irm750 Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I am working on access to a small private airfield near Sittingbourne and about 10 minutes from my house. It has apparently been here since the time of the First World War and is a grass strip with 2 mown runways, each about 20m wide. One is nearly 700m long running NNE- SSW. The other is about 500m long running ENE-WSW. I have been offered space to store my flying gear in one of their hangar sheds where they keep the Cessna 130, but will probably not need to take them up on this. I originally saw the airfield on Google Earth then spoke with the land owner some time back who said that he'd pass my details to the man who rents the airfield, but heard nothing. I had a brainwave on my way home from work the other evening and drove to the field to find the gate open. I spoke with two pilots who fly the 130 who liked the idea of paramotoring and recommended me to the head of their syndicate who emailed me over the weekend agreeing in principle but wanting some idea of what to charge. As well as being a great local field I am hoping to nurture the possibility of this being a future fly-in site. I have been fortunate up until now that I have access to my other fields for free. What's a reasonable value to expect to pay? Best regards, Ian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike1714 Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Ian, Bloody hell mate that sounds good!!!!! Give that man a gold star!!! Seriouisly though, what a find! What to charge? Haven't a clue..................what will people pay? Perhaps Simon might be able to guide you? I am still working on the Brands Hatch site..........all is not lost yet!! Its just gettin hold of the right person to speak to. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I dont charge for the Lambourn site as a take off field. but I think most charge £5 ish each time they fly. I dont like this as I think it puts people off coming. The alternative is to get a group of say 10-20 of you, and charge a yearly memebrship.... This is better as people want to use the site more then. then you cn charge visiting pilots the say, £8.... to take off. If its a top notch site, I recon £30 per year per head or something. SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irm750 Posted June 30, 2009 Author Share Posted June 30, 2009 Thanks for your responses so far! All suggestions and options are grafefully received. It's more what this guy should charge me to use his airfield at this stage that I'm trying to gauge rather than what I should charge others. When he asked me what I thought was a reasonable fee for him to charge me as he hadn't dealt with paramotors before I did say to him that I currently had the use of a few fields for free and was more in the dark than him as I didn't know what his costs were for rent, upkeep, mowing etc or what he charges the fixed wing guys. As part of the negotiations I thought of offering my services for mowing the runways as payment, but think that I'll keep that to myself unless I really need to use it! Cheers, Ian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outkast Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 a barter for your labour sounds a good idea, I do know of a few pilots who fly from a field in braintree, they pay the farmer £100 a year each, he keeps the grass down for them. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dantheman Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I reckon a fiver a pop is very reasonable, the problem with paying up front is that you may like to change sites and you would end up out of pocket. Also if you wanted to have a fly-in or have a few mates up for a fly then it's easy to bung the landowner more cash on a per pilot per day basis, remember fixed wings tend to pay landing fees so that's probably what he's expecting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morgy Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I would pay £5 for a days flying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_k Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 The membership fee for the local ULM (microlight) club over here is 35 Euro per annum. The grass is kept reasonably short all year. Cheers, Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff10 Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Hiya. I just noticed this post. We once had a field down Hearn Bay and when we used that we paid £3 each. Hope you can nuture that contact it sounds good. Those guys usually keep the grass short too. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cageuk Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Not my area but I thought I'd pipe up with opinion. If it's a microlight strip then the grass should be kept short irrespective of whether you fly there or not. £3 per day sounds more reasonable to me. £5 For a complete day is reasonable but it starts to become expensive if you want to pop along for a 20min flight in the evening. Do that 2 or 3 times a week (chance would be a fine thing at the moment) and it will start to eat into your wallet. Better still I think the annual offering sounds the way to go as it will not restrict how many times you use the site. There can always be seperate arrangements for mates, guests and fly-ins etc. My tuppence Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I do tend to agree. If any one of the regulars that fly from the flag pole was paying a £5 each time they flew, we would be looking at £50+ a day!! = £18,250 per year. (assuming flying every day) You can rent an office with a field attached for about £17 per day. = £6.5k per year. (non suitable locally to me at the moment though ) (again, this is assuming flying every day) SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff10 Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks for your responses so far!All suggestions and options are grafefully received. It's more what this guy should charge me to use his airfield at this stage that I'm trying to gauge rather than what I should charge others. When he asked me what I thought was a reasonable fee for him to charge me as he hadn't dealt with paramotors before I did say to him that I currently had the use of a few fields for free and was more in the dark than him as I didn't know what his costs were for rent, upkeep, mowing etc or what he charges the fixed wing guys. As part of the negotiations I thought of offering my services for mowing the runways as payment, but think that I'll keep that to myself unless I really need to use it! Cheers, Ian. I wouldn't mind helping out with a bit of labour if it helped. This place can't be too far from me so it sounds doable. I would suggest asking what they would think is reasonable payment and take it from there. It's tricky to gauge how much a place might be used, so paying a lot upfront, perhaps a year in advance wouldn't be my first option. However I'd be happy to chip in and support the outcome. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff10 Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks for your responses so far!All suggestions and options are grafefully received. It's more what this guy should charge me to use his airfield at this stage that I'm trying to gauge rather than what I should charge others. When he asked me what I thought was a reasonable fee for him to charge me as he hadn't dealt with paramotors before I did say to him that I currently had the use of a few fields for free and was more in the dark than him as I didn't know what his costs were for rent, upkeep, mowing etc or what he charges the fixed wing guys. As part of the negotiations I thought of offering my services for mowing the runways as payment, but think that I'll keep that to myself unless I really need to use it! Cheers, Ian. I wouldn't mind helping out with a bit of labour if it helped. This place can't be too far from me so it sounds doable. I would suggest asking what they would think is reasonable payment and take it from there. It's tricky to gauge how much a place might be used, so paying a lot upfront, perhaps a year in advance wouldn't be my first option. However I'd be happy to chip in and support the outcome. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irm750 Posted July 24, 2009 Author Share Posted July 24, 2009 Thanks for all of your help and advice. Plenty of food for thought. I am still working on this potential flying site and have had several conversations with the main guy, just need to pin him down to a meeting. He offerred to meet up last weekend at the field but I was away with the other half. I'm sure that it will get arranged eventually, hopefully sometime if it ever stops raining! Best regards, Ian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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