The Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa.,

John Baker

John Baker

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John Baker
I stole this from a military forum I'm a member of. I don't go there much, but this caught my eye. Do any of you know anything about this? Most of the members on this forum are non pilots. It's mostly paratroopers and ex-paratroopers.

-John

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Empty Airport still gets Taxpayer's money
The Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., is a prime example of taxpayer spending that refuses to die. Representative John Murtha steered some 150 million of taxpayer dollars to this eponymous airport over the last decade and despite the fact he died more than a year ago, the money keeps on coming. Three years ago, we first visited the tiny airport, and found a monument to pork barrel spending: An airport with a $7 million air traffic control tower, $14 million hanger, and $18 million runway big enough to land any airplane in North America. For most of the day, the only thing this airport doesn't have is airplanes. But the taxpayer subsidies that made his airport possible continue to flow. Since our visit, the Murtha airport has received from the federal government $559,476 in stimulus funds to rehab a back-up runway, $82,551 for air guidance signs, $226,638 to improve the taxiway, $19,412 wildlife hazard assessments, $95,950 and $62,325 to install weather reporting.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-pl...100702844.html
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I learned to fly at Altoona which is about 23nm from that airport. The article doesn't surprise me but i dont know anything about it. Never actually landed there.
 
Pure pork barrel politics.
 
According to WIKI ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murtha_Johnstown-Cambria_County_Airport


The John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania is mostly used for general aviation, but is also served by one commercial airline. Service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service. The airport is named after the late Congressman John Murtha.
The John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County (JMJCC) Airport is home to several military units. The airport houses the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 1-104th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (Company's HHC,A,C,D, and E) and Det 1, 1-169th Aviation (Med-Evac). It also houses the 258th Air Traffic Control Squadron of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, the Marine Wing Support Squadron 471 (MWSS-471), Detachment A, and the Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775 (HMLA-775), Detachment A.[2] These military units use helicopters, rather than fixed-wing planes.
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Before I got out of the Guard, I was looking to become a Flight Medic and I believe this was one of the options for an aviation unit with flight medics.


Also found this And found this http://www.flyjohnstownairport.com/


The article makes it sound as if it is completely abandoned....
 
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Indeed it is. It reminds me of the Senator that died and they continued his retirement pay to his survivors. Seeing this thread remind me of a website that tells the history of little-known and/or abandoned airports. There is some real history out there going away while something like this happens.
 
According to AirNav, that place has an Air National Guard base, 153 operations per day (54% GA, 35% Military), and has its own TRACON.

I have no local knowledge, but this airport doesn't seem "empty" to me.
 
bluesky74656 said:
According to AirNav, that place has an Air National Guard base, 153 operations per day (54% GA, 35% Military), and has its own TRACON.

I have no local knowledge, but this airport doesn't seem "empty" to me.
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I guess some " yahoo" wrote the article
 
When I was there it was a class D airport. I remember them saying it was busy enough they might make it class C. Not sure if it happend or not but I don't think its as empty as that article sounds
 
I've flown there plenty. It's as busy as any other Class D in Western PA, WV, and most of OH (that is to say, not very).

The article is the typical follow-on after an earlier "news" story: Lazy, uncreative, stale....

Murtha was trying to make Johnstown Northern VA (West). Can you blame him?

:dunno:
 
bluesky74656 said:
According to AirNav, that place has an Air National Guard base, 153 operations per day (54% GA, 35% Military), and has its own TRACON.

I have no local knowledge, but this airport doesn't seem "empty" to me.
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Not its own TRACON, it has its own RAPCON. Approach control services are provided by the 258th Air traffic Control Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
 
dmccormack said:
I've flown there plenty. It's as busy as any other Class D in Western PA, WV, and most of OH (that is to say, not very).
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Dan is right...I fly out of LBE and the local Class D's (HLG, CKB, MGW, LBE and JST) are all about the same busy wise with the exception of AGC.

I've only been into JST a couple of times for x-wind practice, and both times we were the only plane in the area.
 
roncachamp said:
Not its own TRACON, it has its own RAPCON. Approach control services are provided by the 258th Air traffic Control Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
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What's the difference? A quick Google search tells me that the former is FAA and the latter military. Are there other differences?
 
chucky said:
What's the difference? A quick Google search tells me that the former is FAA and the latter military. Are there other differences?
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Probably just one significant difference, the military unit is subject to overseas deployment. Keeping current on ATC procedures by providing services in an area that may not actually need an approach control facility is not really pork, IMHO.
 
chucky said:
What's the difference? A quick Google search tells me that the former is FAA and the latter military. Are there other differences?
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The difference is that at a RAPCON, transmissions that contain a request by ATC usually end with 'Sir'.
 
dmccormack said:
I've flown there plenty. It's as busy as any other Class D in Western PA, WV, and most of OH (that is to say, not very).

The article is the typical follow-on after an earlier "news" story: Lazy, uncreative, stale....

Murtha was trying to make Johnstown Northern VA (West). Can you blame him?

:dunno:
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It most certainly is not abandoned! The EAS service they have is going to change hands very soon, but I've flown that service on two different fleet types and know the airport all too well. The Guard has a huge presence there, and while it's certainly no VNY, GA does seem to be alive and well there. It is a huge runway (not very well graded, though) and a very nice tower, but it never struck me as being anything unusual for an airport its size.

weilke said:
The difference is that at a RAPCON, transmissions that contain a request by ATC usually end with 'Sir'.
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That, and you're told with every landing clearance to "check wheels down." Otherwise, no real difference.
 
weilke said:
He was doing it with my money, that is about the only complaint I can make.
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Sure, but if that money is going to be spent anyway, Murtha believed it should be in his district.

Given how many high-end beemers, benzi, et al I've seen zipping around NoVA, MD, and DC, I can't say I disagree completely, though it burns to the core of my antediluvian conservative soul.
 
roncachamp said:
Probably just one significant difference, the military unit is subject to overseas deployment. Keeping current on ATC procedures by providing services in an area that may not actually need an approach control facility is not really pork, IMHO.
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The ANG didn't want it--the controllers and maintainers needed training and practice using the AN/TPN-14 Mobile RAPCON, not STARS and an ASR-11.
 
kkoran said:
The ANG didn't want it--the controllers and maintainers needed training and practice using the AN/TPN-14 Mobile RAPCON, not STARS and an ASR-11.
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The equipment used by the controllers has little effect on ATC procedures or how aircraft respond to ATC instructions.
 
roncachamp said:
The equipment used by the controllers has little effect on ATC procedures or how aircraft respond to ATC instructions.
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Agreed--little impact on ATC procedures. The issue is experience working on the equipment for maintainers and the different human-machine interface for controllers.
 
roncachamp said:
The equipment used by the controllers has little effect on ATC procedures or how aircraft respond to ATC instructions.
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Agreed--little impact on ATC procedures and none that I can think of regarding how aircraft respond. The issue is experience working on the equipment for maintainers and the vastly different human-machine interface for controllers.
 
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