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How can an airport just close to GA for a couple of months for no reason? (Scilly Isles EGHE)

Scilly Isles EGHE is closed till December 2019.

It amazes me what kind of “management” can just do this.

They must have the world’s most amazing wx forecasting, to know the grass (yes, there is only grass; the tarmac is reserved for the “professional pilots” nowadays) will be waterlogged every day for weeks. Especially as the grass is on the apex of a hill and is sloping

They also clearly don’t need to make any money. They must have discovered a way to manufacture that, too According to this they have roughly 5 flights a day at this time of the year. Maybe they get as much out of each of those as from a field full of GA?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Same for lengthy periods last year.Not good for the island economy.

EGMD EGTO EGKR, United Kingdom

Very strange. I never heard of an airport that reserves the tarmac runway for “professionals”, nor one that closes for GA. Not even Munich or Frankfurt would do this (they keep GA out by demanding obscene fees, but if you are willing to pay those, they won’t stop you…)

Low-hours pilot
EDVM Hildesheim, Germany

I can never make sense of how some UK airfields are managed: military colonel on state salary running a private buisness ;) ?

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I will try to give you the „UK type“ reasoning that might stand behind the closure:

„So: then who will go and check the surface every morning? And who will judge anyway if the parking are is OK or not? And for which types after all?

And when it happens, and an aircraft gets stuck in the mud, and the crew will cry „help!“ Do we have a tractor here on the island to tow him out? How do we do that? God forbid if we damage something in the process?

No no. Maybe it‘s a better idea to just renounce. 50 potential light aircraft visits per winter, that‘s roughly 750 pounds total. Let‘s save ourselves the hassle!“

Last Edited by boscomantico at 24 Nov 17:02
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Very good explained

EDWF, Germany

Very true Boscomantico but this one has an empty tarmac runway/parking , however, I agree it is -1000£ after all: close the lot, go on holidays and save all the hassle

Last Edited by Ibra at 24 Nov 17:29
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

However, those “why bother with GA” reasons exist everywhere, not just in the UK. You see this all over the place. Anywhere where ample taxpayer (or EU grant) funding is evident, with not much scrutiny or local GA representation, they push GA out. The slightest smell of “jet” business is used for that too.

Maybe UK has more of this problem which makes airport managers happy to drop GA access? It is certainly true that any airport charging over about £20 gets slagged off on the UK aviation chat circuit.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

As Bosco points out they’re going to lose less than a grand.

I can kind of understand it. When I was based at Lee-on-Solent, while the Coastguard station was still there, they sold off some of the land and a strange taxiway arrangement was in place. Long story short, for north-easterly departures you had to taxi the full length of the runway, on the grass at the side.

SOPs were, loads of power and don’t stop… but if you did, that’s it, you were stuck. Luckily, the coastguard used to jump in a tractor and come and pull us out, as they had not much else to do while waiting for a call out. But if you have to pay someone, to be on call, to pull out a stuck GA plane, then your take-home for the quarter is gone in a day on someone’s salary.

At my place now, we’ve closed the grass runway until March 2020… but we have lots of tarmac available, for all required activities :-)

EDHS, Germany

Further going to show that the problems confronting GA in the UK and Europe are usually not caused by the national regulator or EASA. The stuff EASA has imposed falls so far behind the real problem: arbitrary issues caused by airports run by jobsworths. Things like the only airport on an island being closed for GA and for bizarre reasons not allowing GA to use the hard surfaced runway; airports that only allow based traffic at weekends; airports which keep only bankers’ hours; airports that only allow one instrument approach every two hours for no good reason etc.

It’s the non-availability of airfields that will finish off GA – not issues with fuel, running costs or the regulator. Is it any wonder that most PPLs give up when confronted by these issues?

Andreas IOM
52 Posts
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