Landing a small plane at LHR/LGW
 

If I had the good fortune to be a pilot with my own small plane, what obstacles would there be to flying to LHR or LGW while the runways are underused?

A380-sized landing fees? Inadequate equipment on plane?

How about recreational flying not being allowed at the moment?

If there is a loophole and it can be done, this should be exploited with no stone left unturned. For a small craft pilot, the experience of a lifetime!

https://www.aurora.nats.co.uk/htmlAI...l#EGLL-AD-2.20
para (g) is a starting point?

Timing might me tight, but I did not research the consequence of this. https://www.aurora.nats.co.uk/htmlAI...018-en-GB.html

As long as you get PPR probably nothing, having said that currently there is a notam out for Heathrow saying they don't accept practice approaches. So one has been trying it..

People are doing it here at Sydney and Melbourne in Pipers and Cessnas. Eye watering landing fees but a once in a lifetime op!

Good point, well made.

Whatever you do, from personal experience, to avoid giving yourself a heart attack, ask how much it would cost to land there.

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What on earth do you mean by loophole?????

People are dying because of some selfish individuals disobeying the law - the parks in London were crowded last weekend. And you are promoting finding some way to break the law or get round it and risk killing someone

Come to my hospital and I will show you the consequences

Recreational flying must stop

How about keeping current might save pilot's lifes?
Close to the place I live general aviation pilot's created a standby voluntary pilots hotline to have aircraft on call if any authority, hospital and such might need some urgent (free to them) medical flight to transport stuff back and forth. (Transporting patients is formally excluded.)

List of charges.

https://www.heathrow.com/content/dam...f_Use_2020.pdf

At a glance it would seem to be a minimum noise charge of £2,726.70 (aircraft under 16 tons), plus £25.47 parking fees for every 15mins, or part thereof, after the first 30mins which are free. Plus VAT.

before recreational GA was categorised as a non-essential activity, I did ask but was politely turned away.

A few people managed low go-arounds during the ash cloud 10 years ago but circumstances were very different.

On a normal day (if you could get a slot) expect a few grand in landing and compulsory handling charges.

Cool down, lost in translation. Meant to say, if by coincidence there is a legal way under today's circumstances, do it. Comparing light aircraft activity to full parks shows perhaps up to 3 orders of magnitude difference, that's not a fair call.

I understand your frustration and would feel the same in your shoes, under the impression someone was trying to get around the protocols in place.

The full opposite is true for myself. Not only we are protecting the healthy, but also the sick by keeping the rise in figures on short(er) leash and thus giving the medics a chance to cope, preserving at least some health sector capacity to people with serious non-COVID conditions, possibly even more lethal. Most of the things that are still allowed in the UK are banned under State Emergency Law here back home!

c52
What part of STAY AT HOME don't you understand?

Wasn't the op's question hypothetical?

Would have thought that all the AOC employed commercial aircraft sat on the ground would be desperate for this kind of work

It was a purely hypothetical question as I am not a pilot and do not own a plane, but it might become less hypothetical if there are a few days between all restrictions being lifted and airports becoming busy again.

I'm not a pilot, don't have a plane, don't have £2-3000 to throw at HAL (+VAT) and would not particularly enjoy the approach and departure as a passenger.

It might not be a hypothetical question if, once all restrictions are lifted, the airports remain mostly unused for a while.

My flight school required a flight into KDFW during the commercial syllabus, and that was in normal times. Atc hated us, but they were required let us in.

Apologies if I mis-read the OP.
Must be getting to me, Week 3 out of 12 for me, and watching those idiots on TV who think sunbathing qualifies as exercise, or having a beach barbecue is social distancing...........................

Landed one time at Washington National Airport in a Piper Archer. Slot required because it was after the controllers strike.
No landing fee, no parking fee either. Only in America.

Doesn’t Gatwick still have a GA terminal? A portakabin as I remember, back in the dark ages, there were quite a few light aircraft parked at Gatwick.

I have been into LGW from Lasham in a Cessna 150 to take a Flight Data recorder for a Comet that was AOG. It was ages ago but great fun!

Signature Flight Support has an FBO near Queens Gate. LGW South Terminal

Good luck with that. Had a PA-28 request an ILS approach and go around one Christmas Day which didn’t go down too well with those in authority.

Really interesting, looking at the numbers it's cheaper to land an A380 than a cessna? Check out the prices - the <16tonne price is more expensive than everything except to the noisiest of airliners (i checked another source and found that the most expensive Chapter 3 aircraft are real old noisy beasts).

An A380 fits into chapter 14 low - which is just £491.80. A solid £2000 cheaper than a C172... Have I missed something, or have I uncovered that A380 landing fees are the best deal in the UK?

other source for noise categories https://www.euroairport.com/de/actio...m%5Blang%5D=de

A380, or any other airliner for that matter, is a revenue stream. Each passenger brings around 30 pounds for the airport operator. You need their wallets to feed the eco(nomio)system. Same for the ATS, that place in particular requires super-premium service which does not come cheap.

Movements of small planes block the revenue streams. The number you see is not noise levy, it's a message to keep out.

Unagitated and also hypothetical question: apart from a lack of virtue signalling, how would conducting a local solo(!) flight (including a solo drive to the airfield and back) be at odds with the social distancing measures aimed at reducing the spread of the corona virus?

I think we have established that it's cheaper to land an empty A380 than a C172. Add the charge per arriving/departing passenger for a typical A380 load and the picture is rather different.

Not dissimilar to the Public Car Parking charges ....:eek:

So what exactly is wrong with socially distancing yourself alone in your own aircraft whilst remaining at least several thousand feet from anyone else? How does this affect the COVID rate in hospitals? I get the issues with people crowding beaches, but partaking in individual pastimes well away from anyone else clearly is a very low risk activity.

It's relatively low risk until you prang the aircraft thereby tieing up emergency responders and medical resources unnecessarily.

It wouldn't be. But it would be at odds with the overarching instruction to:

Stay at home

• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)

I landed at LHR in a twin Diamond a few months ago (in the middle of the night). Good fun!

I have actually flown a light aircraft into Heathrow - but a very long time ago!
In the late 1970s I needed a long cross-country flight at night as part of the UK CPL qualifications. I had the use of a Grumman AA-5 Traveler at Liverpool so hit on the mad idea of routing in and out of Heathrow. Filed a VFR flight plan and on a lovely clear night just set off. Flew at 3500' and arrived there around 22.30 without anyone in ATC querying what we were doing.
Parked on the GA apron on the southside which was near what is today the Royal suite.
Then - nothing:rolleyes:
The place was effectively closed so we had a short wander around until an ops vehicle showed up. He laughed when I asked about paying a landing fee and was there any fuel?
So we just booked out over the radio and departed to Birmingham to refuel. That bit went OK and eventually got home in the wee small hours.......
Never heard anything about it and never got a bill in the post :ok:

Driving to the airport - risk , non essential, may need emergency services who havebetter things to do,

cross contamination at airport - hangar doors etc.

flying your light aircraft - risk , non essential / see “ driving to the airport “.

Hope your critical thinking skills are better in an aircraft

Point taken regarding the non-essential nature of recreational flights, but invoking scenarios of private pilots suddenly crashing their aircraft and/or their cars on the way to/from the airport seems a bit OTT. What about spring-cleaning, gardening, doing repairs in your home, which carry a considerably bigger risk of injury than flying AFAIK?

The rules vary from country to country, but in the UK the Health Protection Regulations provide that 'no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse'

The reasonable excuses are clearly listed and would include going to work where it is not reasonably possible for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living.

So recreational flying is illegal if you leave your curtilage. Rotary pilots with a large garden are ok. Flying to work is OK. And if you have a check ride the instructor is legal but you are illegal....

The legal aspect is another thing (and practically, all airfields here are PPR at the moment, so you would probably not get a permission for a recreational flight anyway). I just find the divide within the community on the notion of (solo, local) flights interesting (albeit not necessarily positive): while some see it from a purely pragmatic standpoint and argue that there are few activities with a lower risk of infection and easier implementation of physical distancing, others find the very idea outrageous.

I once flew a Cessna 525 CJ2 into Heathrow, about 10 years ago.
It was a transplant flight around 3am.
The airfield was closed to commercial traffic but they open up for us.
I have to admit it was awesome and probably one of the best things I did in Aviation.
Taxiing took forever but was massively efficient.
We heard some chuntering on approach from aircraft in the hold waiting for the airfield to open as we skipped in below them.
Being me by the Ambulance and Police was quite emotional.

I see the fun police are on guard. :rolleyes:

Didn't somebody once land a Chipmunk on the grass on the north side and then scarper ?