another airfield lost to flight training ?
 

Does anyone know why flight training has stopped at Little Gransden in Cambridgeshire and the airfield is now unlicenced ?
After all the campaigning and news coverage a few years ago, have the local noise protesters finally got their way at last ? It all seems to have been done very quietly this time with just a NOTAM and nothing in the press (that I've seen anyway).
Who can throw some light on this ?

Flight training has not stopped at Little Gransden, as I am still training out of this airfield! The airfield has been told it has a certain number of take-off and landings per day (which is a low number) As for whether the airfield is unliscensed I am unsure.

Regards

Sainty

REF: L2735/06 From: 2006-Aug-30 Wed 15:49 To: 2006-Dec-11 Mon 09:00
ICAO: EGMJ LITTLE GRANSDEN

AERODROME LICENSE REVOKED, AD NOT AVBL FOR ACFT REQUIRING A LICENSED AD FOR
OPERATIONS

Heard via a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend (well it is a rumour network) that the owner allowed the runway markings to get obscured and the CAA pulled his licence. Whether there was anything else to it, I don't know.

A pleasant little airfield nevertheless.

Looks like that NOTAM was only a few days after an airshow or have I got it wrong..

http://www.royston-crow.co.uk/conten...A30%3A41%3A523

so you don't know if you are operating illegally then!

It is still legal Whopity as a take off and landing is performed at Bourn Airfield (licensed) just down the road on each lesson.

VFE.

I know i'm NOT operating illegally! Read what VFE has said!

Regards

Sainty

It's good news that the flying school is still able to operate.
I hadn't realised that the CAA allowed a training organisation to operate from an unlicenced airfield. Years ago, when "recognised training organisations" were a twinkle in someone's eye, I worked for a few months somewhere where we had to do the "put the wheels onto a licenced runway and then the training flight begins" trick. I thought all that was now a thing of the past. I could never understand why the students didn't just do their training at the licenced airfield - many did which is why I went to work there instead !
PS Faded runway markings seem like a daft reason to pull an airfield's licence - couldn't the owner just re-paint them - or have I missed something here ?

Technically the training is from and to the Licensed aerodrome. The only question is who pays for the 20 minutes of non productive time!

Whilst the time may not be counted towards a JAA licence or rating, I doubt that the time is "non productive".

Would be a reasonable opportunity to refresh what the last lesson was all about before starting the actual training time, don't ya think?

On the way back it might be a decent opportunity for the instructor to demonstrate what he is going to teach next time - once they've done the touch and go.

Just shows really - what a load of bo****ks the rule is.

Doubtless the 20 minutes of non-productive time is factored into the charges - although it would be hard to prove it.

It is indeed a daft way of doing business, but then again, the rules are even dafter! At PPL level, that is.

This is not the cause of the licensing issue.

An oversight in paperwork, silly schoolboys error - that's ya reason. :ugh:

VFE.

'A' take-off and landing on each lesson? Surely you mean a landing and take-off at Bourn at each end of the lesson?

One assumes, then, that the student is paying only for flight time between the first take-off from Bourn and the last landing at Bourn since any payment for the remainder of the flying between Gransden and Bourn, whether factored into the charges or not, would make it a public transport flight.

It might not have been the wisest move to bring this situation to the attention of a CAA Inspector, eh Whopity?

One assumes correctly.
You don't think they might actually be aware of this practice seeing as it's been going on for some time now? Anymore dramatis personae to come forward?

VFE.

If I might be so bold as to stick my 2p in... I am aware of a flight school who got into trouble a couple of years ago with the CAA for the 'T&G at a licenced airfield' method, when their own base's licence changed. The complaint came from another school at the licenced airfield used I believe. Happily the matter was resolved without charges being brought.

'Fraid I don't know any more than that, or I would have written it.

Luckily the guy running the only FTO at Bourn isn't a penny-pinching egomaniac. :)

VFE.

Who can you be talking about?!!

VFE's speaking about the guy at Bourn running the only FTO.

Dunno what all the fuss is about - I have experience of three schools doing exactly this in the past. Two of which still do. And the CAA are happy as schools play it by the rules. Sounds like a load of bitching to me...