A BOURNEMOUTH flying club has hit out at ‘enormous’ air space restrictions over Weymouth during this summer’s Olympics.

Bournemouth Flying Club, based at Aviation Park East off Matchams Lane, believe the restrictions, which cover from west of Wareham to Bridport, including Dorchester, Bovington and along the coast including Lulworth, could result in a loss of business for them over the summer.

The restrictions will be in place from July 14 until September 8.

Simon Birt, manager of the popular flying club, which trains pilots as well as leases planes to fully qualified pilots, said the restrictions seemed too big.

“The restrictions over London seem fairly sensible. But over Weymouth is an enormous area and encompasses a significant piece of our normal flying area,” he said.

“I could fly into London if we wanted to but we can’t get into our local area.

“Whilst our flying training will be fairly unaffected, what we will suffer with is holidaymakers who will want to pick up a plane to visit the Jurassic coast by air.

“We usually fly out of Bournemouth and hang a left up to the Dorchester area, which will be off limits to us.

“This will really hem us in.

“I can’t really see why it is quite so big or why we can’t go in there at all.

“We feel a bit territorial and aggrieved about it all really. We’re probably in that area every day so it will impact on us in a big way.”

Simon added: “We can handle the training aspect of it but a significant amount of business is from pilots who want to go off and do their own thing.

“I think it might put people off.

“The message we are trying to get across is that in reality it may not be that bad.”

A spokesperson for the CAA said whilst the restrictions had been ordered by the Government, they were working to ensure the aviation industry is fully aware of the restrictions.

This included engaging with them for the past few months during a number of events and issuing guidance on how they would be affected.

Who is allowed in

• Air space over the sailing Olympic village restricted to 3,000ft.

• All aircraft are prohibited from flying in this area except police, emergency medical, coastguard search and rescue, Olympic Broadcast Service aircraft, scheduled traffic to and from Bourne-mouth Airport and selected Ministry of Defence aircraft.

• In London, aircraft will have to go through rigorous checks in order to fly in the prohibited zones.