Meigs Field bulldozed by Mayor Daley 15 years ago

[Clip4]

Which is a significant problem these days considering bulldozing an airport for personal reasons can hardly be considered “acting in an official capacity”. But government protects its own.



They sued and won and that lawsuit highlighted the misappropriation of O’Hare funds to destroy the airport. Then three years later, government protected itself from itself and cut a deal with Chicago so we’d all pay 1/3 of the destruction bill. Not sure what else you’d expect them to do.

I have a few beefs with AOPA, but their handling of the Meigs destruction, by a Domestic Terrorist driving bulldozers, under any current definitions of those words, isn’t one of them.

Meigs was a resounding defeat for AOPA and the premise that AOPA could use courts to force local governments to operate airports under grants. All AOPA can do is be a nuisance.

 

[denverpilot]

Meigs was a resounding defeat for AOPA and the premise that AOPA could use courts to force local governments to operate airports under grants. All AOPA can do is be a nuisance.

Which may be true, but nobody else has done any better. FAA ultimately gets to decide what airports that have received money from the Federal level are allowed to do. Their bosses in Congress want nothing to do with a States Rights fight highlighting the control the Federal level exercises over States in all sorts of areas via what’s essentially blackmail.

FAA knows they get to be quite a bit more heavy handed than most Federal agencies in this regard under their banner of “safety and standard for all”, so they’re not going to rock the Congressional boat and slit their own throats for funding.

Not when it takes Congress a decade to approve an actual budget for them.

The reasons AOPA lost aren’t really AOPA’s fault in this matter.

 

[danhagan]

Was able to visit Chicago and stay at the magnificent mile for a conference around 2000 or 2001. My wife and son came with me. We had lunch at the top of one of the building over looking Meig's just after Thanksgiving (no wind or snow ironically). Was a real pleasure watching the planes land and depart while eating. I would have loved to land there, but didn't start PPL until 2006. No real reason to go there now, except maybe a Blackhawks game if they start winning

 

[mscard88]

Well waddaya expect from a bunch of city boys?

By the way, just picked up a pair of camo mud boots on clearance at Tractor Supply. Figure when we do the Redneck Pilot MU-2 episode, I can wear those with my camo hat and a suit and tie.

Grow a big beard and you can be one of dem Duck Dynasty dudes!

 

[luvflyin]

The guy sounds like a complete douche. No matter how you look at, doing this in the middle of the night, with no warning and leaving airplanes stranded on the field, sounds like a tool bag with an authority complex. What a scum bag.

Authority complex ain't no problem. Mix it with actual authority, now ya got a problem

 

[redtail]

Nice pic.

Early versions of Flight Simulator used to open up on that field. I “flew” there a lot.

Me too! That's where I earned my virtual wings years before earning the real ones. Now thanks to the wonderful folks at ORBX, we get to fly there again (virtually) in their recent release.
Funny to find this thread because I just uploaded a video of Meigs Field in X-Plane 11.20 (beta5). Tweaking and testing the beta in VR with the Dreamfoil Bell 407.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I'd chip in for a nighttime bulldozing of his driveway.


j/k