When is a private airstrip needed?

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rookie1255

Pre-takeoff checklist
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rookie1255
I live on 100 acres and want a private airstrip. The neighbors threw a fit and the town board said no even though the FAA said they had no problem with it. My question is, is an actual private airstrip even required? I'm sure plenty of people just take off and land on their own property. It would just be for my use. I know as soon as I start flying from it the neighbors would rat me out though, so I would like to know if anyone knows of pertinent laws governing taking off and landing on private property. I doubt this would be regulated at the town level, so my hope is that even though the town can say no to an official airstrip, they couldn't do anything about me using my own land for private aviation purposes.

Would this/could this be regulated at the town, county, or state level, and where would I find such laws?
 
Well it matters where you live. If you live in a county, and aren't in the city, its going to be county that has jurisdiction. Call the county land use department. Where do you live?
 
Sounds like a zoning issue.

The FAA could care less. It's your neighbors you really need to worry about. There's more of them than there are of you. If you can get your neighbors to agree, then you might be able to swing the local government to change/allow the zoning.
 
Jefferson county NY. The zoning allows for the use, but I needed a variance for how close the airstrip was to the setbacks. Complaining neighbors got the variance denied. An appeal would have to go to the supreme court. So now I'm thinking the easiest way, and maybe the question I should have asked in the first place is do I even need a "legal" airstrip for my use. I would gladly just do it, but like I said, the neighbors would rat me out. I want to figure out who the governing authority would be and what means they have to enforce action against me if I wanted to just take off and land in my backyard.
 
Some form of nuisance law would probably be the most likely form of enforcement.
 
Kind of too late to ask that question now, but an airstrip is a local land-use issue, not an FAA issue. You probably should have talked to your neighbors before hand and gauged any opposition, made your case one on one with them, etc. whether you can take off or land on your property is a local zoning issue. Its possible you could be fined for violating a zoning issue now that your variance for an airstrip was denied.
 
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I guess I need to look deeper into the whole violating a zoning issue. Since the land is zoned agricultural, an airstrip is technically allowed. I don't even really need an "airstrip" on the books per se, there's enough land that can be turned into suitable take off and landing area. Guess it's time to break out the pocket book and find an attorney...
 
With that many acres, you can't site it differently? What's the setback requirement?


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gsengle said:
With that many acres, you can't site it differently? What's the setback requirement?


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Yep, or shorten it to fit within the setbacks and then have a cleared "runway safety area" overrun that is not part of the airstrip?

I agree with the OP that it might be time to consult with an attorney from this point...
 
The 100 acres is in a rectangular shape with power lines running diagonally through it. The runway has to run parallel the power lines to get the best out of the prevailing winds and also for safety. The airstrip ends up running down the short side of the rectangle at an angle. Here's the kicker, the airstrip originally didn't need a variance. In order to mortgage the house to be able to build a hangar the bank required me to subdivide and have the house on its own 5 acre parcel. The result was 2 separate lots. The change resulted in the airstrip being too close to the lot line, even though the lot next to it is still mine. So while the neighbors couldn't stop me before, the variance necessity was my own doing. If I ever paid off the loan, I could consolidate the lots and have my airstrip. I could also make the airstrip unrealistically short and meet the current setback requirements. On paper the airstrip would only be a few hundred feet, but if I use the entire boundaries that I'm "not allowed" to use it would be closer to 1500 feet.

It seems silly that getting funds for a hangar is costing me the airstrip. There's gotta be a way to have it all.
 
Or put up a very visible sign on your property that states.... Future Site Of Acme Firecracker Manufacturing and Testing.
 
What if your airstrip was only a couple hundred feet long (or whatever keeps it within the setbacks of your first lot) but it was connected to a 1500 ft taxiway that spanned both lots? And that taxiway just happened to be the same width and was aligned with the airstrip?
 
Exactly, what's the required max gross no wind landing distance. Do you have enough room for that and call the rest overrun?


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Yup, that's the possible game we might be playing. Feels a little dishonest, but these days I seem to have less and less respect for rules. Aircraft would be a Cessna 172 now and an RV-10 one day-ish.
 
How long can the runway be if you respect setbacks?


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Don't know. I just sent an email to the engineer I've been working with. Maybe a few hundred feet, maybe not even. I'm not sure exactly how the new subdivision affected the setback, in what way, and how much.
 
What about a nice long runway aligned with your rectangular lot, and a cross-wind runway for emergencies?
 
Wonder how much it would cost to have the power company bury the lines?
 
The FAA can't tell you NO. All they do is take the notice of construction and decide if they think it's a good idea or not. However, that decision is not binding.

As you've found the local land use people are far more difficult to deal with. Call it an airport or not, they can make things difficult for you if you take off and land airplanes there.
 
rookie1255 said:
Yup, that's the possible game we might be playing. Feels a little dishonest, but these days I seem to have less and less respect for rules. Aircraft would be a Cessna 172 now and an RV-10 one day-ish.
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1500' of short dry grass would be my bare minimum at 2700 lbs gw. Getting out is no problem. That short wing is great at altitude, but not so much on landing with 54 kt stall.
 
When I went through this with my strip (water) I just verified that there were no laws against it.

I checked with, and recorded, the conversations with the local cop shops, did my due diligence on the surface and performance numbers, documented it all, and then I just used that area for operations.

I wouldn't ask for permission, I wouldn't ask for anyone's blessing or badge or certificate, simply put unless it says it's illegal, it's legal.


As Nike says, just do it.
 
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I believe the owner of the house (you) can authorize an exemption to the variance without the neighbors approval. It does have to be recorded with the deed though.
The local crop duster uses his driveway to take off and land. He put out signs on the road in front of his house warning of low flying planes.
As a last resort you may want to find a bank that will refinance you and restore the property as a whole.
 
It's going to depend on your local (town or county) zoning regulations. The FAA doesn't care where you take off or land for the most part; it doesn't have to be an "airport". Some states (NY is not one of them) prohibit aircraft operations from anything other than a state licensed airport. More states have regulations on how often you can fly from a field before it has to be licensed as an "airport".

My brother in law (also in NY, a bit south of you) had issues with his private strip, also on land zoned agricultural, which permits aircraft operations. In his case one of the neighbors got the town to retroactively change the zoning to prohibit his airstrip (a blatantly illegal action); my BIL took the town to court and got the ruling reversed.
 
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If the utility company would bury the power lines, I could have 2000ft airstrip, not need a variance, and it'd be perfect with prevailing winds. Pretty sure it's not going to happen though. I don't care if we call it an airport or not, but I do think the neighbors would cause a ruckus if I started taking off and landing. To appeal the variance denial it has to go to the supreme court, that doesn't sound like a quick process and there's no guarantee of a positive result, so at this point I'm just weighing my options. It's sad that NY is a more restrictive state requiring an "airport." I've consulted an attorney, guess I'll see how it plays out.
 
It might be worth contacting AOPA Legal Services to see if they at least have a recommended attorney in NY who is familiar with such claims.
 
It depends on zoning (public nuisance) and on other nuisance (private nuisance and public nuisance other than zoning) laws, which may be unwritten in the sense that case law in your jurisdiction leaves open the possibility of a nuisance lawsuit for landing a plane at your place. Airstrip or not, if your airplane use of your land prevents your neighbors from enjoying their property, you can get sued for it. Talk to a lawyer in your area and get some ideas of how to minimize the chance of a successful nuisance case, public or private, being brought against you.

And talk to your neighbors. Make peace with them if you can. And if you can't make peace, make sure it's because they are not being as reasonable as you are, not vice versa. You'll either win their hearts and minds over to your cause or you'll set things up for better chances of success when you do end up in a fight with them.
 
Dana said:
It's going to depend on your local (town or county) zoning regulations. The FAA doesn't care where you take off or land for the most part; it doesn't have to be an "airport". Some states (NY is one one of them) prohibit aircraft operations from anything other than a state licensed airport. More states have regulations on how often you can fly from a field before it has to be licensed as an "airport".

My brother in law (also in NY, a bit south of you) had issues with his private strip, also on land zoned agricultural, which permits aircraft operations. In his case one of the neighbors got the town to retroactively change the zoning to prohibit his airstrip (a blatantly illegal action); my BIL took the town to court and got the ruling reversed.
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Lots of backcountry and seaplanes guys haven't had any trouble with off "airport" ops.
 
NEVER ask permission. It was ALWAYS be no, you can't use you're property as you like. If someone comes along and says you can't do that, ask them why not and what law says you can't.
 
I was at a conference where a Google exec said the following:
"Bureaucracy is about conformance, conformance is about enforcement, and enforcement is about punishment."
The more bureaucracy you have the move punishment you'll get.
 
Sounds to me like the utility lines are the fly in the ointment...

What sort of easement is with the utility lines.. "right of land" or contractual... They are usually right of land and from what I understand about utility easements they almost always exist along streets, along rear lot lines, sometimes exist between two lots, but not intersecting or directly through a property. You may have an issue there that should be dealt with..

That said, growing up we had a situation where Leonard Tose (owned the Philadelphia Eagles) use to land his helicopter on his estate that was next to our development... Bell Jet Ranger... people made a big stink about it but he just kept doing it. This was suburban Philadelphia... but then again, I wonder how many Radnor Township supervisors got season tickets...
 
Ventucky Red said:
What sort of easement is with the utility lines.. "right of land" or contractual... They are usually right of land and from what I understand about utility easements they almost always exist along streets, along rear lot lines, sometimes exist between two lots, but not intersecting or directly through a property. You may have an issue there that should be dealt with...
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That. We were putting up a fence a few years ago and I was trying really hard to make sure the horrible drawings I had and a very difficult marker placement were going to put the fence inside the easement for the utility company. Then I talked to one of their engineers who gave the real reason for the easement...

"Just make sure there's enough room to maneuver and drive a bucket truck or a pole truck all the way to the pole. If you had towers and high tension lines I'd say leave enough room to lay down a tower. That's all we care about. We report easement violations when a crew can't work. Otherwise we don't care."

And here I'm out there with a GPS and a micrometer... LOL.

They just want access. Start involving a bureaucrat who isn't even clued up on what the stupid easement is for, they'll make it as complex as possible.
 
Should have never asked. Should have just done it. Forgiveness is easier to get than permission.
How high are these power lines? and would they cross mid-field if you were to make the runway go lengthways to your property?
 
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