Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By CloudHound
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1869841
Those who watch the Thursday evening livestream may recall Oliver Steel advertising the Fly-in and BBQ at his strip in East Sussex on Saturday.

Well, it was a blast! :thumleft:

Fixed wing, flex wing, gyros and choppers a plenty. There's about 40 in this shot but quite a few early arrivals had left and some more came later.

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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1869916
Dodo wrote:
CloudHound wrote:Drop in anytime DD
http://www.kittyhawk.farm/PPR

Thank you. Will be airfield number 201!


Maybe number 8 for me :lol: I want to collect 201 though!

Can use it as an excuse to visit my parents when they move to Hastings. Admittedly after checks and the 40 minute drive aceoss it would be about as quick to drive. But not as fun..
#1870546
I applaud anyone doing something positive in GA and will also note this guy has done a more professional job of his website, pilot info & PPR form than probably any UK aerodrome.

However, why is an 1134kg helicopter (i.e. R44) charged £25 while a 1250kg SEP is £11 (2500kg SEP is £22). Helicopters literally don’t touch the surface of the runway and the skids evenly distribute the weight on the ground when parked. Why do people do this?
Last edited by RisePilot on Wed Sep 15, 2021 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870549
RisePilot wrote:However, why is an 1134kg helicopter charged £25 while a 1250kg a SEP is £11 (2500kg SEP is £22). Helicopters literally don’t touch the surface of the runway and the skids evenly distribute the weight on the ground when parked. Why do people do this?


Would be interested to know this too out of interest. They have it bad enough "flying a collection of parts rotating around an oil leak". :lol: Only thing I could think of was maybe the downdraft make a mess or something but otherwise I don't see the impact. Do the number of planes attending relative to helicopters create economies of scale perhaps?
#1870594
I had wanted to post on this thread earlier, but also didn't want to open a box of worms; but now that someone else has done it, I'll jump in (with the friendliest of intentions)! :)

First off, very positive progress on KH: great website, PPR form, fly-in etc - outstanding job! We should celebrate this. I'll try and pop down soon if I can.

However, there's something I've been tossing around in my brain the past few days, which is the fact that you now have two growing airfields in extreme close proximity, operating on different frequencies, potentially with competing interests and common challenges, in a dynamic that hasn't existed previously.

As someone who learnt over the road several years back, I only recall one occasion where I ever saw traffic departing/arriving Kittyhawk - it was always very quiet and historically viewed as a 'private strip'. IIRC, KH traffic would pop onto Deanland frequency to broadcast before taking off also, which is a good thing.

I know that KH has always previously used Safetycom and so there have always been two different frequencies, but it looks to me that KH is now trying to pro-actively grow traffic and attract visitors (which is great).

But my comment is really: hopefully this is a genuine success story to celebrate and two very close airfields (less than a mile?) can thrive symbiotically. But, I really hope that if traffic grows, we don't start seeing close calls between aircraft in a confined space talking on different frequencies, or increased noise complaints from a community that is already sensitive to such things.

I totally get that this is a first world problem to have and it's entirely KH's prorogative to try and market itself, but just wanted to call out something that would quite rightly heighten my sense of attention if I flew in, that's all.

Off the back of this, I was actually trying to think of situations where two strips existed so close together - I was thinking about Laddingford and Old Hay - but both of those use Safetycom.
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