Custer State Park Airport, Custer SD Decommissioning

172andyou said:
Au contraire mon frère, I want to keep this airport *precisely* because the government is spending half to two thirds of my taxes on blowing people up (aka military) and the costs of caring for injured soldiers for the rest of their lives (VA benefits). You're damn right I want some of that remaining third to be spent on airports. If they want to cut something, cut military first for a decade or so, it will be budget dust that isn't even noticed. Oh, and BTW, you don't get to get VA benefits. Those men and women made a deal to do a job and the nation agreed to take care of them. So you don't get to change that deal after the fact.

Then we can talk about airports.
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I’m honestly at a loss to understand your point. Zero offense intended.

Personally, for most things in life, I think having an understandable business case that shows a net positive value is a reasonable objective (which isn’t necessarily a financial positive - heavens no: I LOVE flying!). I’m just not seeing the cost/benefit here but am open to learning more.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
I’m honestly at a loss to understand your point. Zero offense intended.

Personally, for most things in life, I think having an understandable business case that shows a net positive value is a reasonable objective (which isn’t necessarily a financial positive - heavens no: I LOVE flying!). I’m just not seeing the cost/benefit here but am open to learning more.
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No offense taken.

Two points.

1) The government is not a business. At least in that it doesn't have to show an economic "net positive" to justify an investment. Indeed many things it does are because of moral or ethical arguments, rather than economic ones. Providing economic support for handicapped kids, for example, will never show on a balance sheet as anything but an economic loser, but most people agree that it's appropriate for the government to provide such support.

2) My previous point, simplified, is that we pilots shouldn't be content to fight over scraps. The government could reduce the military budget by 1-3%, which wouldn't be noticed, and have enough to double the funding of the entire FAA. This would be plenty of money to save all the airports.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
Personally, for most things in life, I think having an understandable business case that shows a net positive value is a reasonable objective (which isn’t necessarily a financial positive - heavens no: I LOVE flying!). I’m just not seeing the cost/benefit here but am open to learning more.
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If you’re expecting to see that, most airports would be closed. This one is no different.
 
I remember when the bridge was built between Nebraska and South Dakota at Niobrara (NE) and was featured on Fleecing of America.

I've always wondered how many $25k snowblowers the city of Lincoln (NE) owns to blow the snow off the sidewalks and bike paths in the winter, and how much fuel is spent doing it.

How much is spent painting lines on streets, sidewalks, and bike paths is another.
 
Something else that we should consider as members of the aviation community is once you give up one airport, it's easier for them to take more. Give an inch, take a mile.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
We visited the area last year (flew into RAP and rented a car). We drove by the field, hoping to find a place that we’d like to come back to in our plane in the future. It struck us as just impractical. No transportation nearby (good luck with Uber!), maybe a bathroom but I think the gate to the airport was closed when we were there. MAYBE we could bring bikes there and get around but, frankly, the park is big and the field isn’t very close to key sites. It had the feel of fire fighter strips I’ve seen elsewhere.

I don’t like to see any airport close unnecessarily but this one hardly seems like one to fall on my sword for.
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We had a similar experience. Flew into KRAP and drove to Custer. I wanted to see the strip as I was thinking of landing there just to put it in my logbook. When we got there, the army (actually guard probably?) had all kinds of tents set up, helicopters on the runway and soldiers all over the place. Clearly some sort of a pretty big training exercise, so we couldn't even get close enough to see what kind of shape the pavement was in.

As far as I could tell, that and firefighting would really be the only use of the paved strip. With no facilities at all, it's useless to me other then a logbook entry, and that use would detract from other park users. The back country guys who like to airplane camp would probably rather have a grass strip anyway. I hate to see any airport close, but I can understand why they wouldn't want to spend money on this one.
 
S. Dak. resident... My wife and I have done a lot of camping at airports. We have flown over the Custer State Airport several times but never landed there. We have stayed at the Custer airport at least a couple of times. At that time (3 years ago) they had a nice camping area by the FBO with 24 hour access to the nice pilot's lounge and even showers. With that just a few miles from the State airport, and in a more scenic environment, it made no sense to camp at the other place with such limited facilities. I hate to see airports close but I can see why they would want to. I think it had it's origin as a fire fighting facility. If you land at each of these 2 airports I know which one you would prefer for camping. On a hot summer day just the temperature difference would convince you. I don't know about the closing--it's a toss up.
 
eb87f said:
S. Dak. resident... My wife and I have done a lot of camping at airports. We have flown over the Custer State Airport several times but never landed there. We have stayed at the Custer airport at least a couple of times. At that time (3 years ago) they had a nice camping area by the FBO with 24 hour access to the nice pilot's lounge and even showers. With that just a few miles from the State airport, and in a more scenic environment, it made no sense to camp at the other place with such limited facilities. I hate to see airports close but I can see why they would want to. I think it had it's origin as a fire fighting facility. If you land at each of these 2 airports I know which one you would prefer for camping. On a hot summer day just the temperature difference would convince you. I don't know about the closing--it's a toss up.
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Please don't be offended, but it depends on if you want to go camping, or glamping.

Myself, I prefer camping. But as I definitely get older and questionably smarter, I only go when the weather cools off. I understand folks with kids that don't get to choose when to go.

On the other hand, any runway that is paved would be glamping to me...
 
Clip4 said:
Why not? Because it’s a waste of tax money.
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depends on the meaning of the word waste. The govt also builds public parks which I never go to, is that a waste? Public pools? The skate board ramps? Basketball courts and baseball diamonds? Community centers? Hospitals, police stations and fire houses? I don’t use them, they’re all waste.

these are all specialty items for a subset of the public. If you want to claim a runway is a “waste” of dollars, defend the other stuff first.
 
bflynn said:
depends on the meaning of the word waste. The govt also builds public parks which I never go to, is that a waste? Public pools? The skate board ramps? Basketball courts and baseball diamonds? Community centers? Hospitals, police stations and fire houses? I don’t use them, they’re all waste.

these are all specialty items for a subset of the public. If you want to claim a runway is a “waste” of dollars, defend the other stuff first.
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I am not going to defend them. Put a public pool, a basketball court, skate board ramp, a hospital, a baseball Diamond, or a community center in the same location as this airport it also would be a waste of tax dollars
 
Fellow pilots: This group is for a discussion of aviation, not (other) political issues. Please keep it aviation related or this will be locked.
 
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