There is an airfield for sale in Ireland which is mostly unused. It’s on 60 odd acres and its called Rathkenny in Co Meath. Used to be owned by Angie Soaper.
Buying a grass strip is a much safer and perhaps cheaper bet than you’ve considered.
WilliamF wrote:
Buying a grass strip is a much safer and perhaps cheaper bet than you’ve considered.
True, but then you have to choose the location after the strip, and not vice versa. I find it great fun when you see a nice place to imagine where you would put the airstrip if one day you’d buy it. 
BTW, how is this handled in the US of A? Is it state and county law or is there some general principle that you can do whatever you want with your land, including building an international airport on it if you feel like it?
Rwy20 wrote:
BTW, how is this handled in the US of A
It will be down to the state.
In Canada, the legislation is arranged favorably for setting up your own airstrip in a non-developed rural area. The Aeronautics Act exempts you from having to kow-tow to the local planning councils and building regulations (surprisingly!). So, build away! Unfortunately, the Aeronautics Act recently changed to become more restrictive (notice periods, and stakeholder involvement, ministerial sign-off etc.), but you don’t have to do anything for an aerodrome with less than 90 days of activity a year. Helicopter landing sites are also exempt from the local council’s opinion.
It was a bit of shame really; the Aeronautics Act didn’t need to be amended per se, however some unscrupulous ‘airfield’ operators started accepting and dumping contaminated fill on their ‘airfields’. Because the airfields were protected under the Aeronautics Act, their behaviour could not be changed… hence the law had to be revised so that this type of ‘work-around’ cannot continue.
Unfortunately, like all places, Canada does suffer from nimbyism and poor airfield management. In the past, most of our small aerodromes were operated by the Federal Government, similar to highway infrastructure. Unfortunately, they were sold off (or given to the various municipalities), and now are subject to the whims of the current owner. Hence, ones in favorable areas get turned into housing developments…
All that being said it is much easier and wide open than the UK/Europe, and you shouldn’t have too many problems building a sensible airfield in an appropriate rural location.
In Italy, you can freely build a “Campo di Volo” in your own land, but it can be used only by ultralights, not by certified planes (except if the pilot owns a “mountain” qualification). You can also build an “Aviosuperficie” in your own land, but you need validation from the government, which I think is not hard to get, just require the owner to provide a bit more service commitment with respect to Campi di Volo. Aviosuperfici can be used by any plane. There is a “rumor” among Italian pilots that if you land a (I-reg) certified plane into a Campo di Volo, this is equivalent to a crash landing and the plane loses its CofA until a maintenance shop checks the plane. I ask you all (flying non I-reg certified planes): do you think your insurance would pay if you had an accident during a (non-emergency) landing/takeoff into an Italian Campo di Volo with your G-reg, N-reg, etc.. plane?
@WilliamF, a quick search reveals that Rathkenny airfield was for sale as early as 2007. Has it really been on the market for 9 years unsold? Strange.
Hi Ultranomad,
The airfield in Rathkenny only went up for sale this year I understood. Its here online for 595k for 69 acres.
Rwy20 wrote:
BTW, how is this handled in the US of A? Is it state and county law or is there some general principle that you can do whatever you want with your land, including building an international airport on it if you feel like it?
alioth replied:
It will be down to the state
Land use, zoning etc is indeed a state and local issue in the US, but with the benefit that aeronautical operations are governed by US Federal (national) law that puts no restrictions on operations out of any suitable field, or on aircraft altitude in relation to people during the process of landing or taking off.
In actuality US private airports, open fields or similar that are used by the pilot landowner tend to be in very rural areas where there nobody else lives, and/or nobody really cares a great deal about noise. Many farmers have a C180 tied down outside, used to get to town. Airport communities like those in Florida where many houses are built with hangars etc around a runway have to be approved by the local government but have the benefit of being a larger number of houses (with more people involved) and that brings larger property tax revenues. Also, if you surround the runway with its own neighbors at least those neighbors don’t complain.
There used to be a great many private airports in post war US, four of them for instance within 10 miles of my current house. Of those, only one remains but an equal number of public airports were built and mostly they survive. In the middle of the town near me there is a lumber yard (a place to buy wood for houses) and one day I noticed their main building looked a lot like an hangar… A little research showed that it was a hangar and that a road running alongside was was location of the privately owned runway up to the mid 1950s. Now the whole area is covered by light industrial buildings built 60 years ago.
ValerioM wrote:
In Italy, you can freely build a “Campo di Volo” in your own land, but it can be used only by ultralights, not by certified planes (except if the pilot owns a “mountain” qualification). You can also build an “Aviosuperficie” in your own land, but you need validation from the government, which I think is not hard to get, just require the owner to provide a bit more service commitment with respect to Campi di Volo. Aviosuperfici can be used by any plane.
Its a great scene. I have a long standing dream to ship my 65 HP auto fuel burning, non-electrical N-registered C of A aircraft to Italy and fly around between privately owned aviosuperfici for a couple of summers, flying cross countries within Italy and mixing with the Italian ultralights. Then ship it home again. My concern would be getting the plane into and out of the country, taxes and bureaucratic hassles. If I do it some day, it’ll have to be after retirement.
In Germany, you have to land at or depart from a licenced airfield during its opening hours. Any operation outside these hours and from any other site need approval from the CAA (their regional offices, to be precise).
When I next see him, I’ll ask an instructor at our club how he achieved it because he bought a house next to some fields of a friendly farmer after having gained permission from the Bezirksregierung and LBA to take off and land his plane on the fields – his aircraft was a Pioneer 300…..
i used to fly from a “Sonderlandeplatz” in Bavaria in Germay. Wonderful time there. No “Flugleiter” you just had to write you TO time and Landing time afterwards in a book all done! operating time dawn to dusk or even longer if u can find it as it was without lights grass but much better than some tarmac runways
also the owner is wonderful guy that even in the winter with snow made it possible to use it!!!
