Dangerous request from airport manager?

I’m thinking about writing a proactive letter to the Hoa for the community that was just built next to our airport recently and complain that they aren’t flying enough. I never see them buzz over my house in their planes. It’s a travesty.
 
Salty said:
I’m thinking about writing a proactive letter to the Hoa for the community that was just built next to our airport recently and complain that they aren’t flying enough. I never see them buzz over my house in their planes. It’s a travesty.
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Or maybe I should complain about their houses in the way of my crash site? Too many cars parked in the street blocking my crash landing? Light pollution making it harder to see the airport at night?
 
Why doesn't someone politely tell him that the only LEGAL way to have alternating patterns is to provide an operating control tower, then put the neighbors to work trying to get that implemented?
 
Ed Haywood said:
"Hello, until further notice, please conduct all takeoffs at idle power until pattern altitude."
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In regards to "alternating LH/RH traffic patterns" perhaps what he was meaning to say was that maybe they should consider changing the established pattern from left to right or vise versa in order to avoid residencies? Granted, if that was his intent, "alternating" is a bad choice of words but obviously it doesn't make much sense if you take it literally like that.
 
flyingbrit said:
I got the following e-mail from my home drone manager:

Good morning all,​
​
As the area resident population continues to grow, so do varying appreciations for aircraft noise. As stewards of aviation, practice and repetition of flying skills is paramount to safety and enjoyment. However, the noise that comes along with such practice is not always the most welcomed side effect by some of our neighbors. As a courtesy to the local resident perhaps some different practices could be implemented, while keeping safety, regulations and standards of the highest priority, such as alternating left-hand/right-hand traffic pattern, extending the legs of your traffic pattern and performing run-ups on the ramp or apron. Again, with keeping safety, regulations and standards foremost, should you decide to perform any of these alternate tactics, please do so only at your convenience and as conditions and operations allow. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments.​
​
Anyone else think his suggestions are dangerous, especially the alternating LH/RH traffic pattern?
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Yea, the guy is an idiot.
 
Half Fast said:
The manager has probably been getting some complaints, so try to learn some specifics. Who's complaining, and what's their location? Is there a specific time of day that's an issue?
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And is it one person a hundred times or a hundred people once. The manager is never going to make that one person happy, but a hundred people can doom an airport in the long run.
 
There’s always a whiner. Hell, we have one in our airpark. Complaining that someone taxis too fast. Complaining that a pilot turns too early. Complains that a pilot was flying patterns at 300 feet over homes (I witnessed that one - he was flying downwind at 500, all turns and pattern legs were outside the property boundaries and over empty pasture land. The HOA president listened to the complainant rage, then said FU and hung up.) This chronic complainer gave up flying seven or eight years ago. Fortunately it’s only one voice and no one cares.
 
We have a lady near our (private) airfield who lives under an area commonly used for PPL flight training. She is convinced the CIA and FBI are conducting aerial surveillance of her. Once every few months she visits to insist it stop.
 
Ed Haywood said:
We have a lady near our (private) airfield who lives under an area commonly used for PPL flight training. She is convinced the CIA and FBI are conducting aerial surveillance of her. Once every few months she visits to insist it stop.
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I’d be tempted to tell her, “If you don’t like the surveillance maybe you should stop what you’ve been up to.”
 
When I was flying PPG and other ultralights at the old Griswold Airport in CT, the airport manager requested we stay away from one house with a flagpole... it didn't help that she lived right under the downwind. Whenever ultralights were flying, he could expect a call from "flag lady", we were pretty sure the airport manager's phone number was on speed dial.
 
Ed Haywood said:
We have a lady near our (private) airfield who lives under an area commonly used for PPL flight training. She is convinced the CIA and FBI are conducting aerial surveillance of her. Once every few months she visits to insist it stop.
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flyingbrit said:
I beg to differ. 91.126 indicates it is regulatory:

§ 91.126 Operating on or in the vicinity of an airport in Class G airspace.
(a) General. Unless otherwise authorized or required, each person operating an aircraft on or in the vicinity of an airport in a Class G airspace area must comply with the requirements of this section.

(b) Direction of turns. When approaching to land at an airport without an operating control tower in Class G airspace—

(1) Each pilot of an airplane must make all turns of that airplane to the left unless the airport displays approved light signals or visual markings indicating that turns should be made to the right, in which case the pilot must make all turns to the right; and

(2) Each pilot of a helicopter or a powered parachute must avoid the flow of fixed-wing aircraft.
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most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
 
@pfarber, you need to get out more, class G airports are far more numerous than class E surface airports. But you are correct about left turns being required, but that "unless otherwise required" is a loophole big enough to fly a 747 through.
 
pfarber said:
most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
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Dana said:
@pfarber, you need to get out more, class G airports are far more numerous than class E surface airports. But you are correct about left turns being required, but that "unless otherwise required" is a loophole big enough to fly a 747 through.
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I agree. It’s not unusual at all to find class G airports, in fact, *most* non-primary airports are.
 
pfarber said:
most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
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Its rare for class E to go to the surface.
 
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pfarber said:
most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
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There are right about 40 charted nontowered airports within a 50 mile radius of me. A single one is Class E surface, and that is just “sort of” because it’s on the border of the Class E surface extension for the approach to a nearby airport.

It’s that way practically everywhere - overwhelming majority of airports are Class G to 1200 AGL, followed by a number of fields that are G to 700 feet.
 
pfarber said:
most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
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The provisions of 91.126 are incorporated into the regulation for each type of airspace in 91.126-91.131 in each subsequent regulation's first paragraph. So, 91.126 applies to airports with all types of airspace from G up to B unless the specific airspaces regulation supersedes a portion of it.
 
pfarber said:
most runways in public use are E or E to the ground. its unusual to find class G airports. yes they are out there but they are an uncommon exception and not a rule.

that said an entry in a A/FD is regulatory enough.
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Yeah, as others have pointed out this is incorrect.

Typically, if an untowered airport has an ILS or precision approach, it is Class E to the surface. If it has non-precision approaches, Class E steps down to 700 feet AGL, meaning the airport is Class G from the surface to 699 feet. If it has no approaches, Class E starts at 1200 feet AGL.
 
Half Fast said:
What are the qualifications to be an airport manager, anyway? I doubt there are any official ones, but maybe there should be.

@RyanB , care to engage?
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There are, and depending on the size of the airport, the company carrying the insurance for the airport may require those certifications.
 
BillTIZ said:
There are, and depending on the size of the airport, the company carrying the insurance for the airport may require those certifications.
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Sadly there aren't.

The larger the airport, the higher the education and experience is expected, as is the pay. Director of a major Class B airport will likely have a Masters or higher degree and many certifications.

Small single strip in a town of 5,000, it might just be the city manager or Mayor that gets designated as the legal Airport Manager. I know one town near here, the legal Airport Manager is the city's Traffic Engineer. They just need someone appointed to be able to sign grants and other documents.
 
LOL Our airport has had about 8 managers in the last 5 years. I'd say maybe one of them was qualified. One or two of them weren't qualified to manage the restroom in the FBO.
 
I applied to be a manager of a small town airport once. One requirement was to be able to drive the tractor to cut the grass...
 
Zeldman said:
I applied to be a manager of a small town airport once. One requirement was to be able to drive the tractor to cut the grass...
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Seems pretty much anything goes at small privately owned airports. One airport I frequented, the manager was one of the local pilots based there, he was otherwise retired so took the part time manager job, basically just cutting the grass, collecting hangar rent, and keeping the ultralight pilots (including me!) from getting too crazy. Another one, I'm told it was an unpaid position but the manager lived rent free in a house on the airport property. Now I'm at the airport owned by Whelen, the manager used to be their corporate pilot but they fired him, now it's just one of their employees who presumably has other duties as well.
 
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