The horses where I fly are unfazed by anything except the Rallye, which one or two seem to object to (and here I was going to add 'presumably on grounds of taste' but thought I couldn't face the incoming...:E ).
We get on well enough with their owners (Minders? Feeders? Financiers?) with agreed respect all round. Necessarily, as the livery stables are one side of the strip, a horsey field the other. Can't understand why they're so desirable though: no airbrakes, don't seem to sideslip and no Off switch.

SlipSlider,

A slightly strange question ... anyway, it was very straight forward really.

I have lived for a long time in a very rural community, the sort where most people know most people and some people know everything - even before it happens! I'm sure you know the sort of thing : living around here can make the Archers seem positively cosmopolitan.

I must have flown over these fields dozens of time (taking friends and family etc), but one day it just clicked how ideal those fields down there could be, if they were as flat as they looked from up here, subject to a few modifications. After that it was simple : I knew which farmer owned the land, saw him in the pub one night, and from that point on the negotiations were done in the time-honoured, Yorkshire-aled-up manner !

Lots of hoops to jump through yet but fingers crossed.

FF :ok:

On the subject of a windsock or not, may I suggest the following.

When I set my strip up 3 years ago, I pondered the same question and initially decided against one, as I didn't fancy advertising myself to those in the air and the potential nimbys on the ground but not being able to get a "feel for the wind" without walking of the house and out onto the strip became tiresome.

The answer was found at a model aircraft display in the form of a small windsock about 2ft long and coloured red and white rather than hi-viz yellow or orange.

The benefit of it's colour and size were immediately apparent when I stuck it on top of the 15ft scaffold pole, I'd put up six months earlier. From the air it is hard to spot unless you know where it is and are looking for it.

From the ground, easily observed from my house and anywhere on the strip but low enough not to stand out on the horizon and the red and white surprisingly becomes indistinct from the background landscape when viewed from a distance.

I had to compromise a bit on it's location/height and the effects of wind gradients and shear caused by some local topography (the house and surrounding large trees and raised river bank adjacent to the strip) but I quickly realised how these obstacles effected the socks response to the wind direction from certain quarters and soon learned how to read the "sock" in these circumstances.

Good luck with your venture and hope the above helps.

Only downside is that being designed for use by model fliers and not 24/7 use it only lasts around 12 months but at £7, I'm not complaining.

It's actually trivial to set up a £300 weather station, which you can read from a display inside the house, or remotely over the internet.

I reckon one could even make it send you an SMS with the current data :)

It could be solar powered and would be well hidden, with just the top poking up through the top of a tree or hedge.

Windsocks are not essential.

Windsocks are not essential. I decided against one so as not to advertise my presence lurking inside the barn. When I arrive, I bend down, grab a handful of grass and chuck it in the air. I decide the take off direction accordingly. On my return, I either look for smoke, use the take off direction I established earlier, or if all else fails switch on the radio and ask the local ATC who always oblige.

FF, thanks. Strange question? :E Not really! Perhaps I should have explained....

I've been quietly floating around looking at fields locally, and studying OS maps, with the same longterm intent. But I live in the overcrowded south, a denizen of suburbia, and I don't know any farmers, so I was simply hoping for some hints how to make an approach to one. I guess I shall have to knock on the farmhouse door, and just wing it! :)

Slip

What are the ownership rules as they relate to the 28-day rule? Can one simply purchase a field and use it? Or does it have to be leased back to a farmer so there is some "other use" too?

Agricultural land is usually very cheap.

I know what you are saying about if you don't use the strip then you won't be able to prove that you used it. However low usage means that not many people will notice it. Then after 10yrs you can just try and get full planning for as many movements as practically possible. It's all about playing the game really. I have a strip at the moment in my back yard 850m by 17m enough to land a small jet. I had to get an environmental survey done which cost £12k but apart from that it's worked out pretty well. I've only got planning for 12 movements per year, but use it about 100!

Now i am no lawyer but i think this next statement rather puts a "Nouse" round your neck:E One of them must be a falsetruth!

"nouseforaname" "I know what you are saying about if you don't use the strip then you won't be able to prove that you used it. However low usage means that not many people will notice it. Then after 10yrs you can just try and get full planning for as many movements as practically possible. It's all about playing the game really. I have a strip at the moment in my back yard 850m by 17m enough to land a small jet. I had to get an environmental survey done which cost £12k but apart from that it's worked out pretty well. I've only got planning for 12 movements per year, but use it about 100!"
By the way Nouse, where roughly is your strip near London? Cos to me it sounds more like Fantasy Island! So Sunday afternoon you want to do this! And hey presto Monday not only have you done it, but you have had an environmental survey and satisfied the 10 year rule!!:confused: :confused: :confused: Does the machine you fly look like an old Blue Police box and have a sexy assistant in it by any chance?

Alas, like most thinks ... It suddenly becomes expensive when you actually want to buy it. Agric land is cheap when sold in quantity. The average price per acre quoted in publications such as "Farmers Weekly", is based on land sold around the country agriculturally, ie in large lots between farmers. Try and buy a 5 acre paddock for your pony and you'll see what I mean!

If you buy a field with the intention of using it as an airstrip it will not qualify as a 28 day rule airstrip. How can it? The field's primary use is for the airstrip itself! You will need to set yourself up as a smallholder with a agricultural holding number, and farm the land (in whatever way you choose) or rent it to a farmer, use it for horses or whatever. You can then apply the 28 day rule for your strip.

I'm sure I've told you this before in another strip related thread?

SS

The bloke at Upfield Fam has tarmaced his strip and been served with an enforcement order, so watch out.

PistonGone....strip is actually in not in UK. I'm based in London but it doesn't mean the strip was there I never said that.

Agricultural land has gone up in price in Q4. 2006 and is expected to go up even more in the UK due to a crop failure in some strong exporter country (can't remember where) but expect land to be heading towards the 15k/acre pretty shortly!

.....where is the upfield farm strip? that's bad news about having to take up the lovely tarmac.

Which Country?
 

Nouseforname,
If you are talking of another country then i apologise, however from your post you seem to be talking of British Law! Ie:- "I know what you are saying about if you don't use the strip then you won't be able to prove that you used it. However low usage means that not many people will notice it. Then after 10yrs you can just try and get full planning for as many movements as practically possible. It's all about playing the game really. I have a strip at the moment in my back yard 850m by 17m enough to land a small jet. I had to get an environmental survey done which cost £12k but apart from that it's worked out pretty well. I've only got planning for 12 movements per year, but use it about 100!" All the facts in that statement relate to British Law, however if you live in another country with equally bureaucratic rule makers, then i feel sorry for you to! Also you give your Location as London and talk of a strip near London, which is why i made the assumption you were talking of a strip near London.
I will make you an offer Nouse, post the co-ordinates of your strip in another country and i will google earth it, and if there is a strip there 850m long, then i will give you a free hour flying in the Fire Engine, how's that sound? And if its 17m wide i will give you another hour!:ok:
PS Upfield Farm is appx 10nm S.E of Newport Wales

NFN - there is no way that agricultural land in England will fetch £15,000/acre following a crop failure in Outer Gongolia. Average price is less than £10,000/hectare, which equates to £4050/acre.

That said you won't get amenity land (land that can not be built on, but for which agriculture is not the prime purpose) for that price - expect to pay three times the price and more, depending on how much the seller thinks you want it/can afford.

Strutt and Parker say avg = £3061/acre

No I do think that agricultural land in the UK is worth more than that. Modern valuation methods that Strutt and Parker would be using would stem from a residual profit making valuation. The same as you would value a pub/restaurant. These methods of valuation do not take into account demand, availability and location etc.:D

Piston gone I don't think that the area where my strip in Ireland is will be photographed on google earth. but if you pm me i'll send you a picture to your e-mail address. Hows that. I'll even show you my once milking parlour now hangar!

NFN PM sent:ok:

Great things, ex-milking parlours! Part of our old one (SS tubing) is now the exhaust system on my aeroplane :D

SS

PUBLIC APOLOGY:ouch: :ouch:
Nouseforaname has a strip longer and better condition than Elstree!!
How about the co-ordinates for a visit then:ok:

I may be thinking of purchasing some land and applying for planning at the outset, with a budget to cover an appeal, first to Bristol and then to the Dept of Environment, over a few years.

10 movements a week?

Somebody I know has done this in Spain recently. Different regs I know, but it took him a few years. His is tarmac though, fantastic.

Shortstripper. SS tubing exhaust from the milking parlour??
I've just worked out who you are. (I think)
(You admired my very quiet engine at FFF.)
PS 8 acres here for £45,000est at auction. Into wind and 700 yds +.
Just outside the Cardiff zone. No doubt gone to some 'Violet Elizabeth' for her pony. :(