Airport Support Network Volunteer Experiences?

[Michael M]

Not trying to bring up an "I support or I don't support AOPA" conversation.

Rather I keep getting AOPA notices about a handful of airports in my area which don't have a volunteer.

A few of them I regularly visit.

In searching the forum, I have not found not much posted about "ASN" since late 2019. Maybe I am not searching properly.

I am curious if there are other similar programs providing "extra" efforts to keep airports open? Does anyone have any Airport Support Network recent volunteer experience? Or some other similar efforts?

 

[DreadPirateWill]

I'm an ASN volunteer for our small privately owned(not by me) but publicly accessible airport.
There are a few municipal airports in our area that have a "friends of the airport" group that will do a lot of advocacy, certainly more than any single person could do. Should an issue arise with said municipality that's probably a more important vector - strength in numbers of a group willing to show up to meetings. To be fair, some of these groups can be like just about any other group of old pilots so it takes a fair bit of leadership to wrangle them in to focusing on the advocacy needed instead of just being angry about change, but c'est la vie.
The short version of my recent story with the ASN - we have a development going in next to our airport. Been "working" with the county and developer on it for a couple years to ensure compatibility per our state laws that fortunately include protections for publicly accessible airports. At one point I needed to speak to a land use attorney on some options so I reached out to our ASN regional rep. Response was I could pay for the Pilot Protection ServicesTM and use my free hour or whatever to chat with an AOPA staff attorney. I was ... less than happy with that answer. Luckily I know some local attorneys who were able to advise(wihout even charging me for the 15 minute conversation) and ended up getting the concessions from the county and developer that we wanted.
Might have been a different answer if we sold fuel to bizjets, but the only way a bizjet is getting out of here is on a truck.

 

[40YearDream]

I've wondered about this also.

 

[Michael M]

I'm an ASN volunteer for our small privately owned(not by me) but publicly accessible airport.
There are a few municipal airports in our area that have a "friends of the airport" group that will do a lot of advocacy, certainly more than any single person could do. Should an issue arise with said municipality that's probably a more important vector - strength in numbers of a group willing to show up to meetings. To be fair, some of these groups can be like just about any other group of old pilots so it takes a fair bit of leadership to wrangle them in to focusing on the advocacy needed instead of just being angry about change, but c'est la vie.
The short version of my recent story with the ASN - we have a development going in next to our airport. Been "working" with the county and developer on it for a couple years to ensure compatibility per our state laws that fortunately include protections for publicly accessible airports. At one point I needed to speak to a land use attorney on some options so I reached out to our ASN regional rep. Response was I could pay for the Pilot Protection ServicesTM and use my free hour or whatever to chat with an AOPA staff attorney. I was ... less than happy with that answer. Luckily I know some local attorneys who were able to advise(wihout even charging me for the 15 minute conversation) and ended up getting the concessions from the county and developer that we wanted.
Might have been a different answer if we sold fuel to bizjets, but the only way a bizjet is getting out of here is on a truck.

That sounds like what I was more or less expecting. It seams like a huge untapped opportunity to focus on airports which get a lot of use but have little "representation" - especially when those airports have services like fuel and maintenance. But I agree, it is easier to be angry about change than proactive about keeping the good life good.

 

[Rando]

I'm new to this forum but a very long-serving ASN volunteer, and I found this thread while looking for ways to connect to other ASNVs.

My take is that it is a vital program within AOPA that nevertheless gets far too little attention and goes mostly under the radar. I'm confident that my airport likely wouldn't be here or would at least be seriously compromised, if it weren't for the program. A lot of that is just from me becoming a volunteer, putting together a pilots group, and availing ourselves of the materials which empowered us to become effective advocates for our airport. We were able to head off a number of threats over the years, some just by coming forward armed with information (most notably, the grant obligations that the airport sponsor signs then promptly forgets). Others (at least three times) ASN HQ got directly involved.

ASN volunteers in my region get a monthly e-letter from the regional director, which is pretty rudimentary but keeps us in touch with him. There's also the single page in AOPA Pilot, which IMO is far to little for such a vital program.

Years ago there was an online forum for ASN volunteers, and it was really helpful to me to see what other airport advocates were dealing with and how. Unfortunately that forum fell apart due to the inevitable escalation into political, personal attacks and all the other BS that comes with an unmoderated forum. AOPA for a short time also had their version which suffered from apathy due to a very poorly designed interface. Those are gone now but I still think a forum would be super helpful for volunteers, perhaps here at this site? If any ASNVs are reading this, I hope they will respond.

As an aside, I also subscribe to AOPA PPS. Most years it's just paying it like insurance, but I've taken advantage on several occasions including when a PPS attorney reviewed our hangar lease agreement prior to it being updated and provided very useful feedback.