Our Landing in Meigs Field, four year ago...

Robert Heise wrote:

ThomasH wrote in message ...

There is, or rather: There was only only Meigs, probably the
most unique airport in the US, if not in the entire world!!

I hope you will like the images:

http://www.pbase.com/thh/2000_07_24_cgx

Thomas

Thanks Thomas for the great pictures.

I live only 40 miles to the west of Meigs and unfortunately only took
advantage of landing there a handful of times. At one time,
touch-n-goes there didn't cost anything.

However the real loss is that safety flying up the lakefront has been
severely compromised. I was able to use the Meigs tower to tell me
about all the other traffic that moved up and down the lakefront
trying to stay out of the way of ORD and MDW. Now, I prefer not to
even take that chance.

I do understand that some airports die as the surroundings change.
For example San Francisco has had a waterfront airport: Thsi was the
Crissy Field in Presidio. Once upon a time, some people took off for
Hawaii from this field! Crissy Field was in several books of records!

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/history/crissy/crissyaf.htm

Once the Golden Gate bridge was build, landing and takeoff from
there became too hazardous. Last aircraft took off from this
airport in 1974!The runway was a part of a city for many years.
People used to walk and ride by bike from Marina to the Golden
Gate, the entire vicinity was kind of neglected. Way back SFO
sectional stopped indicate a closed airport there. Recent project
removed the runway completely and restored the bay land as a nature
preserve:

http://www.crissyfield.org/center/


Of course we have now the same safety dilemma which makes you
to avoid the lakefront flights: No safe place to go down. The
Bay is damn cold and usually very windy. The best bet around
Golden Gate is to head north toward Sausalito and Tiburon and
to ditch in the 1-2 foot shallow Richardson Bay. On the other
side of the city there is still the closed Alameda AFS with
good runways.



It too amazes me that Daley has done what he has down with no
impunity. You started your email by mentioning the fines proposed by
the FAA against the city. I hope that these are made a reality so
Daley can realize his actions have consequences.

Thanks again for bringing back good memories...

You are welcome, we brought back our memories as well!

Thomas