Shoreham - A rip off
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: UK
Age: 59
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Shoreham - A rip off
I was flying out of Shoreham last week and was charged a £30 circuit charge plus £17.50 landing fee all for a 28 day check. Is Shoreham the biggest rip off in GA in the UK?
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: EuroGA.org
Posts: 13,787
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was flying out of Shoreham last week and was charged a £30 circuit charge plus £17.50 landing fee all for a 28 day check. Is Shoreham the biggest rip off in GA in the UK?
If you fly to some unkept dump calling itself an airfield, pick up a few stones in your prop while taxiing, causing damage which (accumulated) costs 3 or 4 digits on the next prop overhaul, would that be called a rip-off?
I am not sticking up for Shoreham in particular but that is the choice we face in GA.
Shoreham is in very good condition, well maintained, and has excellent and most helpful and courteous ATC.
If you taxi into a pothole and smash the prop and have to have the engine stripped (say £15k-£20k) that's not so good either. I know renters don't need to worry about that but it does eventually translate into higher costs which have to be passed on.
Of course many will say a 400m grass strip is all they need, which is OK for the appropriate aircraft types, running mogas.
If you fly to some unkept dump calling itself an airfield, pick up a few stones in your prop while taxiing, causing damage which (accumulated) costs 3 or 4 digits on the next prop overhaul, would that be called a rip-off?
I am not sticking up for Shoreham in particular but that is the choice we face in GA.
Shoreham is in very good condition, well maintained, and has excellent and most helpful and courteous ATC.
If you taxi into a pothole and smash the prop and have to have the engine stripped (say £15k-£20k) that's not so good either. I know renters don't need to worry about that but it does eventually translate into higher costs which have to be passed on.
Of course many will say a 400m grass strip is all they need, which is OK for the appropriate aircraft types, running mogas.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Livin de island life
Posts: 479
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sympathy Al.
There does seem to be a general "helicopter tax" in this country - sort of, think of a number and double it. Sits side-by-side with the "multi-tax" and the "turbine tax".
Must confess I don't see any difference in the services and facilities required
There does seem to be a general "helicopter tax" in this country - sort of, think of a number and double it. Sits side-by-side with the "multi-tax" and the "turbine tax".
Must confess I don't see any difference in the services and facilities required
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: london
Posts: 676
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I flew into Shoreham earlier in the year and was delighted (in a really small minded way) to see that my aircraft was shown on the arrival board in the waiting area. I didn't remember what the landing fee was, so it shows you how easily pleased I am.
I did hear that Shorehams owners were in the throes of going under - any truth to this?
I did hear that Shorehams owners were in the throes of going under - any truth to this?
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Amsterdam
Posts: 4,598
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What's this circuit charge for? I've never heard of an airport charging for the use of the airspace. Landing, sure. T&G, obviously. Missed approach, okay I can live with that. ATC/Eurocontrol en-route charges for IFR flights, fine. But a circuit charge? Is there a legal basis for that?
I checked the VFR flight guide and it only mentiones a 16.50 UKP landing fee (for up to 1.5 MT), nothing else.
I checked the VFR flight guide and it only mentiones a 16.50 UKP landing fee (for up to 1.5 MT), nothing else.
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Maders UK
Age: 57
Posts: 806
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
"Maybe, in a helicopter, not flying to an airport is the answer."
IO540 - you are spot on with this.
90% of my (helicopter) landing fees are ..er... free because I use private sites rather than airports.
The best parts of keeping your heli @ home are no hangarage charge, bowsered fuel and the convenience of going from your back yard to someone elses or to an airport only if you really must.
Unfortunately most heli maitenance shops are at airports (with the exception of Rotorspan @ Droitwich) so for maintenance you have to take the landing fee on the chin.
Alternatively you could land in the car park, put the wheels on and push in inside the airport perimeter.. that's the kind of pennypinching that made this country great!
SB
IO540 - you are spot on with this.
90% of my (helicopter) landing fees are ..er... free because I use private sites rather than airports.
The best parts of keeping your heli @ home are no hangarage charge, bowsered fuel and the convenience of going from your back yard to someone elses or to an airport only if you really must.
Unfortunately most heli maitenance shops are at airports (with the exception of Rotorspan @ Droitwich) so for maintenance you have to take the landing fee on the chin.
Alternatively you could land in the car park, put the wheels on and push in inside the airport perimeter.. that's the kind of pennypinching that made this country great!
SB
niknak
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 2,335
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Al, out of interest, how many circuits did you do?
£17.50 for the landing fee seems reasonable, if, for example, you did another 3 touch and go's and/or an instrument approach, another £30 is about the norm' for an airport of Shoreham's size and operation and given the cost of running the airport, very reasonable.
£17.50 for the landing fee seems reasonable, if, for example, you did another 3 touch and go's and/or an instrument approach, another £30 is about the norm' for an airport of Shoreham's size and operation and given the cost of running the airport, very reasonable.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: england
Posts: 98
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think Shoreham have a helicopter circuit charge per time period/session @ £30. So it is not charged like proper aeroplane circuits.
Yes, there are parking meters now at Shoreham. They will charge 50p per 3 hours I'm told or £2 per day. Owners of aeroplanes based there will also be required to pay. OUTRAGEOUS I think.
This is typical of the management style that has seen the new 'owners', they actually have a lease from the local authority, achieve the feat of reducing their share value from £394 to 9.5P in the course of about 9 months!
Yes, there are parking meters now at Shoreham. They will charge 50p per 3 hours I'm told or £2 per day. Owners of aeroplanes based there will also be required to pay. OUTRAGEOUS I think.
This is typical of the management style that has seen the new 'owners', they actually have a lease from the local authority, achieve the feat of reducing their share value from £394 to 9.5P in the course of about 9 months!
Last edited by tigerbatics; 30th Nov 2007 at 11:00. Reason: That would be a real feat.Typo time, the correct value was £3.94 for the shares a short while ago.
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: ...back of the drag curve
Age: 61
Posts: 558
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Shoreham is typical of a succesful GA friendly airfield being turned into a total shambles by a succession of incompetent management styles. ATC think they are controlling Heathrow, the Airport Management think it's Heathrow and the small guys (Us GA types) are getting shafted all the time. To charge for all go arounds is just plain greedy and surely will come back to bite them when somebody doesnt go around when they should and crashes. I'm surprised they are not charging people to taxi across the grass!
The same has happened at most 'larger' airfields like Norwich, Bristol, Southampton, Bournemouth Cardiff, Exeter, Southend etc who all, bar Southend, appear to treat the smaller GA world like the dirt on their shoes.
If it wasn't for their own planning conditions, I'm sure Shoreham would be a very profitable piece of housing estate for the local council by now.
I avoid it at all costs, unless somebody else is paying the bills.
The same has happened at most 'larger' airfields like Norwich, Bristol, Southampton, Bournemouth Cardiff, Exeter, Southend etc who all, bar Southend, appear to treat the smaller GA world like the dirt on their shoes.
If it wasn't for their own planning conditions, I'm sure Shoreham would be a very profitable piece of housing estate for the local council by now.
I avoid it at all costs, unless somebody else is paying the bills.
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: South East
Age: 56
Posts: 614
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Qualify what you mean by 'ATC think they are controlling at Heathrow'. The ATCO's are fully qualified controllers who are required to protect their licence and abide by the same licence requirements set out in MATS pt1 and their own MATS pt2 approved by the CAA, just as a Heathrow controller has.
A difference being that they are dealing with alot of novice, weekend and professional pilots without the same airspace protection or Radar aids to assist them.
As for misssed approaches, I agree a missed approach should not be charged if it is on the grounds of safety. But for training, I am sorry if you are using the ATC facilities for training why should the ATC unit providing you with the service not charge you for it?
Alot of pilots are in the priveliged position to be able to afford to fly. Facilities don't come cheap to install run and maintain..
Of course you are entitled to complain about prices, but think logically about it before you do so.
Oh and I have no connection to EGKA... Wrong end of the country.
A difference being that they are dealing with alot of novice, weekend and professional pilots without the same airspace protection or Radar aids to assist them.
As for misssed approaches, I agree a missed approach should not be charged if it is on the grounds of safety. But for training, I am sorry if you are using the ATC facilities for training why should the ATC unit providing you with the service not charge you for it?
Alot of pilots are in the priveliged position to be able to afford to fly. Facilities don't come cheap to install run and maintain..
Of course you are entitled to complain about prices, but think logically about it before you do so.
Oh and I have no connection to EGKA... Wrong end of the country.
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: UK
Age: 57
Posts: 145
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If you want the kind of read that makes you go , I suggest you check out the lateset AOPA 'General Aviation' magazine concerning the wonderful commercial record of the two characters who now own/control Shoreham Airport (Erinacous?). How do these people get away with it.
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: england
Posts: 98
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think the two you refer to have just gone from the board of Erinaceous. With a £700,000 payoff. They also own the operation at Fast helicopters at Thruxton and Shoreham, together with Alan Mann Helicopters which they bought from Erinaceous for £1.