WaPo takes aim at federal grants to small airports

Billy Mitchell is located in Hatteras, NC. The best location on the east coast (excluding FL) for gulf stream fishing. There are a LOT of charter boats there and a fair amount of vacation homes, rentals. Billy Mitchell brings in a ton of business to the fishing guys and rental companies. They listed 9000 operations there last year. Driving there is a PITA because of the remote location.

The complaint is that no airplanes are based there. Look at it on a map and you'll see why.

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apparently Talihina, OK is on the list. There has been a group of glider pilots going down there for about the last 6 years on occasional weekends in the winter, me included. that airport could stand to use some of that money and I think we will start asking the OK Dept. of Aeronautics to use some of the money it brings in. The airports is just a runway and small ramp surrounded by really rough land. It would be nice to have a bathroom (or even just an outhouse), larger ramp, and some of the land around the runway cleared so we'd have alternate landing areas.
 
tonycondon said:
apparently Talihina, OK is on the list. There has been a group of glider pilots going down there for about the last 6 years on occasional weekends in the winter, me included. that airport could stand to use some of that money and I think we will start asking the OK Dept. of Aeronautics to use some of the money it brings in. The airports is just a runway and small ramp surrounded by really rough land. It would be nice to have a bathroom (or even just an outhouse), larger ramp, and some of the land around the runway cleared so we'd have alternate landing areas.
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Annual flights show 100 (don't know how accurate that is). They receive a $150,000 subsidy. :mad2:
 
that number is probably low. last weekend we had probably about 50 takeoffs and landings there. hoping to be close to the same this weekend.

FAA figured instead of giving a little airport a million every 10 yrs they'd spread it out and let the state distribute between airports. fine with me as long as the little airports actually get some improvements instead of annually funneling all that money to the big airports and letting the small runways die.
 
The unfortunate reality is that aviation is like Swiss cheese. The shell is still there, but there are big holes. I fear that many airports will lose their economic viability and cash strapped local governments will tire of supporting them.
 
Glencoe, MN is on their map and I personally know two people with three planes based there, and that's in just one of a number of hangars there. Not sure where the reporter got their facts. We use it regularly for training.
 
Traveling extensively out west I noticed a bunch of "ghost towns." The people living there didn't know they were ghost towns. But all of the major services had closed. The people living there had to go elsewhere for services such as shopping, medical, auto repair, restaurants, even gas for vehicles, etc.

BUT -- towns with a hospital and airport were still going strong, no matter how depressed the rest of the area was.

I also met a young woman who was a successful businesswoman. She ran a string of beauty shops. Her first criteria for opening one in a town was simple -- it had to have an airport. She flew to each of her beauty shops, so she wouldn't open one if she couldn't fly in.
 
Federal funding of airports is a waste. Doesn't matter plenty will be wasted with or without the airport holes. Cut off all airport funding, imagine if airports had to become friendly welcoming places to survive? If they can not do that they deserve to die.
 
bartmc said:
Annual flights show 100 (don't know how accurate that is). They receive a $150,000 subsidy. :mad2:
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How do you record movements on an unattended airport without a terminal/FBO where people could sign a book ?

It looks like the money that OK aeronautics receives for Lake Murray can be redirected at their discretion for better uses. Sure, makes not sense, but that is just how the federal goverment works. The 150k every year probably pay for crack-sealing at some other airport that just happens to be too close to another funded airport to receive AIP money.

It's basically a block-grant. Money given to the state to use as they see fit to maintain their airport infrastructure. Local control is good, right ?

You also have to look at the motivations of the folks who want to close the airstrip. Nothing to do with saving money.
 
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