So much for flying today

John221us

John221us

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Jan 5, 2012
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Rocklin, CA
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John
I am in Galax, VA for business and had a few hours to spare today, so I stopped by the local field. The whole field was taken over by people flying toy jets FOR THREE DAYS. The flight school was completely locked up. Who shuts down their field for three days so hobbiests can fly their toys?
 
If they have taken $.10 in Federal money, and this is a public airport they do not have the authority to close it for non aviation related reasons. They are in direct violation of the terms and conditions inwhich they accepted the feds funds. RC is NOT considered an aviation activity. :no:
 
Geico266 said:
If they have taken $.10 in Federal money, and this is a public airport they do not have the authority to close it for non aviation related reasons. They are in direct violation of the terms and conditions inwhich they accepted the feds funds. RC is NOT considered an aviation activity. :no:
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The NOTAM says the runway is closed, but you can land with 10 minutes advanced notice. It looked a little busy for them to clear out in 10 minutes, but you never know. The flight school was locked and empty at 2:00 PM on a Saturday. There was a helicopter guy offering paid rides, but he was operating off of the grass, about 200 feet from the runway.
 
Dude,

I could not have corrupted a fate so miserable in the wish corruption thread.

That's bizarre.
 
We had something similar occur at our little grass strip.

Every weekend the glider club is out flying and the airport owner decided to let some of his buddies use the field for their R/C stuff... while we were operating...

It climaxed when a glider on final scared the **** out of the R/C guys who hadnt cleared the runway in time and oh btw no go arounds.
 
They have a RC jet event at ONZ every year. But they use 17/35 and everyone else uses 4/22. No problems that I am aware of.
 
Local airport authority pulled that trick one year, anything for $ income.
They closed the airport for a weekend. We packed up and safari to another airport.
We told the airport authority the RC event did not have enough insurance to pay for a busted glider and lost income from down time if an RC hit it. The authority would be named in the insuance claim.

They collected less in RC fees, and a lot of headaches, then the lost income from fuel sales at the self serve pumps. Plus every month for the next year we would put more broken RC fiberglass and engine parts that we picked up off the field on the airport managers desk.

Also a letter explaining the rules because they had received FAA $$ and allowed the airport to be closed to support a non-aviation activity.

The next year the RC promoter was told to look elsewhere, there are 4 RC clubs with runways in the valley, well away from GA airports.
 
BillTIZ said:
Local airport authority pulled that trick one year, anything for $ income.
They closed the airport for a weekend. We packed up and safari to another airport.
We told the airport authority the RC event did not have enough insurance to pay for a busted glider and lost income from down time if an RC hit it. The authority would be named in the insuance claim.

They collected less in RC fees, and a lot of headaches, then the lost income from fuel sales at the self serve pumps. Plus every month for the next year we would put more broken RC fiberglass and engine parts that we picked up off the field on the airport managers desk.

Also a letter explaining the rules because they had received FAA $$ and allowed the airport to be closed to support a non-aviation activity.

The next year the RC promoter was told to look elsewhere, there are 4 RC clubs with runways in the valley, well away from GA airports.
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That explains why I only saw one real airplane on the ramp (with a cover on it). They must have all moved to another field for the weekend.
 
Can't we all get along? Isn't there a way to promote aviation and still allow flight operations to continue?

FWIW, the RC guys carry $2 million insurance thru the AMA. If a glider were damaged, you'd be covered.
 
jonnyjetprop said:
Can't we all get along? Isn't there a way to promote aviation and still allow flight operations to continue?
.
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They tried that, they shut down the glider side of the airport operations and kicked us out of our club house and would not let us near our tie down storage area. We would be under the RC pattern. That also closed the access road to that side of the airport.

This is an airport with parralle runways., uncontrolled. They allowed "participant" access across the active GA runway, monitored by their AMA members, many had no idea about GA aircraft/runway operations.

There were more than a few issues with people crossing an active runway with aircraft on final.

Yes, the AMA has a high insurance limit. It was not that high when this occurred.
And just because they have insurance, would you leave your stuff under their race course pattern and then wait to deal with an insurance claim, delays for repairs or having to replace a totaled aircraft. And not have anything to fly while dealing with it?
 
John221us said:
I am in Galax, VA for business and had a few hours to spare today, so I stopped by the local field. The whole field was taken over by people flying toy jets FOR THREE DAYS. The flight school was completely locked up. Who shuts down their field for three days so hobbiests can fly their toys?
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Man did you ever mess up. Were it me, I'd have pulled up a chair, cracked open a brew and watched them fly their toys. RCs are cool. Way cheaper than renting a Skyhawk for a couple hours.
 
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