Wed Sep 15, 2021 8:34 pm
#1870698
I actually confess to having little interest or knowledge of F1, but will add the Netflix doc to the watch list!
I believe the two already work together in some ways; no circuits at DL, but I recall recently hearing that students went to KH for circuit practice, which seems eminently sensible and a good example of collaboration. I confess I haven't flown there since the start of the year though.
I don't think two airfields in close proximity necessarily need to work together, although (personally) I think it would increase safety to use a common frequency. Even though the two circuits are clearly separated, inbound/outbound traffic will share a common area and I just think it's an additional, unnecessary Swiss cheese hole to have two or more aircraft operating within 900 metres of each other (the distance from base leg on one to final on the other!) talking on different frequencies. It works fine if people are aware of the local nuances, but not everyone is, sadly.
The point I was making though was: Deanland is a lovely airfield, extremely well run with considerate owners and over the 5 years I've been flying to/from there, it's gone from strength to strength (reflecting back to the original men's lavatory, for evidence) and is a real success story running against the general trend of GA in the UK. Clearly, the exact same can be said for Kittyhawk: and we should celebrate this. It would be self-defeating if the combined success of both meant that safety was eroded, or traffic into one was unaware of the noise abatement areas of the other (the KH circuit diagram doesn't quite show the avoid areas to the North-East giving rise to the most complaints, for example) and - as a consequence - both ended up suffering. Given the fragility of light aviation and the influence that members of the local community can wield, I just feel that a common frequency would increase the safety margin a bit more, that's all.