The battle for Arlington Airport, WA begins:

Here is an intercontinental message of support.

You poor souls... And I always thought of the USA as the last bastion of
free airspace and few folk interfering with your enjoyment.

I am a Brit Glider Pilot, so fly subject to different planning and airspace
restrictions than you do in ther U.S. - but something of what you said
struck a chord with me.

In the UK, we have a non-governmental sporting body called the BGA (British
Gliding Association) who fight our corner for Airspace and conformance with
EU (European Union) legislation with the CAA - (Civil Aviation Authority).
It is a constructive dialogue and not always an easy one - but they do a
bunch of others things for us as well.

I have no personal involvement with the BGA but I am always impressed with
their proactive approach to "policing" our activity and implementing a
middle line before everyone panics and implements "knee jerk" reactions
after an incident reveals some sort of threat or risk. I could never
previously figure out why our own body should act in such a draconian
manner... But now I think I understand.

The BGA issue safety bulletins and oversee the training of new instructers
in a very professional manner... Along with a whole lot of other things you
would expect a sporting body to do. But there are more suprising things -
They hand out sponsorships to youngsters and actively encourage Gliding
clubs to consider the surrounding communities, so that town councils and
planners have a clear view of the very positive effects that having a local
gliding club has on the community as a whole. One of my best ever days in
gliding was taking a local reporter up for a "free" flight. He was expecting
to throw up in an "exorcist" way, but was instead charmed by his quiet tour
of the surrounding hills and fascinated by the science of soaring.
Similarly, we run competitions for local youngsters to become "cadets" -
this always brings many applicants and good coverage in local papers.

Ultimately, I guess we do not inhabit a static world. Our sporting pastimes
and hard won freedoms are always balanced with the needs of others and
changing public opinions. For example:- In the UK, a very large argument has
raged about hunting foxes with dogs and horses. Personally, I think that
sitting on a horse in the pouring rain for 90% of the time whilst otherwise
pursuing some unfortunate creature across muddy countryside is a fairly dumb
idea, given that you might fall off and die... But these red-coated farmers
love nothing more than an afternoon out with their chums doing exactly that.
They argue that this binds them as communities and helps eradicate a pest.
Others argue that it is cruel, inhumane and ineffective. Both sides have now
stopped pusuing each other in the courts... Instead they are both out to
change public perception... And I think I finally get it..It is perception
that drives legislation, influences planning applications and quantifies
risk:- I guess it is our best bet, maybe yours too.

Best of luck, old chap.

Tim Gray



"Paul Adriance" wrote in message
hlink.net...
On one side of the ring: Arlington Municipal and it's associated
community:..For those of you unfamiliar with Arlington Municipal Airport
in
Washington state, it is home of the third largest fly-in in the country
(run
by the EAA) and the center of general aviation and experimental aircraft
in
the state of Washington and, arguably, the Pacific Northwest. But of
more
paticular interest to this news group: It is home to what I believe are
the
two largest soaring clubs in Washington state - discounting the Seattle
Glider Council which is more of an umbrella soaring organization.

On the other side of the ring: Nascar, International Speedway Corp,
and
associated county, state and city political leaders. They are seeking to
install a large 30,000+ seat racetrack within 45 minutes of the Seattle
area. Snohomish county and the two adjacent cities near the airport are
recommending 3 sites, all roughly within 2 miles of the airport. There
are
only 2 or 3 counties which meet the base location criteria, so our local
locations don't have a lot of competition.

The associated TFRs that come part and parcel with such a facility
would
shut down Arlington for any motor sports event and probably for any other
use due to seating capacity. You can be sure "other" events will be
frequent so ISC can recoup their investment in the facility. I don't have
data to back any of this up right now, but during the intial salvos of
this
conflict at an airport commision meeting tonight, someone mentioned an
airport in the Arizona area that is shut down almost 200 days a year due
to
a large venue near it. Even IFR traffic is at the whim of the operating
agency which can choose to disallow overflight. Nascar and the ISC
probably
will not find much concern over any of this as their pilots and aircraft
get
waivers for any of their events while we would be stuck watching them fly
from the ground.

We all know the FAA has no authority over the airpsace anymore, TSA
and
Homeland security run the show and don't answer to anyone. Should
another
terrorist event occur, related to GA or otherwise, all bets are off on
what
would happen around such facilities. They make the rules as they go and
once the facility is present, it is there to stay with any associated
restrictions, current or yet to exist.

The city and county can't be expected to support the airport, the new
track is a political feather in their cap and money in the government
coffers, and I can't say I don't see their side of the equation. It's
just
too bad they can't site it elsewhere. My hope is that this fight
becomes
an exception to the sad disintegration of GA like those poor airports on
the
east coast and Megis.

AOPA and the EAA are supposedly working the problem, but I must say
this
first public forum has left me with a very sour feeling in my stomach.
My
hope is that others read this and look at the issue and maybe someday,
somewhere, someone who has real influence over these decisions will
realize
the load they are being fed by the cities and county and that they really
DON'T have the local public support for such a facility and the crippling
impact it would have on our airport. I believe Nascar said they would
not
site a facility where it is not wanted during deliberations with the state
legislature. It remains to be seen if that is truly the case and whether
they meant it was wanted by the local populace or by the local government.

If nothing else, wish us luck, we're going to need it...

Paul Adriance