Runway observer

I certainly don't disagree with you. We would all agree that there is no
substitute for good judgment which , it appears,
the Airport in question does not seem to have.
Yes, they can be sneaky but that doesn't make them right.
I, of course, was being facetious about Hawaii.

Socrates argued that "Might makes right". Although he was really arguing
the opposite. Unfortunately, might does often prevail and right suffers.
Stupid and venal people have endless dilatory ways and can usually outlast
the best of us.

In any case, good luck to the beleaguered glider group. May they ultimately
prevail.

Allan




"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
...
If you have a tail wind on RWY 8 than there is no sense going
aloft for there is no ridge lift. Maybe you are talking about Mr.
Bills whose rules change like my wife's furniture.

There are other reasons to go aloft than to find ridge lift (or
any lift for that matter). Heck, I spent most of my training
circling in sink :P

The point here was that there are operations that take off with
a tailwind, and judgement rather than convention determines when
this is safe.

As far as "must have NOTAM" and "safety reasons," I recall
taking off out of Watsonville a few days before the airshow.
The crossing runway (26-8) had big white Xs and cones on it.
I called Norcal approach and asked about NOTAMS. None (just
like during my standard briefing). Well, I gave them a
PIREP instead...which also mentioned the several closed
taxiways...

If this airport manager really hates gliders that much, I'd
not be surprised if ground crews were "fixing" something
safety critical at inopportune times. Police motorcycle
training (temporary, only Saturdays 10-6) wouldn't be
much of a stretch either. My point was just to be careful
of sneakiness...

In article ,
"ADP" wrote:

I certainly don't disagree with you. We would all agree that there is no
substitute for good judgment which , it appears,
the Airport in question does not seem to have.
Yes, they can be sneaky but that doesn't make them right.
I, of course, was being facetious about Hawaii.

Socrates argued that "Might makes right". Although he was really arguing
the opposite. Unfortunately, might does often prevail and right suffers.
Stupid and venal people have endless dilatory ways and can usually outlast
the best of us.

In any case, good luck to the beleaguered glider group. May they ultimately
prevail.

Allan



Well said and thanks for the good wishes.

Actually, as has been posted before, we have, so far, won nearly every
issue in the conflict with our airport board and manager.
Professionalism and cool heads on the part of our club president and RJ
Cornay have prevailed. We still have some significant issues but we are
gaining ground. FAA reps visited weekend before last and watched our
operation during one of our local race weekends. We had a number of
visiting pilots and activity was high. Apparently, the FAA reps thought
well of our operation. Their observations should also help us in our
effort to remove one more of the harassment measures taken against us.
The airport board, on advice from the manager, passed a rule that
gliders must assemble in one of the busiest parts of the ramp rather
than the empty field beside our hangar 200 yards from any runway. This
was done purely to get us to inconvenience as many of the other airport
users as possible and to generate ill will towards the gliders. An FAA
rep looked at the situation with the gliders assembling on the ramp and
declared the rule "stupid".

As long as the people who are making the harassment rules are in power,
we will have to work hard for the right to use the airport. However, it
is possible that this particularly belligerent airport manager is
looking for an exit. Keep fingers crossed.

Fly safe.