Airport Fences

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tankmaker

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tankmaker
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Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
 
My home field has a fence around most of the public facing perimeter. Overall, about 40% of the perimeter is fenced.

Security theater at its best.

KVPC
 
tankmaker said:
Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
Click to expand...
We had a partial fence, but the feds just paid to add more last year. It's a big thing with them to spend money that isn't needed. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fence that doesn't even go all the way around the airport, and we don't have any automatic gates, so all it does is force cars to go through where the cameras are.

And when you get a government contract, you have to use materials made in the U.S. so this made it more expensive. The company putting it up decided to save a few dollars and use some posts from China. They didn't count on the inspector checking each one. He did and they had to replace a lot of poles!

And to answer your original question, yes. I fly into a lot of airports that don't have a fence. Texas has a lot of airports.
 
Our airport has a fence...a wildlife fence. It is there to help keep out deer. I occasionally remind TSA of that fact.
 
As of the last time I was there VKX (even post 9/11) didn't have a fence. We had a fence at Culpeper, but the pedestrian gate wasn't locked. For the longest time at HEF there was a fence but it was only about 3' high and had a gap. They came by and started building a tall fence. I was amused that it went down past the hangars I was operating out of and ended at a locked gate. I mean the fence ended. If you didn't know how to unlock the gate, take two steps to the left and walk around it. They eventually finished the fence. It was still years later (and may still be) that all the gate locks have the factory default combination which makes it easy getting in. I do remember the Manassas police guarding the control tower for months after 9/11. I always wonder how much of a disruption the loss of the tower would cause on the US transportation system (probably would have improved things).
 
The FAA has established a priority of providing additional security at airports by funding fencing. It's hard to get funds for other airport improvements until you meet their security requirements. FWIW the fencing has deterred deer ingress and the casual stupid stuff like new car owners using the airport as a test track and parents using the runway to teach their children how to drive. In the daytime during flight ops. (I kid you not.)
 
At KCDK just within last 3-4yrs a 3’ fence went up - did decrease the frequency of people running their golf carts, walking their dogs, an jogging/bicycling on the runway.....but if someone still had the urge to get on here’s the view from the road at arrival end of 23 8AB2567A-FAE3-4006-B9AF-21FDE66BE6E5.jpeg
 
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Hefner-Easley (H68) in Wagoner,OK has no fence, neither does Haskell, OK (2K9). Those are pretty sleepy rural airports though. H68 is city-owned, 2K9 is private now but was city/county owned a while back.
 
Lots of smaller airports in the Midwest don't have security fences. Just enough fences to keep the general public from snooping around but not enough to stop someone if they wanted in. Just walk a couple hundred feet around the end.
 
At D95 (my home field) we only have a fence at the parking lot...about 75 feet of fence total.
 
I read the title fast and thought it said airport feces....

the place I trained at had a fence around it, you know, the one you can hop right over....prob more for wildlife than anything. the place I'm based out of has a security fence and I'm glad they do. keep the riff raff out. that's right, I'm talkin to you, @TRocket !
 
Pretty much every airport I went to in Alaska has no fence except Anchorage and Fairbanks.

I have been to several in the lower 48 that has no fence or just a partial fence.
 
I can think of a couple I’ve been to that don’t, 43A and 28A. Was on final for 4 at 28A during a training flight and had a white pickup truck driving towards us on the runway... trying to find the video.
 
I was a member of the flying club at Redstone Army Airfield and the whole base had a fence and limited access but the Feds required that the airport also have a fence so now I can't visit because the clubhouse is outside the fence and if I go I can't get back to my plane.
 
Twin Lakes Airport, 8A7. Advance NC. There’s a partial fence but incomplete and maybe 4 feet tall where it exists. Don’t think TSA even knows it’s here


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No fence at 26NC. You can walk straight from my porch onto the runway.
 
A couple, that said in some areas it more to try to keep critters off the airport than security.
 
chemgeek said:
The FAA has established a priority of providing additional security at airports by funding fencing. It's hard to get funds for other airport improvements until you meet their security requirements. FWIW the fencing has deterred deer ingress and the casual stupid stuff like new car owners using the airport as a test track and parents using the runway to teach their children how to drive. In the daytime during flight ops. (I kid you not.)
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The FAA doesn't have much in the way of security requirements for airports, that is TSA. The only FAA regulation for airports is FAR Part 139, and only applies to certificated commercial airports like the one I work at. If the FAA is funding a fence, 9 times out of 10 it is for wildlife control. Even then, there has to be a documented need through actual wildlife strikes and/or an official wildlife assessment.

Besides, fences only keep out honest people. From security standpoint, a fence is only a layer, and one that is easily breached. You need continuous monitoring to ensure any type of real security. Even then that doesn't always work. JFK made headlines a few years ago. A jet skier broke down near their perimeter fence and floated ashore. He managed to climb their fence, walk across a mile of open airfield, and approach a gate agent working a flight and was never detected by JFK's multi-million dollar security system which consisted of hundreds of cameras and motion sensors around the perimeter.
 
eman1200 said:
I read the title fast and thought it said airport feces....

the place I trained at had a fence around it, you know, the one you can hop right over....prob more for wildlife than anything. the place I'm based out of has a security fence and I'm glad they do. keep the riff raff out. that's right, I'm talkin to you, @TRocket !
Click to expand...
Too bad those fences dont do much to keep out folks that can just fly in right over them. Guess in that regard you could say the fences ain't worth feces
 
tankmaker said:
Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
Click to expand...

There are a lot of county owned airports without fences. Heck I have hunted pheasants on some of them.
 
tankmaker said:
Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
Click to expand...
OKH = no fence
 
There’s no fence for the 30 approach at KSQL but that’s coz it’s against the water, I assume...at KPAO the parking lot had a high security 4 ft fence, until recently....
 
Have been into many airports with partial,or no fences. Not going to post identifiers.
 
midwestpa24 said:
The FAA doesn't have much in the way of security requirements for airports, that is TSA. The only FAA regulation for airports is FAR Part 139, and only applies to certificated commercial airports like the one I work at. If the FAA is funding a fence, 9 times out of 10 it is for wildlife control. Even then, there has to be a documented need through actual wildlife strikes and/or an official wildlife assessment.

Besides, fences only keep out honest people. From security standpoint, a fence is only a layer, and one that is easily breached. You need continuous monitoring to ensure any type of real security. Even then that doesn't always work. JFK made headlines a few years ago. A jet skier broke down near their perimeter fence and floated ashore. He managed to climb their fence, walk across a mile of open airfield, and approach a gate agent working a flight and was never detected by JFK's multi-million dollar security system which consisted of hundreds of cameras and motion sensors around the perimeter.
Click to expand...

The FAA controls the purse. They informed our airport they would not be inclined to fund other airport improvements until we addressed the security issues first. That included fencing and security cameras.
 
chemgeek said:
The FAA controls the purse. They informed our airport they would not be inclined to fund other airport improvements until we addressed the security issues first. That included fencing and security cameras.
Click to expand...
I'd be curious to know more about the airport, and which FAA region they are dealing with. Our region hasn't shown interest in security improvements. Our fence was only funded as a wildlife fence, and they didn't participate in our surveillance systems. The only thing that takes #1 priority is pavement condition. They won't fund anything unless the pavement is in good condition and maintained.
 
Zeldman said:
Pretty much every airport I went to in Alaska has no fence except Anchorage and Fairbanks.
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Pretty much every airport in southeast Alaska was fully fenced, even places like Kake and Gustavus. Made it quite an unwelcoming place to fly when combined with the general lack of other private pilots and FBOs!
 
I guess it isn't as uncommon as I thought. I've only been to about 15 airports here in western Arkansas and eastern Ok but they have all had fences and coded gates.. Thanks for the insight.
 
GBR (Great Barrington) has no fence of any kind.
Neither does Kline-Kill or Green Acres. Both are grass strips.
OOOPS. They are all privately owned.
 
Vast majority of airports around here have the sort of fence you might see around a playground. Last weekend I saw a couple of girls drove out on to the ramp, jump out of their car, and take a photo next to a 172. But haven't seen any terrorists. I think we'll be ok.
 
No fence at my home airport...well, except for a split rail vinyl fence between the Airport office and 2 hangars.
 
I went down to Lantana a few months ago to look at an airplane I was thinking of buying. To my surprise, there is no fence, no gate, no real FBO to even walk through to slow your entry onto the airport.

I was able to drive right onto the ramp and right up to the plane that I was interested in. Nobody even thought differently.
 
k9medic said:
I went down to Lantana a few months ago to look at an airplane I was thinking of buying. To my surprise, there is no fence, no gate, no real FBO to even walk through to slow your entry onto the airport.

I was able to drive right onto the ramp and right up to the plane that I was interested in. Nobody even thought differently.
Click to expand...

Airport that small, probably wasn't anybody there TO think differently.
 
The federal government just likes fences. This is a map of the Fargo Veterans Administration hospital campus. A couple of years ago, someone decided that the veterans needed to be protected against I guess marauding violent demonstrators with a 10ft aluminum spike fence. To make it look pretty, it has nice masonry pillars at the end. The fence is about 2 blocks long, has two vehicle gates and ran somewhere north of a million dollars.

Your_government_at_work.jpg

Below is a picture of the place where the Taj Mahal of federal fences joins with conventional 4ft PVC panel fence that covers the north perimeter of the campus. The rear side of the campus from the dyke along the river isn't fenced at all....

Taj_Mahal_of_useless_fences.jpg
 
My home field (KRNO - Class C) has a 6' fence around it. We just went to an airport meeting and they are converting it to a 10' with barbed wire. However, because it's the government, there needs to be a study, committee meetings and paperwork that will take a year... they can't just "do it".
 
midwestpa24 said:
Airport that small, probably wasn't anybody there TO think differently.
Click to expand...



That’s a pretty big and very active Airport in West Palm Beach which is what surprised me.

It’s the only airport that I have ever come across that is still unfenced.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
chemgeek said:
The FAA has established a priority of providing additional security at airports by funding fencing. It's hard to get funds for other airport improvements until you meet their security requirements. FWIW the fencing has deterred deer ingress and the casual stupid stuff like new car owners using the airport as a test track and parents using the runway to teach their children how to drive. In the daytime during flight ops. (I kid you not.)
Click to expand...
This!
 
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