although they did warn of an out of hours fee it was no where near that high (or else I wouldn't have risked it).

In the end, I made it right in time. The controller hesitated when I stated that I wanted to drop a passenger and leave again but agreed to it (I didn't power down, just taxied to the terminal to do the drop off and straight back to the runway) and I agreed to phone to organised the landing fee in the morning.

It was definitely past 20:00 by the time we were away but they didn't bother with any extra charges and in fact thanked me for expediting. On the other hand, I was well aware that I might be charged and was very grateful for the help.

It's possible that they have that high fee in order to not have to wait if it can be avoided?