Landing Fees.

[madlandrover]

Yep, get the facts right. Undoubtedly there are issues with the CAA bureaucracy but they won't be solved unless we are 100% correct with our facts. EG the maintenance issue comes from EASA rather than from Gatwick and in no way requires 3 separate companies for 1 annual - it is possible although not automatic to roll all of these into one organisation quite legally and simply. A £10000 annual on a C172 can be down to 2 things: 1) a maintenance organisation fleecing you (rare but can happen) or 2) significant airworthiness work needing done without further delay, often because it's been neglected for several years on the owner's instructions to save money.

FWIW there are elements of the FAA "style" that I envy greatly, especially the freedom side of it, but I'm quite able to work without issues while observing CAA/EASA regulations.

[unmanned transport]

Thanks for your corrections fellas.

All that goobleygoop was copied from a misinformed individual in Florida that has lost quite a lot of business from you fellas not going over there to train any more. I thought I would throw it out for critique as I suspected the accuracy of some of it. Anyway, keep the chin up and lots of blue sky.

[BillieBob]

What an utterly bizarre, pointless and ill-informed load of crap. You should take more water with it, old chap (or re-start the medication). With an attitude like that, I just can't imagine why your informant has lost so much EU business.

[A and C]

unmanned transport

I would like to just take one point, as had been said above the £10K annual check depends on the state of that aircraft I have done £1K annual checks on well maintaned aircraft and £10K 50 hour checks on aircraft that have had problems.

Quailtiy maintenance is no different what ever side of the Atlantic you are on, the things that make Europe so expensive are taxation (both business & for the individual), EASA inapproprate regulation and property prices.

I doubt if the maintenance companies in Europe get to Keep any more of the money than they do in the USA, they just see a lot more money as it passes through on the way to the tax man & EASA.

[cockney steve]

IMHO, an "unlicensed, unskilled" individual who has an engineering aptitude and a grasp of the operating principles and physics of any piece of machinery he's maintaining, is safer than the guy who jumps through the hoops, learns to parrot the answers and gets a "pass"

look at the thousands of licensed drivers you dice with on the highway, every day......no spatial awareness, think their vehicle needs a metre clearance either side , cannot "read" the traffic pattern ahead (lack of anticipation)........

I'd venture to suggest that Aviators are usually aware that a lack of ability or comprehension can lead to premature death,,,,therefore, if they're out of their depth, in unfamiliar territory, they ask someone more competent.

Unfortunately, the CAA would face a lot of redundancies ,if common-sense were to prevail, so the beast feeds itself and excretes ever bigger mounds of red-tape...which needs overseeing and enforcing.
cynic? -Moi?