New hangar plan at old T in Park site
The owners of an airfield in Kinross-shire where Scotland’s biggest outdoor music festival used to be held are aiming to encourage more people to charter flights in and out of the site in the future.
Hilton Estates has applied for consent to create another new hangar at Balado Airfield capable of housing as many as 10 more light aircraft in the hope this will persuade more pilots to pick the site to keep their planes and helicopters for private hire.
The airfield has been used as a base for various outdoor activities such as motorsports since 1988 and hosted the T In The Park musical festival from 1997 to 2014 during which time world class acts such as Muse, Eminem, the Foo Fighters, Beyonce and Rihanna all played its main stage.
A planning statement sent to Perth and Kinross Council explains the old WW2 airfield currently has a number of consented uses “but still retains its aircraft use which is now largely limited to aircraft training and private light and rotary wing aircraft visits”.
The document adds the creation of another new hangar could eventually lead to conditions under which one aircraft might be either taking off or landing every hour from eight o’clock in the morning to six o’clock at night from Monday to Saturday.
The statement says: “The applicants want to continue to develop their aviation activities in response to increasing market demand for storage, maintenance and operation of light and rotary wing aircraft.
“This broadens the current provision of hangarages at the airfield along with three hangars under construction, previously approved by Perth and Kinross Council on August 23, 2019.”
The document continues: “An average of 60 movements each week [is] to be the maximum number of aircraft movements expected and in most cases there would be fewer movements per day.
“Flights related to this building will be carried out by aircraft operating to Visual Flight Rules (VFR) that permit flight between 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset.
“During the year when VFR daylight limits allow, prior to 8am only aircraft based at Balado may leave the airfield and after 1800 only aircraft based at Balado may return.
“This allowance is for operational reasons as the majority [of] flights will be for charter where the aircraft will leave for a duty in the morning and only return when complete.”
T In The Park was forced to move away from Balado Airfield after health and safety officials ruled the presence of an underground gas pipeline in the area was putting festival goers at risk.
The festival moved to Strathallan Castle in 2015 but organisers DF Concerts opted to cancel further shows a year later after two people died at the 2016 festival.