How important do you see the "airfield community" to keeping you flying?

Certainly important. The crucial thing is whether the different groups join up and speak with one voice.

Let’s see (and hope) if the folks at Blackpool manage to get somewhere. I understand there is quite a few groups, owners, schools, clubs and businesses there, so they all together might be able to at least save the airfiels as an unlicensed VFR airfield.

For me it was important, and will be a major contributor to whether I will continue to fly.

With the recent closure of Panshanger, not only have I lost a local base for my aircraft, I have lost a local flying community I can visit if I am passing, or just to be social when the weather is crap. Panshanger was a relatively small place, where everyone knew everyone else pretty much, and there were one ot two tables where the ‘regulars’ sat.

The community wasnt just a social thing. It was where you could hear other peoples stories or experiences which might inspire you, or question why that person made a decision to fly on that particular day and affirm your own decion making processes. And in some cases as a more experienced pilot/owner, you might take up a young kid, or an old boy who remembers flying 50 years ago or something, or even a current student-ppl who maybe has some difficulties with something and wants to see that flying actually isnt all that hard if planned properly. The community part was a relatively free asset in flying, where not much else (including the burgers) are cheap.

Of course, a ‘community’ is not essential to fly, and as much as my new base (Denham) is a great airfield (a better airfield if I am honest), I havent yet found the ‘community’. This is partly because I am based on the south side, and the cafe / flight school is on the north side, which is either a drive or a taxy ride in the plane. I would say that the Denham Flight Centre is one of the most welcoming / kind / inviting flight schools I have ever seen, but (and maybe because its I am a new person), I havent found the community. And, its too long a trip round the dreaded M25 to just pop in for a cup of tea and a bite to eat to even look for the community.

But the loss of close friends ‘hanging around’ the airfield, and the chin-wagging, was one of the pleasures of visiting an airfield and kept up the enthusiasm and interest. Now I dont have it, my reasons for visiting Denham are only to fly (OK, the major function of an airfiled I grant you), but that means when I am not chatting to other pilots/friends, my interest wanes (out of sight, out of mind). There is the side issue that the other shareholders in my plane are selling up, but the lack of close community to me actually swings the decision to continue to fly or not, in whatever capacity.

euroga.org is my airfield community.

To put it a bit more seriously: I understand the charms of a local airfield community/club environment. I even had some insights into that – e.g. when I flew over to Andrewsfield EGSL two years ago to get my theory exams out of the way before commencing flying training in the US and loved the atmosphere there. But apart from that, I’ve never HAD such a “brick & mortar” community, so unlike e.g. PiperArcher, I cannot miss it because I don’t know it.

Where I fly now (EDLE), there is no local community as such. I charter from a flying school – a decent one, I’d say but it doesn’t have the community atmosphere a club would have. It’s a bit “cooler”. Recently, the restaurant at the airport closed down, which reduces even further the possibility to hang out and have a coke or beer with someone after a flight. Granted, the restaurant was shabby. I hope they’ll find a new tenant soon.

I also became member of a flying club recently, but that’s exclusively to benefit from their cheap rates for longer trips. They meet on Friday evenings, but it would take me two hours there and two hours back – so I won’t go.

So for me, the “community” is essentially euroga.org and some other online forums/facebook to stay informed and find inspiration – and the handful of pilot friends I made during training and who I meet every now and then.

Andrewsfield has managed to create a real community – possibly because there is a good small school, quite a few vintage or permit types with owners maintaining or fettling them on site, and a good restaurant.

The community aspect also helps by the locals keeping an eye out for you – so if you ask, you get helpful advice.

I think that in the smaller rural airfields, the community spirit is what keeps them alive, and still in business. I have been involved in them all, hanger groups, small airfield groups, and it certainly kept me intellectually alive, in that you could pitch up regardless of weather, have a chat and a cup of tea, and soldier on.

Now, an actual flying club, run as a business, is my worst nightmare, as an owner. Committee led, often the ones on the committee don’t even fly, petty jealousies aimed at the ‘owners’, etc. Been there, done that, never again.

In my current base, other than the guys that work at the Business Aviation centre, there is no social chat or activity. I do fly other types from a private grass airstrip, but even there it is just my pal. It all works for me, but there was an extremely good set up a number of years ago we had at an old RAF station, the guy that ran it was a total maverick, superb fun, but of course, eventually was run out of town by the dreaded, committee.His style of operation was frowned upon, but we had some marvellous laughs and great flying escapades. I miss that, but glad I had the time I did have there.

I thought it was important to me but on reflection its not. I used to be the treasurer for a Flying Club and unless you were part of the hallowed inner core you could forget about any meaningful interaction if you were a shy unassuming type person. Similar to some forums. However what I did enjoy was having a few like minded people to fly with and enjoy sharing. The egos got left outside the aircraft and fun was had by all. I had two such people in South Africa, one a pilot and one not a pilot and the adventures we got up to was awesome. I tried to find the same thing in the UK but unfortunately have been unable to find like minded flying folk. I find that the person in P2 seat seem to always appoint themselves as wannabe instructor and it drove me mad. Rumour has it that one of the people I used to fly with started spreading stories that I would NOT fly without an instructor. Hahaha. I always wonder how I managed to get my solo hours then. I have kicked them all into touch and now prefer to fly alone and enjoy it. I still live in hope that there is another “Bloomer” type pilot out there but I don’t hold my breath,

Bloomer, yes, my perception, and experience of the committee led club. Speak up, your trouble, best get rid of him, sit back, and you see all the crap that goes with the club entity. The AGM’s were always good for a giggle. Some bright things would get together and ask why 45p was spent on wasted photo copy paper etc. Deep analysis of the accounts would yield no answer, but cards were marked accordingly. Reminded me of my days in Corporate life. Dear God………

Anyway, if you can latch onto a group of like minded, up for a bit of fun and a laugh, then it can make all the difference, but they tend not to last long in the community.

I do think it refreshing if you have some flying friends, even if you meet only twice a year, but it does give a feeling of belonging, in an industry that can be at times, dull.

Oh, as you can guess, golf clubs are not my thing…

The local club at ENVA, which is an international airport with high level security and insane parking fees (car), is not a place where you just pop by. Flying there is great though, nice aircraft, microlight, Cub, Safir, Cherokee and several C-172s. An operational SAR organisation and open 24 hours. I’m also revising the accounting there, and the business runs well All in all it’s an excellent place to fly, but not much “community” there. The club is run and operated like a commercial business, a mix of aircraft rental and semi-professional flight school.

The local gliding club is very different. Glider pilots are extremely social and lives to fly. Any monetary “business” is just a necessary evil to get up into the waves. They think it’s fun to live together 10 or more in a cramped cottage for weeks if it means gliding during the day. When I started towing gliders, I must say the fun of flying went up several notches. I even had more than an hour long gliding flight myself this summer, my first solo in a glider for 32 years It’s just refreshing to be with pilots who focus on flying and having fun, instead of dead serious “safety” and regulations and procedures and economy that GA often can be. The only problem with gliders, they operate 2 hours from here and you need to be at least 3-4 people. You have to spend at least a day, preferably the whole weekend. You cannot simply take a flight in the evening like you can with a motorized plane. This makes it a bit difficult when work and/or life starts to get a bit more than normally busy. Whenever I can and weather allows, I take the Cub to ENOP (gliding Mecca for mountain waves) instead of the car.

So, yes, communities are important. Still, I think online communities like this one is just as important. My knowledge about regulations and air law has increased ten fold since I accidentally found this site some months ago. Today I even know what EASA is What I miss is a larger homebuilding community where I live. Today we are only two persons building within a 100 km radius, at least. 90% of all builders in Norway lives around Kjeller it seems.

Speaking of airfield community. Maybe we should make a GA version