Gloom

I do not get this argument. I would like to understand it. But why is
the little podunk airport important? 3B3 Sterling, Mass, offers very
little to the local economy, if anything. KFIT, my home base, offers
very little to the local economy, a couple of shops, a restaurant, a few
commercial flights (Part 135) per week. Are they that big a deal? KORH
is vastly underutilized, it is 30 minutes away by car. So seriously, I
do not understand the argument about saving every airport.

Just curious: How many long cross-country flights have you made with
your family?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
I do not get this argument. I would like to understand it. But why is
the little podunk airport important? 3B3 Sterling, Mass, offers very
little to the local economy, if anything. KFIT, my home base, offers
very little to the local economy, a couple of shops, a restaurant, a few
commercial flights (Part 135) per week. Are they that big a deal? KORH
is vastly underutilized, it is 30 minutes away by car. So seriously, I
do not understand the argument about saving every airport.


Just curious: How many long cross-country flights have you made with
your family?

me, none. If you remember from a bygone thread, my wife won't fly w/ me.
I fly a few times a year to BHB from KFIT and a few time around Southern
New England. 5o-75 hrs /year.

KC

Kevin Clarke wrote:

me, none. If you remember from a bygone thread, my wife won't fly w/
me. I fly a few times a year to BHB from KFIT and a few time around
Southern New England. 5o-75 hrs /year.

KC

Which is why, over 20 years ago in my pre-marriage days, any fourth or fifth
date I went on included a flight with me. This had two effects. First, it
impressed the hell out of 18-22 year old girls and more importantly it
disqualified those that were either too scared to go or didn't like when
they did.

This is one of the reasons I've been married to the same lady for going on
22 years. She also thought the t-shirt I picked up that said, "My Ex Wanted
Me To Quit Flying" was funny.

This is one of the reasons I've been married to the same lady for going on
22 years. She also thought the t-shirt I picked up that said, "My Ex Wanted
Me To Quit Flying" was funny.

Amen, brother. Mary and I just celebrated our 22nd anniversary while
at the Cherokee fly-in. Neither of us could have picked a better way
to celebrate our big day.

She flew in, I flew out.

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I do not get this argument. I would like to understand it. But why is
the little podunk airport important?

snip

Just curious: How many long cross-country flights have you made with
your family?

me, none. If you remember from a bygone thread, my wife won't fly w/ me.

I believe this is why you see so little utility in small-town
airports. Until you've been on a bunch of long cross-country flights
with your family, and flown into small-town America from coast to
coast, it's really hard to appreciate their essential nature.

Most of our trips utilize these smaller, less used airports, and it is
always a delight to visit them. This is where "real" America still
exists, and their existence allows us, as pilots, to drop in almost
anywhere across this vast continent.

All of this is, of course, aside from all the vital financial aid your
airport brings to your community. Everything from "Flight for Life"
helicopters, to charters, to little guys like us think of your airport
as your "Front Door" -- and, quite frankly, we don't go to towns that
don't have airports.

Of course, if the pilot community continues to dwindle, there won't be
enough of us flying to bring $$$ into those small towns, and those
airports will simply close. And THEN flying in America will really
have lost it's merit.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
I do not get this argument. I would like to understand it. But why is
the little podunk airport important?

snip

Just curious: How many long cross-country flights have you made with
your family?

me, none. If you remember from a bygone thread, my wife won't fly w/ me.

I believe this is why you see so little utility in small-town
airports. Until you've been on a bunch of long cross-country flights
with your family, and flown into small-town America from coast to
coast, it's really hard to appreciate their essential nature.

Most of our trips utilize these smaller, less used airports, and it is
always a delight to visit them. This is where "real" America still
exists, and their existence allows us, as pilots, to drop in almost
anywhere across this vast continent.

All of this is, of course, aside from all the vital financial aid your
airport brings to your community. Everything from "Flight for Life"
helicopters, to charters, to little guys like us think of your airport
as your "Front Door" -- and, quite frankly, we don't go to towns that
don't have airports.

Of course, if the pilot community continues to dwindle, there won't be
enough of us flying to bring $$$ into those small towns, and those
airports will simply close. And THEN flying in America will really
have lost it's merit.

While I think small airports are really important, your "trying to get
pilots to agree to do anything is like trying to herd cats" remark comes to
mind. Where I plan on doing most of my flying, there is a small town
airport about every 20 to 30 miles along the only highway. The towns along
that highway work together on a lot of things, but if there ever was an
attempt by the airports to work together, it failed. Consequently, there is
no critical mass, one fly-in (there were 2 only a couple of years ago), and
the biggest of the airports appears to have the least going on.

I think they'd be a lot better off if:
1. They formed a regional coordination board.
2. Promoted the area as a fly-in vacation spot.
3. Decided which type of business worked best at each area, and promoted
those businesses to relocate there.
4. Had a regional Fly-in that rotated between the airports.

I think they'd be a lot better off if:
1. They formed a regional coordination board.
2. Promoted the area as a fly-in vacation spot.
3. Decided which type of business worked best at each area, and promoted
those businesses to relocate there.
4. Had a regional Fly-in that rotated between the airports.- Hide quoted text -

All good ideas. I think the reason we don't see airports working more
closely together is because of the way our gummint sets up the
competition for "grants".

At least in Iowa, if Grinnell gets $100K, that's $100K that Iowa City
won't ever see. This creates a quasi-adversarial relationship
between them, and creates a disincentive for the type of cooperation
you describe.

To work around that, Iowa has set up a "Fly Iowa" airshow that rotates
around the state, from airport to airport. Some years it's pretty
good, many years it's pretty lame -- but it *does* move the spotlight
around a bit.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:

All good ideas. I think the reason we don't see airports working more
closely together is because of the way our gummint sets up the
competition for "grants".
At least in Iowa, if Grinnell gets $100K, that's $100K that Iowa City
won't ever see. This creates a quasi-adversarial relationship
between them, and creates a disincentive for the type of cooperation
you describe.

Welllll..... not exactly.

For GA airports, the local entity fronts 5%, the state fronts 5% and the
FAA provides the remaining 90%.

The state aviation organization solicitics requests from each airport
for grants in aid for projects they would like to perform. As part of
this process, the local entity must decide if it has the money to pay
for its share of the project.

The state organization then puts together its list of the most necessary
for safety and local economic reasons and submits it to the FAA for
cosideration. The amount of money the state legislature will give the
state aviation organization to pay for the state's share of the project
is also factored in to the total request the state organization will
make.

The FAA, after much deliberation, comes back with a lump sum AIP
grant-in-aid to the state organization.

The state organization then divies up its grant dollars to the local
airports for their projects based on a ranking of all the project
requests.