"SeeAndAvoid" wrote:
One guy called from a phonebooth, needed a clearance, but also time
to drive back to the airport (30mins away), get started and go.

I believe it's a TERPS requirement that to have an approach you need to
have a working and publicly accessable landline phone on the field.
Don't know anything about departures, though :-)

I once got into a ****ing contest with Verizon (they were probably
calling themselves Bell Atlantic back then) when they tore the only
public phone out of a small airport around here because it wasn't
generating enough revenue. I had gone to call for a clearance and found
the booth still there, but wires just hanging out where there used to be
a phone.

I talked to everybody I could think of (the Public Service Commission,
the FSDO, the airport manager, NY Tracon, AOPA, etc). Nobody seemed too
worried about it.