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Refueling in the Channel Islands

Jujupilote wrote:

What is the point of a grass apron which aircraft must use but the fuel truck can’t ?

‘Surely you dont expect us to take the fuel truck across there!’

United Kingdom

The basic problem is that nobody will pay for expansion of tarmac. It isn’t cheap, and most GA doesn’t want to pay for anything. Same problems everywhere in Europe. The parking surface is a recurring issue in GA, which is why our airport database has specific fields for reporting on it.

Put yourself in the position of an airfield owner. Say Bembridge – £18 landing fee. Joe Bloggs lands there in his [insert your favourite type which according to the forums burns 100 millilitres of fuel per month and does 200kt]. He spends £30 on a taxi to Cowes for a plate of stodge (which he eats while wearing his yellow jacket) and £30 back. Then he flies back. Then he goes onto one of the GA groups on FB, or Flyer, usually all of them using different nicknames, and slags the place off for an “eighty percent price rise” since his last visit (was £10 once upon a time) and rants on about how much better [another stodge destination with a £10 landing fee] is. How will you feel about this ungrateful twat? It’s not going to make you want to provide for more of his type.

Specifically, for Jersey, the aeroclub has suffered “organisational issues”. It collapsed financially about 3 years ago. I don’t know the details but probably it is the usual story in GA. Jersey is a funny place. I used to travel there on business. Walk down the street after 9pm and you can see the curtains twitching There is a lot of money there but it is “old money” (the de Gruchys etc), “bankers” who pass through on short contracts, and some wealthy people who retired there, and most of these do no GA. The rest of Jersey is poor as any deprived region on the mainland, exacerbated by the lack of social provision; it has some really poor housing estates, like England in the 1960s. You can google on the awful history of childrens’ homes with abuse, which carried on there with complete confidentiality even though the whole island knew about it…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

quatrelle wrote:

This pic was 10 years ago so maybe its better now but havnt been back to find out.

I hope no one is making any decisions based on a 10 year old picture like that without confirming first that conditions haven’t changed.

I parked in the grass by the Jersey Aeroclub in Sept 2018 and while there was a slight slope to/from the tarmac as mentioned, it was otherwise good grass parking similar to what one would expect many places.

Currency of report information needs to always be considered. Some airfields stay the same for decades, others have changed substantially over time for better and worse.

LSZK, Switzerland

The grass parking was well cut two weeks ago, no problem for my (rusty) M20J and there was a (shinny) TB20 from Blackbushes parked as well

Last Edited by Ibra at 13 Jun 21:14
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

If you go via GAMMA, you can get fuel on their ramp while stretching legs in the lounge, they charge 60pound handling for 1.3T

I got a quote for 126 GBP for 1.8t plus 18.56 GBP for landing and 58.83 for parking. That does add up.

ELLX

Thanks for pirep, +35% MTOW => +100% fee, that does not look like square-root formula of weight but more like MTOW^2

Last Edited by Ibra at 21 Jun 14:42
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

lionel wrote:

I got a quote for 126 GBP for 1.8t plus 18.56 GBP for landing and 58.83 for parking

It will be interesting to see if the price quoted is the same as the final bill, please let us know

United Kingdom

GRIFF wrote:

It will be interesting to see if the price quoted is the same as the final bill, please let us know

At this price, I’m not going. Either I risk the grass parking or… I bring my tourist spending elsewhere.

ELLX

Consider Guernsey instead. This gives you hard parking without having to pay an expensive handling agent.

I just went last weekend. Landing, parking one night and handling for 1.4 tons was 56 GBP. Not cheap either, but acceptable. With 1.8 tons, you will pay slightly more. I din‘t remember the advertised Avtur price, as I was only interested in Avgas.

The Avgas from ASG was 1.62 GBP.

It is still the case that if you buy Avgas from the airport, you get a small AOPA discount on top. However, somewhat understandably, ASG wasn‘t being helpful in finding out what the airport‘s price is. This route also requires the pilot to be present during the refuelling process. It‘s all a bit of an odd setup there.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I recall Guernsey does have AOPA discount for Avgas but not JetA? or JetA but not Avgas?

Funnily enough at Jersey, I was told it’s “UK AOPA” discount only by someone at the reception once but refueller was happy with (any) AOPA to give me discount…

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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