Airport Charges for Military Helicopter Emergency Flights
 

Plymouth Airport are to charge £250 for an out of hours Sea King medical flight. No lights, no ATC, no ILS etc. No facilities at all!!!!!
How does your airfield compare??

That's disgusting!

Wonder how the airport manager would feel if a member of his family were the ones in need of a emergency helicopter which had to use the airport? Bet he wouldn't pass the charge on then.

They should land it in the car park and buy a pay and display ticket,when the ****** comes through for landing there,tell the airport to shove it..................

Edit: Swearing like that - hidden or not - will get you a ban next time. Geddit?

If there is no ATC service why not just land at the nearby Derriford hospital? (or has the HLS been withdrawn?)

Failing that, Plymouth Hoe is easy to land on! :)

B-L :ok:

I don't understand the issue here, unless we should also demand free comprehensive support for all of our national SAR assets, as well as free ambulance and fire engine maintenance and support. Not to mention free crews to fly and drive them.

OK, so someone found out that the tax payer has to pay for using a closed airfield during an emergency outside normal working hrs. So what? Everything, including emergency services, comes at some cost. I don't know who owns that airport but I would guess that the "bill" is only a case of deducting a number from one public account and adding the same number to another public account.

Remember the government "contribution" to the tsunami disaster relief program? Whatever the announced figure was, it included the costs of actually providing the assistance. This included the cost of deploying and operating the armed forces, etc. We don't come free.

£250 seems a bit steep. I totally agree that a charge should be made bu that seems a bit over the top. I recently landed at a Civ airfield and was charged £8. Not sure why Guzz airfield charges so high.

Charges probably came straight out of the book with no thought to the type of flight or the airfield being closed. The MOD would charge a civvie landing at its airfields regardless of the aids and services available.

There is a slight difference in the weight of a Cessna and a 10 ton Seaking.

Have you seen how hard he THUDS that Cessna down? I'm sure a Sea King hardly dents the runway....

The charges should be sent to the local NHS Primary Care Trust for payment. So should the cost of the SK.

That should set the cat among the pigeons...

I think you'll find that they might do that. Depends on the classification of the sortie. Was it a Casevac or Medivac?

Many moons ago, a light aircraft got lost crossing the North Sea from Holland. Binbrook ATC picked up a faint Mayday and got a F-27 diverted out of the airway to conduct a search. The airliner (full of pasengers) found it and led it back to North Coates where he did a roller to show him the runway. The MOD wanted to charge the airline landing fees!

Just what services did the folks get for that Landing Fee?

I am surprised the aircraft was allowed to use the airport at all after hours....what with the worry about liability issues. Crikey...no fire brigade and if there had been a crash? Who would have been liable?

Oh...no...no....mustn't fly from a "closed" airport Gents....that just isn't on!

I, like you, am a taxpayer so pay for all MOD services in my taxes. If I wish to land my a/c at RAF ****, in or out of hours, why should I pay for something already paid for? Rhetorical question folks but you see the point I hope. At what point does anything become "free"?

Furthermore WorkingHard, as a taxpayer who pays for all MOD services in your taxes, if you wish to fly on one of the RAF's VIP jets, you should be allowed to do so without paying for something already paid for!

Come to think of it, I want a ride on an aircraft carrier........ I mean that's what the Military is there for isn't it; meeting the random wims of the taxpayer? :}

DP Harvey, well said :ok:

The point is, though, Point0Five, that the marginal cost to the RAF of a visiting C152 (during hours) is negligible, unlike, say, taking a Tornado for a spin. As ATC, fire section, VAS, &c &c are already on duty, they cost nothing, effectively.

And even if the visiting C152 pays the exorbitant landing fee and jumps through all the hoops regarding insurance, they are still stuffed to the back of the queue for landing, takeoff, and everything else.

Tim

I see your point tmmorris, but that logic will only lead to a thread called "RAF fails to charge for civilian flights"; complete with complaints about how it is unfair that the military has to pay civilian landing fees when all services are already on duty, and effectively paid for.

As DP Harvey alluded to, everything has a price.

As far as I can see we are all arguing the same. The Military charge the Civilians and the civilians charge the military. Whats wrong in that?


p.s. £5500 an hour for a Herc ?????? surely not.

Good point on the military aircraft going around because of the civvie traffic. Downunder the civvy aircraft don't pay anything for shooting an approach etc at our bases - it's free. We have to (well, the tax payer) pay for movements at little country airstrips. It's not to pay for repairs etc. though, trust me - I had a $1400 claim placed against one of my moves in a military aircraft. I blew away $1400 worth of dirt from the side of the runway.

What got my back up was flying aid into Indonesia after the big wave, and being billed landing fees for it!

Am i missing something here or just being stupid. What has Markflyer6580 done to warrant an edit comment like this?? Was the swearing hidden? if so there are 100000 examples of this on the site without comment. Would the mod who edited please elaborate