It might be in theory, but airports have a massive trick up their sleeve: the magical “S-word”. This is great for resisting any overview from above, because those conducting the overview invariably know nothing about aviation.
With the massively overpriced hotels there, GA is likely to bring a significant injection into their economy.
Maybe they had some accidents recently which have reduced their enthusiasm re GA?
Just call a cousin in the Isles, they tend to use “mouth & ear” around there
Hmmm I think you must be thinking of Alderney
Peter wrote:
GA access to the Scillies (and Anderney) is crucial. Getting there any other way is an all-day hassle and is expensive.
Really? 99% of their populations ( a guess but probably low) would never use GA. It is crucial to us as GA pilots. I would be surprised if the average person in the street cared.
Ask around Alderney and you will get interesting data.
The average person in the street doesn’t care about anything much…
The average person on these islands cares very much about ways of getting out of there to do some useful shopping.
Camarillo here in LA basin has a great restaurant airside called Wayfarer Cafe.
Waypoint Cafe.
Great burgers! One needs to recalculate W&B post-meal…
This may be a naïve question, but wouldn’t it be possible to lobby for fortification of the grass parking area? In most of our fire brigade access ways to buildings that sit inside a green/garden area, there is either a plastic grid embedded in the grass, or people use e.g. also for driveways the ubiquitous “Rasengitterstein”:
With an approximate cost of let’s say 10 Euros per square metre for the concrete blocks, and a quick estimation from the aerial picture from above, I would guess that the grass parking is something like 100mx30m, so with volume discount 20k-30k in building materials, plus labour on top. Is that such a massive expense for the airfield? Aren’t there any funding pots for infrastructure or at the moment with the low interest rate even a long-term loan possible to spread the cost over the next ten years or so?
Peter wrote:
Ask around Alderney and you will get interesting data.The average person in the street doesn’t care about anything much…
What really gets the locals going on Alderney is to cycle down the one way High Street in the wrong direction !
Having said that its a great island to visit and even better if you have some bikes.
Aren’t there any funding pots for infrastructure
If the locals were made aware of how much trade they are loosing whist the airport is closed to GA, they might persuade their local council to raise a loan, or even a grant, to get such a mesh laid.
As we are only talking about light GA Parking, there might be rubber mats/mesh which is even cheaper.
This is what I had in mind: Rubber Mesh
Not going to break the bank.
EGHE is now open again, post coronavirus. I don’t know if they opened at all after Dec 2019 – the original topic of this thread.
BTW the usual email for EGHE (atc @ scilly.gov.uk) does not work so they won’t get the PPR form
You have to use a temp email