Question ref pax pick up at Southampton

[Ace Rimmer]

Long story but I'm going to in a month or so's time I'm going to need to fly in to Soton pick up a pax fly him to Denham, then take him back to Soton drop him off and head home. I haven't flown in there in quite awhile and I understand it's not the most GA friendy place in the world these days. Anybody got any tips and/or advice (apart from don't do it!)

Ta

[julian_storey]

It's a while since I was last there, but I would suggest re-mortgaging the house and have the smelling salts on standby for when they give you the bill

[moonym20]

Not the cheapest, nice service though.

have your pax ready with the KY when they get to security

leave your flight bag in the aircraft if your going airside, unless your happy to get it frisked

[HPMan]

Soton

Not sure how Soton looks on light GA now, but....I diverted there (in the right hand seat of a PA28) a couple of years ago due to the PF executing a missed approach at Bournemouth (no sight of runway approaching minumums). The weather had got much worse, quicker than expected and Bournemouth was already our planned diversion. PF therefore asked for a weather diversion to Soton, provoking a reply that they do not take light aircraft. A bit of plea bargaining through the ever helpful Bournemouth finally resulted in a grudging permission to land at Soton. We were both made to feel quite unwelcome, although the lady who escorted us through to get some coffee while the weather improved was great. Sadly, security returning airside made us feel like terrorists (but that's a whole different thread!).Good luck to you, I hope you manage to negotiate access. An alternative might be Lee-on-Solent or Bournemouth. Apologies is someone takes umbrage to my comment about Soton, but the experience happened.HPMan.

[Midland Transport]

Do not bother

I have started flying out of Bournemouth and I have to say would only dream of going to soton in an emergency. My previous base was Coventry and Birmingham provided a similar servive to Cov as Soton do for Bournemouth. Even the Soton controllers seem to be asked to be as un helpfull as possible to anyone who contacts them unless you are on a IFR FP. So if you are IFR, prepared to pay the high landing and handling fees then ok if not use Bournemouth everyone especially the controllers who have as high work load as soton are pleasant and helpful

[Fuji Abound]

Book in plenty of time and you will get the airport to "handle" you which is cheaper but the "slots" are few. Otherwise the cost is more with the handling agents.

[wet wet wet]

the other side of the coin

I was in there last month, total cost for an Arrow was £28.11 inc VAT, which compares very favourably with Bournemouth these days. If you visit and they can park you on a free stand by the terminal this is all that you pay. However, if there are no free terminal stands available (which is quite likely) then you need to park on Signature's apron and pay their (expensive) handling fees. The only downside of parking on a terminal stand is that this is obviously within the restricted zone so you are subjected to the full security checks on the way out.

However, since you are only picking up/dropping off there should be a good chance that you can park at the terminal and so avoid dealing with Signature. Best ring the airfield and ask, I have to add that I have always found the staff there (ATC and ops) always to be pleasent and helpful.

[Planemike]

How about Popham...........???

Planemike

[airborne_artist]

How about Popham...........???

The closest bit of grass is Lower Upham - about 5 m NE of SOU. 650 m, and in the Class D.

[LateFinals]

I had to divert into Southampton a few years ago due to vacumn failure coasting out and they couldn't have been more helpful, GA is being progresively squeezed out now however.

LF.