FAA Cancels All Approach Procedures at XNA

ARFlyer

ARFlyer

En-Route
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
3,181
Location
Central AR
Display Name
Display name:
ARFlyer
https://www.google.com/amp/5newsonl...ted-because-of-faa-problem/amp/?client=safari

Apparently the FAA decided to leave XNA high and dry as a VFR only commercial airport. All approaches were canceled this morning with no warning. Estimated date for the new procedures is Aug '17, at the earliest.

WTF FAA???

Update: According to IFP it looks like a Flight Check screw up. The LOC is approved but it's only for one runway.
 
Last edited:
They couldn't even keep the RNAV approaches up? That makes very little sense to me.
 
Buerocrats being buerocrats.
 
Harold Rutila said:
What kind of airfield project(s) did they just complete?
Click to expand...

Have no idea. Another news station said that the FAA accidentally canceled the approaches. So now they have to be Flight Checked.

I think someone screwed up some dates and let the approaches expire this last cycle before they could be flight checked.
 
Right, but upon reading the statement by the FAA, it appears some recent airfield construction was recently completed that may have introduced new variables affecting the approaches.

Searching the XNA website, it appears they completed construction on a (new?) Runway 16/34 and permanently closed Runway 17/35. But none of the NOTAMs seem to affect Runway 17/35, and Runway 17/35 has available IAPs. Perhaps they accidentally NOTAMd Runway 17/35 approaches as unavailable earlier in the day.

When I went and searched for what it was, a runway reconstruction project news story popped up from 2 years ago. Sounds like it went swimmingly:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/jan/29/mediation-planned-to-settle-northwest-a-1/?f=latest

In violation of Harper's contractual obligations trucks were wrecked, an employee buried in a chat pile, flaggers were often missing or lax in their work, an unbadged girlfriend of one of the heavy equipment drivers was with him in the cab of his truck, at least one driver was arrested onsite; drug paraphernalia and meth were found in the cab of an active truck; a Harper driver drove through its own guard shack," according to airport officials. "Consistent with its own inattention there was fortunately no guard in the shack at the time.

The entire main runway and base as well as drainage and electrical had to be replaced because an alkaline reaction between aggregate and sand in the concrete mix caused cracks that became noticeable about four years after the airport opened. Moisture and deicing solution exacerbated the problem.​
 
Harold Rutila said:
Right, but upon reading the statement by the FAA, it appears some recent airfield construction was recently completed that may have introduced new variables affecting the approaches.

Searching the XNA website, it appears they completed construction on a (new?) Runway 16/34 and permanently closed Runway 17/35. But none of the NOTAMs seem to affect Runway 17/35, and Runway 17/35 has available IAPs. Perhaps they accidentally NOTAMd Runway 17/35 approaches as unavailable earlier in the day.

When I went and searched for what it was, a runway reconstruction project news story popped up from 2 years ago. Sounds like it went swimmingly:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/jan/29/mediation-planned-to-settle-northwest-a-1/?f=latest

In violation of Harper's contractual obligations trucks were wrecked, an employee buried in a chat pile, flaggers were often missing or lax in their work, an unbadged girlfriend of one of the heavy equipment drivers was with him in the cab of his truck, at least one driver was arrested onsite; drug paraphernalia and meth were found in the cab of an active truck; a Harper driver drove through its own guard shack," according to airport officials. "Consistent with its own inattention there was fortunately no guard in the shack at the time.

The entire main runway and base as well as drainage and electrical had to be replaced because an alkaline reaction between aggregate and sand in the concrete mix caused cracks that became noticeable about four years after the airport opened. Moisture and deicing solution exacerbated the problem.​
Click to expand...

Good lord man..... I'm surprised the TSA didn't jack them around after all that mess.

The concrete issues caused a horrible mess with anything built in the mid to late 90s. The state discovered the issues a few years ago after several newish interstate bridges on I-540 started failing inspections. The bridges were literally turning into dust. They discovered that the sand the state uses from the Arkansas River is extremely alkaline.

My dad has a sample from that era. You can crush it in your hand. It's kinda crazy.
 
There was an incident several months ago where the only instrument approach at San Carlos got abruptly deauthorized because some ***hole put up a crane under the final approach segment without telling anyone. The FAA scrambled to survey it, then reauthorized it with a higher minimum, just a few days later.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the FAA for this without some actual evidence.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Damn. Bet them Walmart execs musta been pi$$ed!
Click to expand...

WalMart uses another airport to the NE of XNA where their planes and flight ops are located. Tyson Foods has a big corporate hangar at XNA. Airline I used to fly at has many flights in and out of XNA. Interesting. See what I can find out from my buds there.
 
mscard88 said:
WalMart uses another airport to the NE of XNA where their planes and flight ops are located. Tyson Foods has a big corporate hangar at XNA. Airline I used to fly at has many flights in and out of XNA. Interesting. See what I can find out from my buds there.
Click to expand...
When I passed through XNA last year I got the distinct impression that airport exited for the benefit of Wally World. But cab drives have been known to be wrong...
 
I would imagine this would get resolved to some degree relatively quickly. Also agree that I wouldn't rush to blame the FAA. Often, there's more going on than meets the eye.
 
Fearless Tower said:
When I passed through XNA last year I got the distinct impression that airport exited for the benefit of Wally World. But cab drives have been known to be wrong...
Click to expand...

Even if Walmart doesn't use XNA for their airplanes (I don't have any personal knowledge), I'm sure they get a lot of corporate travel going through the commercial side of XNA for employees and suppliers alike. I seriously doubt if all corporate travel is done with their airplanes.

For both my current and previous employer, GA travel is out of a local GA airport. But the big commercial airport nearby does get a lot of traffic from employees traveling who don't get to fly GA, or for customers/suppliers who are flying in to visit.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Even if Walmart doesn't use XNA for their airplanes (I don't have any personal knowledge), I'm sure they get a lot of corporate travel going through the commercial side of XNA for employees and suppliers alike. I seriously doubt if all corporate travel is done with their airplanes.
Click to expand...
That was probably it. The conversation started with the cabbie asked me if I was going to the stockholder meeting. Kind of like it was assumed if I was flying into XNA I was there for Walmart.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Even if Walmart doesn't use XNA for their airplanes (I don't have any personal knowledge), I'm sure they get a lot of corporate travel going through the commercial side of XNA for employees and suppliers alike. I seriously doubt if all corporate travel is done with their airplanes.
Click to expand...

I flew for an airline and we'd fly into XNA from KATL and KDFW, and a few others. I'd guess 80% of my passengers were vendors flying in to Wally World HQ to make deals. So definitely Wal Mart related. My next door neighbor used to be a regional manager for WM and flew on us often for meetings.
 
Rogers, AR (Carter Airport) is the airport WM flys out of. WM owns an FBO there (Beaver Lake Aviation), and the airport has customs and a tower. Large fleet of Lears and a Global Express last I knew.
 
Last edited:
mscard88 said:
I flew for an airline and we'd fly into XNA from KATL and KDFW, and a few others. I'd guess 80% of my passengers were vendors flying in to Wally World HQ to make deals. So definitely Wal Mart related. My next door neighbor used to be a regional manager for WM and flew on us often for meetings.
Click to expand...

Yeah, most companies with flight departments only do some percentage of their corporate travel via GA. And, the other companies visiting may not have said flight departments.

No doubt to me that XNA would be much smaller without Walmart.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
No doubt to me that XNA would be much smaller without Walmart.
Click to expand...

Before XNA opened we flew into Drake Airport in Fayetteville from DFW for Delta. XNA probably wouldn't even have been a thought if not for WM.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
I read the story. This is not uncommon for a flight check to be completed after construction or some alteration. You don't just have these done last minute. Flight checks are scheduled in advance and approaches are not just cancelled with no warning. We've received letters from the FAA for notices of things like this, either due to obstructions, vertical slope indicator issues, or NAVAIDs that have been affected elsewhere that might affect an approach. You typically have a certain amount of time to respond before approaches are cancelled unless there is a critical safety issue. How about not throwing the FAA under the bus without knowing more facts that this story does not offer? This could easily be the fault of the airport or their engineer/consultant.
 
MAKG1 said:
There was an incident several months ago where the only instrument approach at San Carlos got abruptly deauthorized because some ***hole put up a crane under the final approach segment without telling anyone. The FAA scrambled to survey it, then reauthorized it with a higher minimum, just a few days later.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the FAA for this without some actual evidence.
Click to expand...

But some folks on here wouldn't be able to call their day complete without some unwarranted bashing of the FAA. It's what they seem to live for.
 
I got an email from an airline bud, didn't know why but did say XNA experiencing a lot of airline diverts today. Yup if it's IMC there and no approaches.....
 
mscard88 said:
Before XNA opened we flew into Drake Airport in Fayetteville from DFW for Delta. XNA probably wouldn't even have been a thought if not for WM.
Click to expand...

They must have been a fun airport to fly in as an airline. I always love shooting the LDA in between the ridges.


The only reason I'm on the FAA is that everything I've heard is that it was without warning. Almost like they saw the issue the morning after the new cycle and cancelled them.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tyson doesn't send their Falcons to Drake or Springdale until this is fixed.

Like the others said WM is at Rodgers. Very nice guys to talk to. They just got a G6.
 
ARFlyer said:
They must have been a fun airport to fly in as an airline. I always love shooting the LDA in between the ridges.


.
Click to expand...

When I flew in there it was on the EMB-120 Brasilia, 30 seat turboprop. So wasn't sporty at all. A jet it would be.
 
Read this on an airline board:

They built a new runway (34), and decommissioned the old one (35).
They are installing an ILS for 34, but it's not up yet so only non-precision approaches are available.
Yes, it's a problem and yes you might have to divert. Tailwinds can compound the problem
 
ARFlyer said:
https://www.google.com/amp/5newsonl...ted-because-of-faa-problem/amp/?client=safari

Apparently the FAA decided to leave XNA high and dry as a VFR only commercial airport. All approaches were canceled this morning with no warning. Estimated date for the new procedures is Aug '17, at the earliest.

WTF FAA???

Update: According to IFP it looks like a Flight Check screw up. The LOC is approved but it's only for one runway.
Click to expand...

What does "Wheres The Food" have anything to do with the FAA..???
 
Yes. WM, Tyson, JB Hunt. The only reasons XNA exists. And the only reasons Arkansas is still relavent really. I live under the start of the ILS for 34 @ XNA. Lots of $$ up here. Probably more $$ up here, than the rest of the entire state.

And
mscard88 said:
When I flew in there it was on the EMB-120 Brasilia, 30 seat turboprop. So wasn't sporty at all. A jet it would be.
Click to expand...

Shoot! AAL lands a 757 @ Drake during football season to load the team. Fun to watch.
 
mscard88 said:
Read this on an airline board:

They built a new runway (34), and decommissioned the old one (35).
They are installing an ILS for 34, but it's not up yet so only non-precision approaches are available.
Yes, it's a problem and yes you might have to divert. Tailwinds can compound the problem
Click to expand...

Which board ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top