Bringing Fuel Onto Airfields

But in the UK where the risk of being sued is an order of magnitude lower, the FEAR of getting sued seems an order of magnitude higher

I don’t think it is necessarily the fear of getting sued, but the nuisance and irritation of being portrayed as irresponsible or not taking things serious in the local media and community, the nuisance of being blamed. The mentality is increasingly more and more to blame someone else for not doing their job or not being responsible when you, yourself have done something stupid. Every autumn when the snow falls the first time, people collide and drive off the road all over the place (all traces of snow has by magic vanished from peoples memories during the summer I am as guilty as anyone). Increasingly often though, people want to put the “responsibility” of these mishaps on the road administration, they should now better and have salted or moved the snow or sanded or whatever. In a sense they are right, because holding the roads in good condition is the job and responsibility of the road administration. Legally they are wrong of course, it is the drivers responsibility to keep the car on the road regardless of road conditions. Nevertheless, the road administration is portrayed as irresponsible and incompetent, year after year.

It is the same with bringing fuel. If something happened, a fire typically, then all eyes would be on the Airport administration. The would be “irresponsible” and “incompetent” because they “allowed” it and because they behaved irresponsible by not building a real pump facility. Never mind the guy who used a lit match to see how much fuel was left, because the is one of the reasons for building a real pump facility, to guard against actions from stupid people.

I don’t see this mentality going away anytime soon.

Every autumn when the snow falls the first time, people collide and drive off the road all over the place

Around these parts, when it snows (pretty rare) the vehicles in ditches are almost all 4 wheel drive. The owners of these vehicles seem to forget that everyone has 4 wheel brakes and they will not stop any faster than anyone else! (probably more difficulty in stopping due to the extra mass)

I agree with some of the comments where it has suggested a meeting with ‘the management’. Maybe a small group of suitable and foreceful reprasentatives should have such a meeting and request a solution, not just a message. How many people at Bournemouth are affected by this? I guess the owners squuezed a discount on their own fire insurance aspect and passing the burden on to owners. Either that or they are a bit up themselves.

My home airfield is likely to close, so we have moved to a new airfileld, but some owners are moving to a much more local strip, which has no gas at all, and they have to make fuel stops. That seens like a massive PITA.

Looks like we could be relocating shortly… Luckily Lee-On-Solent have hangarage and a good runway, which is shortly to be resurfaced.

Perhaps Bournemouth’s real agenda…

QuoteI would be interested to hear if anyone else is fuelling with MoGas or any other field that they bring onto a licensed airfield in the UK.

I posted such information early on the thread, but the post disappeared. We do at Inverness EGPE.

Well, I do at EBZH and so do a host of others. But that may not be relevant to you as I do not think EBZH is a licensed airfield – actually it is not clear to me what criteria must be met to get an a/d licensed – must be one more UK peculiarity, I think. Does the concept exist in other countries?

Jan, EBZH is a licensed airfield for VFR private traffic: Link

Thank you, plouc, but I do not see the word “licensed” there – and even if it were there, I am quite sure it would be in a sense different from the UK interpretation… Mind you, we are talking legalese here which is a long way from colloquial English.