Crash at GAI (Gaithersburg, MD)

consider the source....it's from the Com-Post.....nothing new here folks.:goofy:
 
Given that this article was written immediately on the heels of an accident that resulted in three fatalities of civilians on the ground, I found it amazingly balanced and laud the reporter for resisting the impulse to grandstand or play to emotions.

Tim
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Reminds me of this, again: We worry about the wrong things, and it's killing us. But more about the non-aviation part at the beginning - People who avoid swimming in the ocean because of the "risk" of a shark attack will happily hop in their car every day, eat fatty foods, etc. that are WAY more likely to kill them.

Closing the airport would be a similar reaction.
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I rent a room from a woman who smokes 2 packs of Winstons a day yet will only eat organic-non GMO foods.:mad2::dunno:
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
Here's how I know the airport will never be closed. Guess who owns and and runs the airport? The Montgomery County Revenue Authority. The airport is a cash cow. Every business on the field pays the county a lease to be there. Every hangar and tie down pays the county. That airport is nothing but dollar signs for the county. The FBOs do all the work and the county collects all the money. It's not going anywhere.
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The county would make more money if they turned it into another office park and collected property tax on the real estate and business property tax on every computer and desk used there.

The only thing that keeps them from closing it are grant assurances.
 
weilke said:
The county would make more money if they turned it into another office park and collected property tax on the real estate and business property tax on every computer and desk used there. The only thing that keeps them from closing it are grant assurances.
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You haven't seen the business, real estate, and financial climate in Montgomery County. Drive to the airport. You'll pass by hundreds of vacant lots, vacant buildings, offices for lease, etc. Businesses are leaving MoCo, not coming to it. They cannot fill the vacant spaces they have now, and they haven't for quite some time. No developer would build more. And nobody would buy/lease if they did.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
You haven't seen the business, real estate, and financial climate in Montgomery County. Drive to the airport. You'll pass by hundreds of vacant lots, vacant buildings, offices for lease, etc. Businesses are leaving MoCo, not coming to it. They cannot fill the vacant spaces they have now, and they haven't for quite some time. No developer would build more. And nobody would buy/lease if they did.
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Sounds like an opportunity for a developer to sweet talk the county out of cheap old airport land in return for jobs and future tax revenues. Just need to give away the land and a starter tax break.:lol:
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
You haven't seen the business, real estate, and financial climate in Montgomery County. Drive to the airport. You'll pass by hundreds of vacant lots, vacant buildings, offices for lease, etc. Businesses are leaving MoCo, not coming to it. They cannot fill the vacant spaces they have now, and they haven't for quite some time. No developer would build more. And nobody would buy/lease if they did.
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Montgomery Co. Maryland is in the top twenty five of the most wealthy county's in America. It is loaded with well paying jobs, many many in the Federal Government! Dept of Defense very big here and in Northern Virgina. Very high per capita income! The airport also receives, ( as do all other Maryland airports) nice subsides from the State. If it were not for the state assist. Many maryland small airports would be GONE!
Do your home work.
 
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Jimmy cooper said:
Montgomery Co. Maryland is in the top twenty five of the most wealthy county's in America. It is loaded with well paying jobs, many many in the Federal Government! Dept of Defense very big here and in Northern Virgina. Very high per capita income! The airport also receives, ( as do all other Maryland airports) nice subsides from the State. If it were not for the state assist. Many maryland small airports would be GONE!
Do your home work.
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Actually as a bedroom community for the wealthy and ultra wealthy, an airport close to home so it only takes 5-10 minutes to get to their jet, that airport is pretty safe. Much more likely to gentrify the vacant commercial properties.
 
Henning said:
Actually as a bedroom community for the wealthy and ultra wealthy, an airport close to home so it only takes 5-10 minutes to get to their jet, that airport is pretty safe. Much more likely to gentrify the vacant commercial properties.
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Not much in terms of jet traffic. The place lacks a fancy Signature or Landmark FBO.
 
weilke said:
Not much in terms of jet traffic. The place lacks a fancy Signature or Landmark FBO.
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Traffic or base? I don't know there, but lots of private jet traffic in the Bahamas with no services on a pick up and drop off basis, storing the plane at the maintenance base and calling for it when needed. This is a typical MO for my bosses.
 
Henning said:
Traffic or base? I don't know there, but lots of private jet traffic in the Bahamas with no services on a pick up and drop off basis, storing the plane at the maintenance base and calling for it when needed. This is a typical MO for my bosses.
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Aircraft based on the field: 158
Single engine airplanes: 137
Multi engine airplanes: 16
Jet airplanes: 3
Helicopters: 2

Aircraft operations: avg 140/day *
54% local general aviation
30% transient general aviation
16% air taxi
* for 12-month period ending 12 May 2014

From Airnav
 
Jimmy cooper said:
Montgomery Co. Maryland is in the top twenty five of the most wealthy county's in America. It is loaded with well paying jobs, many many in the Federal Government! Dept of Defense very big here and in Northern Virgina. Very high per capita income! The airport also receives, ( as do all other Maryland airports) nice subsides from the State. If it were not for the state assist. Many maryland small airports would be GONE!
Do your home work.
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You're confusing residency with employment. Yes, lots of rich people LIVE in MoCo. And lots of new people continue to move to MoCo to live there. And most of them then drive to VA and DC for work. The notion that MoCo is attracting, retaining, or building employers and businesses and utterly detached with reality. It's not, quite the opposite. No idiot in their right mind would EVER build commercial property there.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
You're confusing residency with employment. Yes, lots of rich people LIVE in MoCo. And lots of new people continue to move to MoCo to live there. And most of them then drive to VA and DC for work. The notion that MoCo is attracting, retaining, or building employers and businesses and utterly detached with reality. It's not, quite the opposite. No idiot in their right mind would EVER build commercial property there.
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Read again what you just wrote......especially the " new people continue to move there part" . They need all services and more since they have higher disposable incomes. The airport has a 4200 ft. Runway which is not very long for jets. What did the insurance company require for the jet that crashed? I have no idea but it could very well be 5000 feet or over. This may have caused the pilot, especially if he were low time in type , to slow down too much. ( there are entry's on this site that think 2000 feet is really short for a 172 cessna!) I think it's very possible that the airport might just close eventually and give way to expensive homes , plus an upscale shopping center unless they can extend the runway, ( highly unlikely)
 
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Jimmy cooper said:
Read again what you just wrote......especially the " new people continue to move there part" . They need all services and more since they have higher disposable incomes. The airport has a 4200 ft. Runway which is not very long for jets. What did the insurance company require for the jet that crashed? I have no idea but it could very well be 5000 feet or over. This may have caused the pilot, especially if he were low time in type , to slow down too much. ( there are entry's on this site that think 2000 feet is really short for a 172 cessna!) I think it's very possible that the airport might just close eventually and give way to expensive homes , plus an upscale shopping center unless they can extend the runway, ( highly unlikely)
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according to the manufacture's website landing distance is 2722 feet.
http://www.embraerexecutivejets.com/en-US/jets/phenom-100E/Pages/performance.aspx
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
You're confusing residency with employment. Yes, lots of rich people LIVE in MoCo. And lots of new people continue to move to MoCo to live there. And most of them then drive to VA and DC for work. The notion that MoCo is attracting, retaining, or building employers and businesses and utterly detached with reality. It's not, quite the opposite. No idiot in their right mind would EVER build commercial property there.
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Oh....don't kid yourself.

Given the opportunity any old developer would put high density housing in there and have no problems getting his price. Yup, they'd get at least +500 homes in there. :yes:
 
Jimmy cooper said:
Read again what you just wrote......especially the " new people continue to move there part" . They need all services and more since they have higher disposable incomes.
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This is where you're not getting it. There is no demand for more commercial or industrial space. Zero. Zilch. There is a huge surplus of both old and brand new totally vacant commercial and industrial space. Nobody wants it. Nobody can use it. Nobody ever will. The notion that building yet another one will magically change the demand enough to fill all those plus the new ones is delusional. You're just wrong, sorry.

Now, bulldozing the airport for a residential development is more realistic. The housing market dictates whether a developer would want that risk. If you build it, they will come is not a certainty in real estate. The developer would need to make enough money to cover the cost of purchase, plus demolition of the airport in additional to the normal site work and construction. There's a big difference between that and the farm uncle Cletus sold.
 
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Pedals2Paddles said:
This is where you're not getting it. There is no demand for more commercial or industrial space. Zero. Zilch. There is a huge surplus of both old and brand new totally vacant commercial and industrial space. Nobody wants it. Nobody can use it. Nobody ever will. The notion that building yet another one will magically change the demand enough to fill all those plus the new ones is delusional. You're just wrong, sorry.

Now, bulldozing the airport for a residential development is more realistic. The housing market dictates whether a developer would want that risk. If you build it, they will come is not a certainty in real estate. The developer would need to make enough money to cover the cost of purchase, plus demolition of the airport in additional to the normal site work and construction. There's a big difference between that and the farm uncle Cletus sold.
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Not really. The runway would be incorporated into the road system and any hangars would come down very quickly and if metal would go quickly to the scrap yard for scrap price. They cut up quickly. Probably, in the long run , an investment better than " uncle Cletus's sale. "Sorry"( probably expensive homes plus condos with some high end shops thrown in a la james rouse, famous maryland builder of this type thing.)
 
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Jimmy cooper said:
Montgomery Co. Maryland is in the top twenty five of the most wealthy county's in America. It is loaded with well paying jobs, many many in the Federal Government! Dept of Defense very big here and in Northern Virgina. Very high per capita income! The airport also receives, ( as do all other Maryland airports) nice subsides from the State. If it were not for the state assist. Many maryland small airports would be GONE!
Do your home work.
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Government contracting ain't what it used to be. Rosslyn has office vacancy rates exceeding 30%
 
Nothing wrong with MoCo as a business location. They are filling commercial space as fast as they can build it along 270 with biotech and software businesses. The airpark doesn't have good highway access. That's why it's not attractive for office development.
 
No they're not. Unless all the vacant office and industrial plazas I drive by each day are actually a recurrent hallucination? Even the liberal weenie county executive admits it's problem. The county is a complete crap hole for anyone to do business in. But yes, the location is atrocious as far as traffic goes as well. You can sit at one traffic light for 10 minutes. I wonder what high density residential would do for that.......

Those signs on the highway at the Frederick County and VA state lines where you leave MoCo aren't there for nothing. The ones that say "Welcome To _______, Open for Business."
 
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Chip Sylverne said:
Nothing wrong with MoCo as a business location. They are filling commercial space as fast as they can build it along 270 with biotech and software businesses. The airpark doesn't have good highway access. That's why it's not attractive for office development.
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yup....and that's why the old COMSAT complex remains empty.....:yikes::lol:

now, if they could only get zoning to build high density houses there....:rofl:
 
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I'm sure that stupid busway they're building to COMSAT will fix that.....
 
Not appropriate to turn this thread into a discussion of commercial RE, but a june 2014 UM study showed the vacancy rate for class A space in MoCo is a little over 13%, down .6% from the depths of the recession and up from 9% before the downturn in 2001-2. And 128,000 ft2 has been added in the past few years. Some of the most expensive in the region, as well.

That's not too terrible.
 
no, not terrible....thank you Chip. :D

now, back to discussing high alpha maneuvers while on a not so stabilized approach all while piloting a highly sophisticated business jet.:yikes::hairraise::yikes:
 
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Chip Sylverne said:
Not appropriate to turn this thread into a discussion of commercial RE, but a june 2014 UM study showed the vacancy rate for class A space in MoCo is a little over 13%, down .6% from the depths of the recession and up from 9% before the downturn in 2001-2. And 128,000 ft2 has been added in the past few years. Some of the most expensive in the region, as well.

That's not too terrible.
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I dont think the abandoned strip-mall properties count as class-A.
 
GeorgeC said:
http://m.gazette.net/article/201501...hersburg-plane-crash&template=FrontpageMobile
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"
First, abolish touch and go’s. We don’t know what caused the crash, but professional jet pilots will say one of their biggest worries is getting through the spider web of prop plane traffic piloted by amateurs in and around general aviation airports.
Comparatively low-budget prop planes do not have the sophisticated electronics and collision avoidance systems on most jets, nor do pilots receive the level of training and experience required by professional jet pilots.


The unwarranted congestion from amateur pilots’ incessant practicing is viewed as a nuisance to legitimate commercial traffic.
Second, in a way that meets FAA requirements for being “non-discriminatory,” ban jet takeoffs and landings that do not have a qualified co-pilot."








:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2:
 
Well that was a good laugh. Note that was not an article. It was a letter from a resident. Perhaps he can work for USA Today?
 
Someone please notify Mr. Brian Benheim to pull his head out of his rear end. Please.
 
It's been very dangerous walking on foot around here lately actually. Pedestrians getting killed by strolling out into traffic without looking both ways. So it would be best if shoes were banned as well. Is wearing shoes and the ability to walk outside your home worth it if even one person dies?
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
Well that was a good laugh. Note that was not an article. It was a letter from a resident. Perhaps he can work for USA Today?
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Also, click on the comments, they are excellent responses


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