So, the trip was completed last Friday.
We flew into Southampton as we needed to be in Nursling, and I think the added taxi costs from Lee vs Southampton somewhat offset the difference in landing fees and so on. For future reference, we were charged the following for a C172 (1089kg MTOW):
Landing charge: £27.15
Handling charge: £27.50
Parking charge: £14.40 (1115Z to 1615Z)
Fuel (100 liters AVGAS): £169.07
All these prices are excluding 20% VAT
It was a great trip, and when I get the pictures, I’ll make a little trip report.
Good afternoon Nick P95:
I saw your post only today, so please excuse the tardy response, I use S Coast airfields regularly inbound from Cannes, Guernsey and Norwich (I have a nephew at Warsash whom I regularly ferry to the destinations above), for what it is worth, and from my experience, I recommend the following:
1. Use Lee on Solent: reasonable price, plenty of parking and receptive.
2. If you need an instrument approach (to break cloud) Southampton are ‘happy’ to assist you in this if not helpful in parking – use the facility,
3. Operations out of hours at Lee are possible on provision of insurance documentation, most likely do-able via e-mail / telephone,
4. If you need public transport Lee – Southampton £15.00 and trains to most locations from there,
5. In the UK with so much Class G airspace, VFR is a non-event: speak to London Info and anyone they suggest, they are very helpful,
6. As said previously, file your flight plan and GAR and stay below the London TMA.
If you want to use Southampton, no issue, gonrightvahead but be prepared for the bill, they know how to invoice and, despite their avowed intention to ‘woo’ light GA, this information does not seems to get disseminated to the people at the coal-face.
If you want to talk it through, PM me and I’ll be happy to exchange e-nails or give you my telephone number.
Lee, as well as Bournemouth, are still under consideration, but in terms of convenience, Southampton is the best option. I have asked my contact there whether any of the others could work, but I’m still awaiting a reply.
OK, so in reality, nothing seems to have changed at Southampton. What a pity.
But why don’t you consider landing at Lee? It’s really not far from Southampton (30-40£ for the taxi maybe) and an airport in a beautiful setting.
I called Southampton Operations today, still no overnight parking with them. I also got word back from Signature, their charges are as follows:
Landing Fee: £10.86 per half metric tonne or part thereof
Handling Fee: £140.00
Parking: 1st hour free then £6.82
Out of hours: Any landing/departure after 1830 UTC £35 charge every half hour
This mounts up to more than £200, which is out of my budget.
So it looks like it’s going to be a same day return. I changed aircraft type to the C172, giving me enough payload to take a copilot as well.
Lastly, thank you guys for the valuable info, EuroGA is a great source for stuff like this!
You could also consider Thruxton – pretty sure you could arrange a hire car if required or there is a railway station at Grately and nearby Andover.
Worth a mention that there is a direct train from Shoreham to Southampton. The Shoreham station is about a 10 min walk from the airport. I think Lee on Solent needs a taxi – been there a few times myself.
Do you need Southampton for some special reason? Because there are several other airfields that are cheaper, convenient, and friendly. Popham springs to mind, or Shoreham, Goodwood, Lee on Solent, White Waltham, Blackbushe…. I’ve always managed to arrange a hire car wherever I am, most firms seem to be happy to come to me.
Personally I favour Popham inbound, but don’t get stuck there overnight, the village pub is pricey and a fair walk. If you need a hard runway then Blackbushe might be a good option.
That’s correct; you should tell them you are changing, but you don’t need to ask for their permission.
The reason for telling them is that they keep little strips of paper (or whatever modern equivalent) for each plane they are talking to, and they need to know when to bin them.
I asked London info for a handover to ostend approach.
Now just imagine you would have switched to EBOS APP without ever telling London Info… They might feel sad and abandoned about such ungentle(wo)manlike behaviour, but would it matter for the safety of your flight?
Again and again I am amazed at the vast majority of pilots requesting frequency change from FIS – FIS can not authorise anything, can not issue any kind of clearance, how could they give permission to leave their frequency? They do, though, all the while, very nice, very polite. Some will even say “QSY approved”, nice but not really correct imho. Myself and a handful of fellows will inform them, equally politely: “Brussels Info, the Oscar Oscar …, Hasselt in sight, switching to Hasselt Radio 118.325” and Brussels Info will remain nice and polite.
