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Restricting Glider Ops at Public Arpt.
The Southern Eagles Soaring made a formal complaint to the local FAA
FSDO in ATL concerning the LaGrange-Callaway airport(LGC)restricting glider flying to weekends only and unwillingness to rent hangars to club members. The LGC board claimed to the FAA that these restrictions are in the interest to safety. The FAA told the airport authority that they could not restrict the gliders from operating on weekdays and that they also must rent us hangars. We are still attempting to accomplish the latter. The FSDO further directed the club and the airport board to *jointly* draft glider operating procedures at LGC. To this end, the airport board refused to communicate with the club and unilaterally implemented procedures that, although allows gliders to fly any day of the week, created other restrictions to glider operations which, in effect, make it damn difficult to fly at all. The FSDO (in all its bureaucratic ineptitude) took the word of the airport manager that the glider club was involved in the derivation of the rules, and approved the rules(in writing). When apprised of being misled, the FSDO did agree to hear the glider club's concerns about specific rules. But in the end, the FAA did not change what they had already approved under a false assumption of mutual agreement. The most disconcerting and onerous rule is that the glider club must post a person posessing at least a private pilot rating at the intersection of the airport's crossing runways to observe for any landing or departing traffic and give an "all clear" radio call before a glider tow can commence take off. Keep in mind that LGC is an uncontrolled airport. Also realize that SES is a small club and that it is normally difficult to schedule a tow pilot and have a wing runner, much less now have to need for someone to bake in the sun all day standing at the intersecting runways. As far as the need for such an observer, there was a grand total of seven(7) non-glider flights all day at the airport last Saturday. The airport manager claims the need for the observer is for safety (note that no such need existed when we only flew on the weekends). We made the point that I.A.W. the Airport Assurances Agreement that LGC is bound for accepting federal money that all aviation activity is be allowed to operate on the same fair and reasonable terms without discrimination. No other operator at LGC is required to post an observer in order to operate at LGC. Not a single accident or incident been attributed to the operation of gliders during the six and one-half years the SES has been flying at LGC. At no time did any representative of the FAA come down to observe glider operations before approving these procedures. Does anyone out there in the glider community have any experience with this sort of situation? Where do we go from now? We sincerely request any information or guidance in this matter. Private responses (if so desired) may be addressed to: Responses alluding to the need to negotiate or get along are not necessary as such tactics have been tried and exhausted. This has been an ongoing concern since 1998 when the airport board notified the club by official letter that they "decided unanimously to terminate glider operations at LGC". The club has since tried every conceivable way to educate the airport authority about our operations and convince them that we do not constitute a hazard to other aviation activity at LGC to no avail. Now it seems we can't convince the FAA of that, either. Help! |
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