How they can justify a price hike like that is beyond me
I can`t remember the pilots name, but he he used to scream the airfield in an old A26 invader.
I last saw one of his best displays at the old RN Daedalus site many years ago
I was sad to learn some time later that he had overcooked it & lost his life thrilling the crowds.
I suppose there must be millonaire collectors & flyers out there, but the majority of owners must have to watch their budgets very carefully.
Extremely simple really ... the regulation, registration and monitoring regime is about to increase dramatically. Risk Assessments, Auditing and Oversight of displays will also increase. This will require far more staff and inspectors, as well as may more site visits prior to the event.
All these folks require salaries, mileage costs, overnight subsidence (where applicable), and many other expenses.
So, who is going to pay for it all if the fees don't go up ?? General Taxpayer would be a tad pissed off if the costs for a limited number of folk - airshow lovers - were all paid from "normal" taxes.
Just like the BBC & ITV everyone seems to be crying out for more to be spent .. but no-one wants to pay for anything.
safety costs full stop......
But common sense is free, and a thing most people seem to have less of year in year out, hence the continuingly reliance on others to think for the masses. That's why it costs
Crystal balls are expensive things, and properly trained clairvoyants to operate them are in short supply, so command high salaries.
Nobody yet knows what caused the tragic accidents last year, so it's a tribute to said clairvoyants that the CAA has managed to put a cost on sorting it out, if any sorting is indeed needed.
Whilst I fully agree with your sentiments, it is an unfortunate reality that the media led masses, and the politicians who feed off them, have already been insisting that, regardless of the outcome of the investigations, "
something must be done" ... it is the perennial cry of the "blame someone (else)" culture we now live in.
The CAA have become the target of opportunity, so the CAA have had to "
do something", without regard to the, as yet, unpublished report into the tragedy. That "something" needs funding/paying for, so the fees have risen. QED
If I may quote from another source ...
"The Preliminary Report introduced a raft of changes that will require implementation by civil airshows and pilots, including “increased risk assessments, greater auditing and oversight of air displays, and an enhanced authorisation system for display pilots and evaluators”.
The Consultation Document makes specific reference to the safety enhancements put forward in the Preliminary Report and the associated financial cost. The CAA estimates that the operational cost of implementing said enhancements will amount to £250,000. The CAA is a self-funded body and in order to recover funds to adequately cover the cost of the increased regulatory work associated with these changes, it is passing these costs back on to airshows and air display pilots."