It’s possible in all of the UK, although town and country planning is devolved, so there are differences between our constituent countries. Our planning laws are also complicated, with many permissive exceptions, but:
In general, planning permission is required to change the use of any piece of land for more than 28 days a year.
In general, planning permission is required to carry out “engineering works” on any land.
In general, breach of planning regulations is not an offence.
In general, planning officials are helpful if approached for advice early in the process.
Also, in general, a felling license may be required to remove a substantial number of trees.
Summary: in general, if you want to use a field or garden as an aerodrome, talk to someone who has done it and then talk to the local planning department.
In the UK you can do it, and there are basically two paths
Most UK “strips” operate under the 28 day rule. If you have movements on more days than that, that’s OK but you need to make sure there are no (or very few) complaints. Then after 10 years you can apply for a certificate of lawful use which firms up the entitlement for the actual movements (you kept a log for 10 years). This is why most strips don’t like casual visitors, and don’t like newcomers all that much either 
Some have restrictions e.g. no syndicate planes (too many movements) etc 
Also IMHO most strips don’t apply for the certificate even after the 10 years because they don’t want hassle and want to keep their setup exclusive. I went around this circus when I started flying, so I am obviously speaking as an outsider.
The last time the planning permission route was used successfully (or probably at all since most people wrongly think it isn’t possible) was with Popham, 1978 – based on what I have been told. If I was setting up a strip I would go for full planning, but you need to reckon on some £100k to get it (noise surveys, etc). For a hard runway, this route would be essential IMHO.
One TB20 owner built a beautiful hard runway place in N Spain, near Zaragoza. He died a few years ago but the place is still there.
This report which was contributed by a lady pilot here, might be of interest re air parks.
We have had threads here on air parks. My views is that a lot of people like the idea but very few are actually willing to stick their hand in their pocket and pay a few hundred k for a house next to a noisy runway. The infamous Murcia air park project in Spain was an almost total failure. Most people with money want to live in a nice area, first and foremost. Accordingly, most air parks in the USA are very private communities; invited visitors only. The above linked report contains a lot of data on this.
My post crossed with Jacko’s.
You can do it in Ireland too. Planning permission is required, but can be obtained retrospectively. In other words, you can set up the airfield, and if nobody complains you can later apply for permission to retain the airfield.
I would think Sweden is the best place in Europe. Lots of space and flat. I know a couple of persons who has “moved” to Sweden when retired (a second house or a cottage) close to an airfield. Where I live, lots of people have cottages in Sweden (apartments also for that matter, in Åre and the vicinity). I would rather have a cottage/house close to, or even on, an existing airfield in Sweden rather than building my own airfield.
It’s rather easy to build your own field in Norway as well, particularly for low frequency use (meaning less than 12? movements per week). More than that, and there is somewhat more to it. The main problem is finding flat land you can use between the mountains and hills.
Peter
In the UK.
If you own the land then there is the law of Curtilage. This is the same law that allows you to drive a car or nosiey scrambler up and down your piece of land.
So you can do that as long as you like without planning permission.
However if you have visiting aircraft then thats under the 28 day rule..
It IS possible in Germany, but you have to love paper I guess. I haven’t gone through the process, but there are some private airfields and it is “relatively easy” to set up a microlight and gliding site.
If you own the land then there is the law of Curtilage. This is the same law that allows you to drive a car or nosiey scrambler up and down your piece of land.
I used a planning consultant (a former head of Planning for Mid Sussex – a very smart guy who helped us to get permission for a big extension to our house, and managed to get a huge house built in a national park area under the “infilling” rule ) and he said you would not be able to claim that a 800m field was within the curtilage of your house and it’s 1 acre garden, for the purpose of Change of Use which is what flying would be. A lot of people have tried this avenue, apparently, for various purposes e.g. putting up buildings, because within the curtilage you get protected development rights.
Not impossible in Belgium, there are a few, but very complicated administration (like most things, here).
In Czech Republic off-aerodrome landing became legal several years ago, and if you own a plot (or if you don’t but the landowner agrees), you can now land on it.
It’s also legal in Israel, but the entire country’s airspace is controlled.
There was an interesting case here a few years ago. A guy I know (now sadly deceased, and he was a very colourful character who we miss) made his own airstrip without planning permission on his farm. He was just fine till he started operating a Cessna 337 out of there (which if you’ve ever heard one make a very obnoxious sound) and the neighbours started complaining.
He got hauled up before the beak and got ordered to return it to agricultural land, which he did, growing crops in the field. Now a farm track is quite wide enough to operate a Piper Cherokee, so he kept flying out of there. The planners couldn’t touch him apparently, as he had done what the judge had ordered him to do in court, and the “runway” counted as a farm track (after all his tractors had to go up there to access other fields). It was however in class D airspace, so the government ordered ATC to not give out clearances over the phone (the planners are a vindictive bunch apparently, and don’t like being defeated). He complained to the CAA, but the CAA said they couldn’t do anything about it – but if they didn’t give a clearance over the radio they certainly wanted to know about it. So he bought a radio base station with a 50 watt transmitter, installed it in an old Sherpa minibus, complete with an antenna tower, and called ATC from this and would then jump in his Cherokee and take off. He operated like this till he sadly died of a brain tumour.
