We lost another one L67 Rialto

RalphInCA

RalphInCA

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RalphInCA
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L67 Rialto in SoCal closes for good on 9/18.

They are using the land for a Target.

So sad.... :sad:

The area around LA has lots of airports, but it's a shame to lose even one.
 
Mathis, a short strip just northeast of ATL, is closing on the 30th.
 
Surprised they're getting a Target... Rialto always seemed like... K-Mart country to me. :D If we had piggly-wigglies out here, that'd be even more apropos.

All of their junkity-ass port-a-port hangars have been trucked to KRAL and are now cramping the adjacent paint shop's style. So a part of Rialto will live on. <cue Celine Dion montage>

Never did get L67 into my logbook. Oh well.

SMO next? :dunno:
 
We are in decline. It will soon be happening everywhere. There are actually less than 200 airports in the whole country that actually matter. You know, the ones that regular people without pilot's licenses actually use.

I can't blame the city of Rialto. It is likely that the airport either operated at a deficit, or brought in little to no revenue and provided very few jobs. The Target will do much better.

It is sad for us old farts to watch the old world crumble from what we knew, but we have to face it, the march of progress has turned and marched away from us. The good news is, we can land for ever on the runway of L67 forever in any airplane we can imagine in a virtual world. If we want a more "real" reality, we can fly a drone with a camera on it and post it up to YouTube. Maybe even buzz the new Target with a virtual overlay of the old runway!! Yea!

The future is starting to really suck for us old farts. It will make dying and leaving this place easier for us I suspect.:(
 
More aviation available now. You can buy your drone in the toy section and fly it in the target parking lot.
 
Dav8or said:
We are in decline. It will soon be happening everywhere. There are actually less than 200 airports in the whole country that actually matter. You know, the ones that regular people without pilot's licenses actually use.

I can't blame the city of Rialto. It is likely that the airport either operated at a deficit, or brought in little to no revenue and provided very few jobs. The Target will do much better.

It is sad for us old farts to watch the old world crumble from what we knew, but we have to face it, the march of progress has turned and marched away from us. The good news is, we can land for ever on the runway of L67 forever in any airplane we can imagine in a virtual world. If we want a more "real" reality, we can fly a drone with a camera on it and post it up to YouTube. Maybe even buzz the new Target with a virtual overlay of the old runway!! Yea!

The future is starting to really suck for us old farts. It will make dying and leaving this place easier for us I suspect.:(
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Yeah, problem is you were all so busy hanging on to the past you forgot to bring us into the future. It may be easy for you to leave, but for those who have to continue on, it's not going to be so easy.
 
schmookeeg said:
Never did get L67 into my logbook. Oh well.
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I landed there on business a number of times in the early 1990s, but not since then. Had a nice coffee shop then, as I recall.

Flying-1990s-01007.jpg


Here's what it looked like about a year ago ...

SAM_0210.JPG
 
All that for another freaking big box department store?

Yeah, there's such a crying need for more of those!
 
Henning said:
Yeah, problem is you were all so busy hanging on to the past you forgot to bring us into the future. It may be easy for you to leave, but for those who have to continue on, it's not going to be so easy.
Click to expand...

I suspect that you and I are about the same age. We did all the same things. You have gone on and on about all the fossil fuels you have consumed in your youth and very recent past. You can't hide from that. Where was the "This is crazy and unsustainable, we should be using hydrogen!", "We need to stop doing this!" Henning back then? Where was the protest?

I know you have moved deep into the land of all things progressive and righteous, you have distanced yourself from your American past, you have reasoned all the solutions to the world's problems and you think you have found redemption, but really, the pious, other world Henning needs to just shut it and the interesting, educational Henning that is part of "us all" needs to engage IMO.

I agree that the future we all want didn't happen fast enough and may never come at this point, but it is what it is. We live in the world we are born into and we do the best we can based on the knowledge we have. It is imperfect. I have no regrets and certainly won't be moving to Europe to distance myself from my past and feel better about myself.
 
Jay Honeck said:
All that for another freaking big box department store?

Yeah, there's such a crying need for more of those!
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Sadly, apparently there is more need for a big box than there is little airplanes. The people and the market spoke.
 
Dav8or said:
I suspect that you and I are about the same age. We did all the same things. You have gone on and on about all the fossil fuels you have consumed in your youth and very recent past. You can't hide from that. Where was the "This is crazy and unsustainable, we should be using hydrogen!", "We need to stop doing this!" Henning back then? Where was the protest?

I know you have moved deep into the land of all things progressive and righteous, you have distanced yourself from your American past, you have reasoned all the solutions to the world's problems and you think you have found redemption, but really, the pious, other world Henning needs to just shut it and the interesting, educational Henning that is part of "us all" needs to engage IMO.

I agree that the future we all want didn't happen fast enough and may never come at this point, but it is what it is. We live in the world we are born into and we do the best we can based on the knowledge we have. It is imperfect. I have no regrets and certainly won't be moving to Europe to distance myself from my past and feel better about myself.
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I don't try to hide or defend, I see quite clearly exactly what I'm doing wrong and I am incensed that I have no valid option, when a valid option is so easy to produce, we just won't let it happen. I would rather work to produce an option rather than just sit and complain.
 
I should probably know this, but I have not lived in this area very long.

was there a fight to save this airport like the current fight to save Santa Monica?

Did AOPA TRY to save L67?


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RalphInCA said:
I should probably know this, but I have not lived in this area very long.

was there a fight to save this airport like the current fight to save Santa Monica?

Did AOPA TRY to save L67?


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You could fit all the money in Rialto in a 172, so I doubt there was any interest from AOPA...
 
RalphInCA said:
I should probably know this, but I have not lived in this area very long.

was there a fight to save this airport like the current fight to save Santa Monica?

Did AOPA TRY to save L67?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

There was, sorta, behind the scenes -- As an aviation business in the area, we were solicited for, and provided several multi-page arguments/ideas for keeping the airport open and submitted it to both a pilot association there as well as the city council. This was back appx 2007. We were solicited again appx 2009.

The process appeared pretty open-minded from our end -- they really were listening/looking for ideas. I think they just didn't have many viable alternatives, and I suppose the airport was indefensible on paper, almost certainly from a financial perspective.

I imagine the SMO situation is actually very similar -- just with 3 or more additional columns of $$s in the ledger. And of course, a closed-minded/greedy city council.

To Joe Nonpilot, I imagine even the worst Target Box Store seems better than a noisy little airport. Hell, I bet I could convince the citizenry of SMO to accept a lease on a giant porno house on the SMO property.. as long as council got to wet their beak on the land leases.

What we do is deviant to the sheeple.
 
L67 the former home of Art Scholl........saw him fly there a couple times. Shot a lot of landings during the training, used to be the training field for Brackett, Cable and a few others around here. But it's been on life support for years, I'm surprised it made it this long. The usual couple of refreshes on the airport cafe with the usual results. The condos didn't get it but Target scores a direct hit. We still have the giant engine out practice spot of SBD and Redlands is right next door so there are still a few fields left.
 
I really, really hate to say it, but this is an example of how an airport doesn't improve a community's economy. Lots of people seem to think optimistically that airports are a valuable economic asset to a community. IMO, in many areas, that is a load of BS.

It really seems that aviation in this country (if you except drones) overall is in decline. Even our current commercial and military debuts seem to be boondoggles. (787 and F-35) I am convinced that without a robust private, single engine GA, we are doomed to failure in the aviation world. IMO, we need dreamers, DIYers and a place where future designers of the F-65 can get energized and learn to fly, get their wings and get connected at an early, impressionable age.

Without this, we have a bunch of big, bloated corporations sucking on the government tit, hiring whatever engineers they can get at a good price to be part of a committee that one day may, or may not (depending on continued funding) will help in small part to make the reality of our next front line fighter. Last job, engineering water pumps for the public utility. Next job, landing gear and weapons bays. Boeing will be doing much the same.

What can we do?? Rialto made a go of it, but failed. Fully functional airports are being torn up for Chinese retail outlets, fully functional airplanes are being cut up for nothing but the value of their parts and scrap metal worth. Pilots are quitting and not a lot of new starts. On the face of it, it seems not good.

Maybe I should get with the times, get a a drone and start posting on YouTube.:dunno:
 
I reluctantly must agree. For many communities, their local airport has become a giant lost opportunity to build their tax base.

Thankfully, for most of them, the land on the edge of town still isn't worth much to anyone, and a local airport still makes sense.
 
Communities don't need airports, until they need them.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Thankfully, for most of them, the land on the edge of town still isn't worth much to anyone, and a local airport still makes sense.
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That's the only reason I don't fear for my home 'drome. Nobody wants to build anything out there anyhow.
 
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