Honest pilots

[pietmeyer]

Its simple...if the landing fee is R50.00, or R500,00, or R5000.00 - thats the fee and the local rule. If you dont like it, as Deon says, land somewhere else
SImple as that surely?

Our runway is so k@k that we have to pay people to land there. As for Demon, we will charge you next time for flying over our airfield and not landing

[Africa]

How many of those airfields are run by the muncipality? This airfield is in Town and maintained by pilots that fly from there. maybe 5 altogether.

[bryan]

Flamingo Park at East London kept neat and run by 4 [four pilots] and even being slowly upgraded through sheer hard work. No fancy bank accounts involved but pure passion for their sport. No landing fees and lots of good camaraderie for free!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bryan]

Municipality cannot even do the road [public road] going past Wings Park. Even that done by farmers local or Wings park themselves!!!!!!!!
And you will get coffee even if you drive here! No driving fees either

[Blue Max]

Ek dink eerder die kwessie gaan oor logika en nie oor eerlikheid nie.!!
Deurgans word runways en kleiner lughawens bevoordeel deur pilots wie verkies om daar te land...
Die plek word deur "word of mouth" adverteer en die locals word normaalweg ondersteun deur besoekers wie daar aandoen.
Om iemand landings fooie te vra, ( veral in geval van n trike of n ML )wanneer daar eenkeer in n blue moon geland word, is verspot.
Hou self julle runways instand soos 99% van alle partye doen en wees bly dat daar persone is wie daarvan gebruik wil maak.!!!
Die persone wie nie betaal het nie moet julle voor dankie se want hulle bewys aan julle ,julle redeneer verkeerd..!!

[Africa]

Municipality cannot even do the road [public road] going past Wings Park. Even that done by farmers local or Wings park themselves!!!!!!!!
And you will get coffee even if you drive here! No driving fees either

I understand but this in in the middle of town

[Triker]

Howzit guys.
I think the bad publicity that Hoedspruit got on this thread was just what they were aiming for by charging R50 per a/c

The only way for them to restore their former glory is by lowering the fees to a more reasonable level. I say R20 per a/c max. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. If they continue to charge R50 they themeselves will cause the 100% of nothing to reoccur more often. Rather be reasonable and develope a long term relationship with your source of income than trying to make a quick buck. should above mentioned not make sense,please excuse as this is way past bedtime already,haha.

Just my R50 contribution

[JJJ]

We are three owners at Roodia in Vanderbijlpark and two tenants. We club in and look after the runway ourself. If someone land there we give him coffee or Cold drink for free.
JJJ

[Tumbleweed]

I think many airstrips are unique and am sure if this strip attracted only low impact social trikers there would be no fee.

But, its different when there are only a few members to maintain the facilities and commercial/ trainers use your spot ad hoc coz its cheaper than where they operate from. Also crappy when toilets are available for flyers then trashed by the groen mannetjies. If someone flies for gain, pay your way.

[skybound®]

Hmm - interesting thread.

We have been involved with leasing the Uitenhage airfield from the metro for just over 10 years now. We also had to make the decision of how to treat visiting pilots and elected to go the free route. We want to encourage social visitors and we did feel that charging a fee - even a small one - may discourage those individuals. Based on this thread looks like we may have been correct.

We however do charge the local flying schools/commercial operators (not based at the airfield) a contribution on a quarterly basis. After all they cause much of the ware & tare that we have to fix.

When we took over, our rentals also went up so that we could afford it - was somewhere in the region of 1000% increase. Yeah sounds big - but in perspective, was a really small number. By keeping the rentals low, we have attracted more and more development and we have managed to just about double the amount of hangar space available (and hence our shared contributions).

Our support from the metro gets less and less each year, and we do take on more financial responsibility. My take on it - is that in the list of priorities the monkeypalities have to weigh up, we are pretty much at the bottom of that list. It is up to us to ensure that we keep the airfield open and viable.

[lefssa]

The fee of R50 is for single engine aircraft over 430kg. Microlights only pay R20. The flying club owns the ground in Hoedspruit and the municipality has no input on the property. They are asking rates and taxes the same as they do any other piece of property in Hoedspruit. Half of the property is zoned as agricultural and the other half is zoned as residential. They are looking at rezoning it in 2011 only but that will only be to aero and this will result in a 40% rebate. How did you get your municipality to help you in any way with upkeep and how did you get them to exempt the airfield from rates and taxes? Your help would be appreciated.

[lefssa]

Sorry forgot to add. We actually have the title deed to our property. We don't lease the land from the municipality like most of the airfields in the country.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Ok makes sense now. We don;t own the ground, they do and as such must maintain. We just "help" them do it. They want us to take transfer but if we do we will be in same situation as you are so we have not.

I know of one runway that has "parks and recreation" zoning and thus pays zero rates and taxes, but the "boss" was the town clerk for a long time so maybe that why?

What serices do they provide for those rates and taxes vs the services you provide to the town as a whole. maybe some PRO about the "usefullness" of the airstrip (Chat to the Graaff-Reinet boys) They have "seen the light" and the airport is seen as a godsend by the council... Airport Information: (Phone Graaff-Reinet Municipality and ask for Dan Davis )

Good luck... DO NOT BE AFRAID TO "PUSH YOUR LUCK" so to speak. Airfields are like roads and as soon as they see that they tend to be happier to assist due to the potential investment... Speak to the folks and state categorically that you are not in it to make a buck but rather to provide a service to the greater community and there may be some synergies.... especially if it not a "private club".

[skybound®]

Graaf Reinet was mainly sponsored by the Ruperts. Well the tar upgrades at least. He spent a few bar so he could fly his jet in there to get to his farm.

Lefssa - we signed a normal lease with the municipality to secure the airfield. In the list of responsibilities - the municipality had agreed to do things like the grass cutting, runway and fence maintenance, supply a groundsmen on a periodic basis etc. Over time, they have become less responsive to undertaking some of their duties, and it has been easier for us to pick up and take over some of these. Now we do our own runway maintenance, grass cutting, we even pay the licence fee on behalf of the municipality. In the long run, I believe it will assist in ensuring that the airfield does not become land for housing projects etc. This is what prompted us initially to 'take over' the field - the plans and zonings for light industry and low cost housing were in process of being finalised. One of the main drivers for the municipality had been the cost of keeping an airfield.

As RV4ker mentioned, we did a presentation to them demonstrating why they needed to keep such an asset, and along with our preparedness to contribute they agreed to the lease.

In your case, at least you are guaranteed tenure, whereas we do run some risk. Although we at least had a clause inserted to the lease where they pay us out for our structures if they decide to close the airfield. Still not ideal - but at least something.

[Biggles]

From a practical point of view if I landed at a field that I did not know had landing fees and then saw a board saying that they was landing fees I would take off and not use that field again. It sounds like the landing fee is not well known and R50 will probably come as a shock to most people.