Little Hitler's at UK airfields

[old & Tired]

I’ve recently moved back to the UK, to retire, having spent a lifetime with the airlines, I’ve brought myself a light Aircraft to do some touring. I’ve visited several airfields thought out the UK in the last few weeks, Generally the Tea and bacon butty’s are fine but why are there so many little Hitler’s about CFI’s and airport managers seem to be the worst not to mention the radio operators who thing there in the tower at Heathrow. Dose anyone have any ideas how to make GA Airfields more friendly.

By the way what so special about Half Penney Green (sorry Wolverhampton) £25 for landing.

[Keef]

If you find Hitler Jr, post it where others can be warned. Check that it isn't just one officious FISO or FBO worker, though.

Halfpenny Green, now 25 quid green, has delusions of grandeur. Vote with your wings, I suggest.

[distaff_beancounter]

I heard that the landing fees at Halfpenny Green, SORRY ... Wolverhampton International Airport, had to go up dramatically, in order to pay for the name change, including all the new signs on the airfield & the road, notepaper, CAA fees, Aerads, entries in directories etc :D :D

[ifonly]

What do you have to do to call yourself 'International' ?

Do you actually have to have International flights , or just be capable of getting them ?

Could I call my back garden 'international' just because an R22 from LTQ could land there (just)?


How many 'international' flights does Halfpen......oops Wolverhampton actually get ?


Just a thought.

[M14P]

Sadly I feel that Old & Tired is right and the proportion of airfields that provide a free b*llocking service with every landing is increasing. I think that part of it is the British attitude to life (No Is The Answer, Now What's The Question and You Can't Park That Thing Here) and part of it is a reaction to previous visits by terrible pilots lacking in manners or common sense.

I can give many examples of Hitlerishness from my personal experience. Several of these have been over local unpublished procedures and customs.

Rather than highlighting the bad airfields I'd like to know where I can go and be assured of a warm welcome and pleasant ambience.

PS - In defence of HG/Wolverhampton Business Spaceport they only charged me £5 (or thereabouts) because we PPR'd by phone as requested in their website. I believe that they reserve the right to charge more if PPR is not obtained by phone. That said, certain individuals there were laughably obnoxious and distinctly unprofessional.

[ianhogg]

Must give an unashamed plug for my home field Kirkbride in Cumbria. The airfield coordinator John Plaskett does it as a labour of love(No pay at all) and puts real effort into making all welcome. The club is just that ,no ego's allowed and if a member is there then the kettle is on .Ps our fly in is on saturday so you can see for your self.
Pip Pip.


DON'T TELL MY MOTHER I'M A FLYING INSTRUCTOR . SHE THINKS I PLAY PIANO IN A BROTHEL.;)

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Does anyone have any ideas how to make GA fields more friendly?

It's a lost cause! People being people, there'll always be friendly ones and grumps. At one airfield in the Midlands, you can either get the friendly FISO, who stays until sunset on summer evenings because she finds that the airfield is such a peaceful place to be, and so that there'll be a friendly voice for anyone coming back late from a trip..... or, you can get her colleague who gives b****ckings if you don't obey the instructions that he's not actually authorised to give you!:rolleyes:

More than the occasional unfriendliness and extortionate landing fees, what usually bugs me flying in the UK is over-control at quietish GA airfields. In France there are airfields with several flying clubs, helicopters, gliders and parachutists all co-existing happily using an un-monitored advisory frequency. In the UK, by contrast, it often only seems to take 3 Tomahawks practising circuits for a traffic jam to build up at the hold because nobody is allowed to line up in front of the aircraft that is about to turn finals 3 miles from the airfield!

[Wireless]

Fenland is a good place to visit, with well priced fuel, good food and a top F.I.S.O!

I am biased though.




Bill

[IanSeager]

I must be flying somewhere else, almost all of the airfields that I visit are friendly.

I can think of the odd place where one or two people need to be taken out back and re-briefed, but most are fine.

Ian

[formationfoto]

Maybe IanS gets recognised and the airfields want a good write up!. My home airfield, Seething, has just started to act like a mini Heathrow but not because the officials want to be. They have been scared sh**less that they will face either recrmination from the CAA or a massive legal claim if they don't protect their a**es by insisting that everything is done to an 'agreed standard'.

It has certainly taken a lot of the fuyn out of it for me and many of the things which I previously practiced extensively I am now prevented from doing and thus will become a less safe pilot.

Some of the reported unfriendliness is just that, some is people enjoying officialdom, but much is brought about by the threat of action. I am afraid our friends across the Atlantic are to blame. The threat of litigation has become too strong for many to stomach.

[BEagle]

Wolverhalfpennyhamptongreenbusinessairport? What a joke! Just another disused RAF aerodrome now little more than decaying tarmac and mud masquerading as an aerodrome and charging the earth for the square root of bug.ger all in terms of facilities. Scabby little coffee shop and some Russian teaching expensive Yakobatics.... Went there once a while ago to get a rented Warrior serviced by some very dodgy bloke with a hangar full of wrecks. Never again!!

Personally I call it 'Ambridge International'.....Dum de dum de dum de dum.........

[Croqueteer]

Sadly the message here is only too true. Years ago my ex partner (ex only because I had to move) and I built Insch airfield near Aberdeen on the basic principle that there would be no compulsory landing fees, the fianance coming from hangerage and long term parking. I don't see why all airfields cannot work on that principle, and once they have a visitor on the premises, then they can devise all sorts of ways to make them spend their money. I have stopped going to places like Halfpenny Green, Liecester and Tatenhill and a few others, because paying £7 to £10 just to drop in and buy coffee and fuel is just rediculous to a pensioner. There is also now a large amount of private strips that make you welcome for free. (Including mine) We British are not good at working out ways of taking money from people quickly and making it appear as if it does not hurt.

[Croqueteer]

PS, I forgot to say my ex partner is a BIG Hitler.

[Wrong Stuff]

formationfoto:
Some of the reported unfriendliness is just that, some is people enjoying officialdom, but much is brought about by the threat of action. I am afraid our friends across the Atlantic are to blame. The threat of litigation has become too strong for many to stomach.

Rather paradoxical then that our friends across the Atlantic manage to run some of the most relaxed and informal airfields you could imagine. After dark? Not to worry: click seven times on the Unicom frequency, the lights come on, you can land, stick your credit card in the fuel pumps to pay for fuel and away you go.

[javelin]

I've had a bolloking at Bagby...............................Several times :D

[ETOPS773]

I think I must Shoreham a plug.

The ATCOs there are very friendly and very precise,they go out of their way to help you out.
Reasonable landing fees and a nice cafe in the terminal,and have never met any agression from anyone, I must say again,the best field i`ve been to..any down side is the runway is a tad narrow,but not a problem.

[str12]

Have to agree, Shoreham bunch are a nice crowd. As were Lydd, Manston and Saaafend innit.

Haven't been there for a year though...

Still, when Shoreham started charging me a fiver for a T&G I wasn't too impressed - even an abort is 5 squid.

Cheers,

str12

[Rattus]

Sadly, we don't have a monopoly in the UK - anyone been to Deauville lately?

:(

[poetpilot]

Having just come back from the Boston area, where I BFR'd then rented a C172 for a spot of bimbling, I can only say that, despite litigation, security scares and the like, our US friends are incredibly laid back, accommodating & friendly. And, as stated, large, busy (by our standards) airfields work perfectly well (better in fact) on UNICOM. Deep Joy (to quote Stanley Unwin).

What a contrast to all the shenanigans I'm going through at the moment with a C172 which I've bought and am trying to park/hangar & lease out in the UK. I've found a club that desperately needs another 172 - yet persists (via its Committee) in making life as difficult as possible to actually sign up - despite the fact its a complete non-risk to them (if it dont get rented out its me that loses the money not them).

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this time post 9/11 - if I could get a good job in the US, I'd go there in a nanosecond !

[Ace Rimmer]

Yep things are indeed much more laid back in the US a number of moons ago I was in Texas for work and stayed on for the weekend for some bimbling around seeing relatives with Aunt Rimmer in her 182. Anyway the point of the story is on the Sunday I had to get a commercial flight out of Hobby (the smaller of Houston's two airports but nonetheless a very busy place big hub for SWA and so on). Anyway as we switch over to ground we ask which FBO is closest to the terminal and the ATCO says "what flight are aiming for?" I tell him and he comes back with "As you're just gettin out why don't ya'll go to the gate next door and go up the jetway steps?" Imagine that happening over here (actually can't see it happening there post 9/11).

[KERDUNKER]

Try Geneva, Cessnas etc on the grass and Airbuses yards away on the parallel tarmac.

[Cat.S]

I don't mind paying landing fees in the £7-12 bracket at a field run as a commercial enterprise- after all, they have to pay for the upkeep somehow. As far as WBA is concerned, with PPR by phone I think it's £15, or at least was the last time I visited.
I've always found Sleap super-friendly and the food excellent. Went to Gamston yesterday and got a really warm welcome with coffee as part of the landing fee.

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Sleap are very friendly if you pronounce their name right first time you call!

[formationfoto]

Wrong Stuff

You are right - this is a paradox. The U.S is the most litigative part of the world yet has managed to make flying friendly and easy. In part because the government has acted to prevent some of the sillier claims where damages were being paid out for things like stalling accidents. Note there was a recent case in Scotland I think where a flying school are being sued after a crash because the family of the dead pilot reckoned the school shouldn't have let him hire - or something like this. The litigative environment is just silly. I guess the US remains quite relaxed because aviation is so important there.

[maggioneato]

Agree with all thats been said about flying in USA, they are so accomodating, got a flight with an instructor out of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was only driving past, saw the Learn to fly here sign.Off I went in a nice 172, sightseeing and T&G at the local International. A treat was waiting for me when I got back, a flight in a lovely twin Merlin down to Florida and back . Agree with Poet,wish I could move to the States, they also get better weather than we do, it has'nt stopped raining since Tuesday.:(

[eyeinthesky]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Elstree yet!!;) :D

[Evo7]

Another vote for Shoreham, who were very nice to me yesterday when I bu**ered up the overhead join and ended up on right base for 03 when they were using a left-hand circuit.... :rolleyes: :o

[FIESTA]

When I walk into a flying school and see young and old people of usually limited education who have convinced themselves that they have acheived near godlike status by having mastered the relatively simple discipline of learning to fly and have a ticket to say that they can deign to teach others (when they feel like..........and that will be an hour and a half later than they told you this morning) it makes me want to behave like hitler if presented with half a chance.
Aerodrome staff always seem to me very polite ,I don't recall any rude behaviour at any field I've visited.......and ,to name a name,I recently diverted to Elstree in duff weather,had a very pleasant welcome and was told I didn't have to pay a fee as I'd diverted.Can you say fairer than that?
In the marine world,often when divers return from a basic sport dive they are convinced they've been to the moon and back and expect to be treated in accordance by anyone they bump into,and treat all others as far beneath them..............................or maybe the private/trainee pilot has been so totally convinced of what a worm he is by his godlike instructor that a raised eyebrow from air traffic or airport personnel seems like the end of the world!