9B1 Another airport bites the dust

Yeah, who needs airplanes? From the linked article:

Aspiring aviators are now learning to fly on simulators instead of taking more expensive lessons. Children and teenagers have also become less interested in flying due to sports and other activities.​
 
"The facility was thrust into the national spotlight in April 2010 when President Barack Obama landed at the airport in advance of his visit to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in Framingham. Obama was in the region to tour flood damage. The runway sustained damage during Obama’s visit."

I have to assume at 1659 feet, the only way the President would ever land there would be in a helicopter, and if so how did a helicopter damage the runway? Our airport was once damaged by the jet blast of AF2 many years ago, but that was different.
 
midwestpa24 said:
"The facility was thrust into the national spotlight in April 2010 when President Barack Obama landed at the airport in advance of his visit to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in Framingham. Obama was in the region to tour flood damage. The runway sustained damage during Obama’s visit."

I have to assume at 1659 feet, the only way the President would ever land there would be in a helicopter, and if so how did a helicopter damage the runway? Our airport was once damaged by the jet blast of AF2 many years ago, but that was different.
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Yes POTUS flew in on Marine One but that isn’t what caused the damage. It was all of the heavy equipment the SS brought in. Story.
 
Bummer, I logged a few landings there shortly after I got my private cert (at EWB).
 
I need to check my logbooks, I think I was in and out of there on a phase check flight during training.
 
This has been coming for a while. The combination of short length and close trees made for limited utility. According to locals, the chain link fence never let one through to the road - I got to witness a Cherokee end up in the fence once!

Most tenants have fled to either 6B6 or nearby Crow Island, but even before that it was a generally sleepy place.
 
scottfromboston said:
Most tenants have fled to either 6B6 or nearby Crow Island, but even before that it was a generally sleepy place.
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I pulled up 6B6 in Google Earth. Look at all the airplanes tied down around that place! And it looked like they were doing some work to the second turf runway (12/30).

Marlboro's runway, on the other hand, looked like Godzilla had chewed on it. I suspect the current owner took that 2 million and ran to the bank with it.
 
Ok, so opposing view. We as pilots never like to see airports shut down, but at 1,600 ft with some obstacles to worry about, how much traffic was it really getting? It would essentially only be usable by piston singles, and even then only certain trainers with pilots who were comfortable with that short of a field.

I suppose to me it doesn't seem like that much of a loss. Development's going to happen. If an airport shuts down, I'd prefer it to be one that had limited usefulness rather than one that had lots of use.
 
Clip4 said:
1,659 ft runway is dang short.
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Yes, I landed there a few times in my first go around flying 20 years ago, it was fun and kept your short field techniques sharp. It's pretty prime real estate which commanded $2.25 million for the land and will probably profit the buyer many times that once developed. That's tough competition versus a small airport.
 
Now I'm wondering what the shortest runway I've landed on has been, maybe 2,500 if I had to guess.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Ok, so opposing view. We as pilots never like to see airports shut down, but at 1,600 ft with some obstacles to worry about, how much traffic was it really getting? It would essentially only be usable by piston singles, and even then only certain trainers with pilots who were comfortable with that short of a field.

I suppose to me it doesn't seem like that much of a loss. Development's going to happen. If an airport shuts down, I'd prefer it to be one that had limited usefulness rather than one that had lots of use.
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Sure, but to use the fallacy of slippery slope... where does it end? "Well, this airport doesn't serve commercial traffic, so it's not much of a loss."

Even if it is only usable by piston singles, numerically that makes up the huge majority of GA. If it were in prime real-estate it was likely a pretty convenient airport to use to access the community. I'd like to see the numbers of how much the airport was used and how many based aircraft there were before I judge that it wasn't much of a loss. If one or no planes were based there, then sure it probably operated much like a farmer's field would and didn't serve the aviation community as a whole. It very well could have had hundreds of operations a week in training traffic though, in which case it would be a great loss especially if it was used for short field training. Nothing better than the real thing to train pilots without a huge margin of error.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Sure, but to use the fallacy of slippery slope... where does it end? "Well, this airport doesn't serve commercial traffic, so it's not much of a loss."

Even if it is only usable by piston singles, numerically that makes up the huge majority of GA. If it were in prime real-estate it was likely a pretty convenient airport to use to access the community. I'd like to see the numbers of how much the airport was used and how many based aircraft there were before I judge that it wasn't much of a loss. If one or no planes were based there, then sure it probably operated much like a farmer's field would and didn't serve the aviation community as a whole. It very well could have had hundreds of operations a week in training traffic though, in which case it would be a great loss especially if it was used for short field training. Nothing better than the real thing to train pilots without a huge margin of error.
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As I said, to me it's a question. My guess is that it had a pretty limited use, but I could've been convinced otherwise. I couldn't or wouldn't use it in any of the airplanes that I have owned/flown (I realize you're an exception in the 180). Plus, it was a privately owned airport, and the owner decided to shut it down after getting a couple million waved in his face - so it wasn't the local government shutting it down to serve the interests of some business over the interests of the community. If there were hundreds of operations a week then that could be another story, but then again the owner still has to make money at it. Having a really short runway like that may be good for teaching short field takeoffs and landings in a "real world" environment, but the reality is most pilots don't need those in the real world.

If I was the airport owner and had a significant amount of money waved in my face to balance against an operation that wasn't making me much, I could probably be convinced, too.

The general area has a good number of airports as well, so there are other options and closure of this one didn't cut off access to an area entirely. I would view the shutdown of 6B6 as more significant.

People like to use the slippery slope concept all over, but in a lot of situations it doesn't make much sense. This is one of them. When I moved to Cincinnati, Blue Ash airport was shut down. That was more of a disappointment as it was still quite active and did offer a location benefit vs. some other airports in the area. However ultimately Cincinnati has a lot of airports in the vicinity as well and there wasn't a shortage of places to park planes. The people were displaced but the aviation community out there is still pretty large. I didn't see or hear talks of any of the other small airports shutting down. My bigger issue there was the fact that it was city owned, but even then there were some other aspects such as declining overall use of the airport, poor condition of the runway, etc. etc.
 
Just pulled that airport up. Looks like a fun airport to operate out of. Sad to see another one go though I never got flew in there. Also interesting to learn that you can do all your flight training in a simulator these days! Thank goodness for another clueless reporter publishing some solidly incorrect aviation facts
 
I meant to stop in there before I moved away... life got in the way. It stinks that it closed, but there are other short runway airfields around that are thriving. Hampton, NH is 2100' with trees and is in the process of rebuilding the airfield cafe and adding hangars. 1600' is awfully short for normal use though...
 
Amazingly enough, the vast majority of the planes there do fly. I can only think of two or three true derelicts.

All pavement is less than three years old, and there’s a great restaurant, training and maintenance, instrument approaches and new LED lighting, and an active culture. A stark contrast to Marlboro, and only a few miles away.

What’s not shown on Earth is the completed third hangar building nor the recent new row of concrete tie down pads. 12/30 is open but limited, and a fourth hangar building is ready for issued permits.

While Marlboro closing is disappointing, its utility was incredibly limited even for piston GA, and the two healthy neighboring airports are better off for it.

Stephen Poole said:
I pulled up 6B6 in Google Earth. Look at all the airplanes tied down around that place! And it looked like they were doing some work to the second turf runway (12/30).

Marlboro's runway, on the other hand, looked like Godzilla had chewed on it. I suspect the current owner took that 2 million and ran to the bank with it.
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