CYHU - Now charging landing fees for touch & go's... wtf?!!

[coreydotcom]

Hi all,

I am doing my PPL at CYHU. The school is at CYHU, which is a controlled airport, and we pay $9.99 (i believe - it's either 9.99 or 9.95) landing fees. It is kind of irritating, but it is the closest airport to my house, it's convenient, and the school is great.

This morning the CFI sent all of us (I guess everyone on the school's mailing list) an e-mail stating that from September 1, to December 31, each tough & go will be charged 25% of the regular charge so for 4 touch & go's + a full stop you will pay 2 landing fees. From January 1, 2013 onwards it will be 50% for each tough & go.

The airport is administered by DASH-L.

I guess they don't want us doing anymore touch & go's? The airport is in a relatively-densely populated area (when I do touch & go's I basically fly over houses for half the circuit) and they get complaints all the time but I find the people who complain about noise kind of ridiculous - the airport has been there for a very long time, what did you expect when you bought a house next to the airport?

What can I do about this? I would like to write DASH-L but I just don't know what the content and tone of my message would be. Who else can I write? The CFI only encouraged us to write DASH-L.

Thanks,

[dave_091]

Hi all,

I am doing my PPL at CYHU. The school is at CYHU, which is a controlled airport, and we pay $9.99 (i believe - it's either 9.99 or 9.95) landing fees. It is kind of irritating, but it is the closest airport to my house, it's convenient, and the school is great.

This morning the CFI sent all of us (I guess everyone on the school's mailing list) an e-mail stating that from September 1, to December 31, each tough & go will be charged 25% of the regular charge so for 4 touch & go's + a full stop you will pay 2 landing fees. From January 1, 2013 onwards it will be 50% for each tough & go.

The airport is administered by DASH-L.

I guess they don't want us doing anymore touch & go's? The airport is in a relatively-densely populated area (when I do touch & go's I basically fly over houses for half the circuit) and they get complaints all the time but I find the people who complain about noise kind of ridiculous - the airport has been there for a very long time, what did you expect when you bought a house next to the airport?

What can I do about this? I would like to write DASH-L but I just don't know what the content and tone of my message would be. Who else can I write? The CFI only encouraged us to write DASH-L.

Thanks,

Brutal... yet another place trying to squeeze out GA

[habs.fan]

Hi all,

I am doing my PPL at CYHU. The school is at CYHU, which is a controlled airport, and we pay $9.99 (i believe - it's either 9.99 or 9.95) landing fees. It is kind of irritating, but it is the closest airport to my house, it's convenient, and the school is great.

This morning the CFI sent all of us (I guess everyone on the school's mailing list) an e-mail stating that from September 1, to December 31, each tough & go will be charged 25% of the regular charge so for 4 touch & go's + a full stop you will pay 2 landing fees. From January 1, 2013 onwards it will be 50% for each tough & go.

The airport is administered by DASH-L.

I guess they don't want us doing anymore touch & go's? The airport is in a relatively-densely populated area (when I do touch & go's I basically fly over houses for half the circuit) and they get complaints all the time but I find the people who complain about noise kind of ridiculous - the airport has been there for a very long time, what did you expect when you bought a house next to the airport?

What can I do about this? I would like to write DASH-L but I just don't know what the content and tone of my message would be. Who else can I write? The CFI only encouraged us to write DASH-L.

Thanks,

IIRC there is an annual rate for the landing fees at CYHU that you can pay? It might just be your flight school gouging you comme il faut. Anyway, low passes over the runway at 10 feet are just as fun as touch and go's, and piss off the neighbours just as well too!

Anyway I'm with you...if they read these current events before buying in a neighbourhood, they'll be much less surprised by the dozens of 150s and 172s buzzing overhead laden with Chinese students every day.

[CpnCrunch]

Aren't there any other nearby airports you can do touch+gos?

[coreydotcom]

Aren't there any other nearby airports you can do touch+gos?

Yes, Beloeil, St-Jean, come to mind. They're about 5-10min (each-way), though. Doesn't sound like much, but 5-10 min x 2 = 10-20 min x $130/h (plus instructor) = $$$

In response to the poster above, I'm pretty sure it's not the school trying to gouge us because the CFI suggested going to other airports when practicable.

And yes, like yet another poster stated, making GA more expensive, and trying to squeeze it out.

Although illegal / stupid / not practicable, I would love to buzz all the surrounding neighbourhoods at 50 feet with some type of loud-speaker screaming "TIENS MA GANG DE CAVES!!! C'EST ÇA HABITER À CÔTÉ D'UN AÉROPORT". I wish PWC would bring back that 727 test bed and buzz the neighborhoods too. We could make it a party.

[trampbike]

Go do your touch and go at Beloeil (CSB3). It's 5 minutes away from CYHU, and you'll be able to do 5 times more touch and go. The runway is short, uncontrolled, and the wind is almost always blowing perpendicual to it, so you'll learn much more. You could also go to St-Mathias CSP5 (halfway between CYHU and CSB3) to do a couple of stop and go. It's a small gravel strip in very good condition. St-Jean is a bit further, but if you want to practise your procedures for controlled airpsace, it's free there. During the summer there is a lot of glider activities, so you'll be a bit busy, but way less than in CYHU.

Besides working on your comms, there isn't much learning going on in CYHU... Get out of there as much as you can!

[METEO]

I'm based out of YHU as well and my school charges $11.50 for a MONO landing fee, per full stop. I inquired at dispatch and the guy confirmed the fee hike. Compared to YUL, though, I can't complain that much.

Wasn't there a plan in the works for YHU to build an airport terminal at some point?

[coreydotcom]

@ trampbike:

Yeah, yesterday I went to St-Jean and got to practice a lot. Funny because when I got back to CYHU we had to extend our downwind all the way to almost Mont St-Bruno so it just confirmed that going away from CYHU is the right thing to do.

@ METEO:

I just checked my bill from yesterday and the landing fee was $9.95. I landed at around 1pm. Did it increase since then?

[Colonel Sanders]

IMHO any airport with a landing fee is trying to tell you something.