Looks like your town fathers are as stupid as Obama.
From:Subject: RE: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: North Bend Regional Airport (OTH) i...
Fellows,
ON the subject of landing fees (and other bad decisions by city fathers).
At my local airport, (strom field) there is (currently) no landing nor tiedown fee.
Each year the local town has a 'big' Loggers Jubilee festival during the second
weekend in August.
A few years back a bi-plane guy wanted to supply touring around Mt St Helens and
Mt Rainier, rides to the tourists during the Loggers Jubilee, for a very nominal
fee (for gas and oil).
He was driven out by the 'town fathers' who told the pilot there would be a 'per
person' landing fee ($25 I think) for each and every landing.
The result is the pilot powered up and left, with narry a passenger to show for
the whole weekend. ( This would have been great for the local community and
introduced many to the fun of flying a small plane.)
The pilot has not been back.
That short sightedness is typical of the 'town fathers'.
Not only for quickly destroying the Loggers Jubilee but also destroying the airport.
The town does receive a major amount ofU.S./FAA money every year for airport
maintenance.
Still it is a hassle just to get the town to mow the grass and replace runway
lights when they burn out.
Sweeping the runways and taxiways on a regular basis is beyond their ability as
is fixing the drainage so the infield is not flooded most of the year.
It took nearly two years to get the radio receiver that controls the runway
lights replaced, when it had quit working.
The other local airports have had their runway alignment updated by some 10
degrees in the last decade. The town refuses to re-paint the runway numbers
because it will cost a few bucks.
(They did re-paint the hold short and center lines about a decade ago and put a
coating of prima-teen over the gravel runway and taxiways back in the '80s.
A few years ago, they put double garage doors on two of the open 'T' hangers.
They seem to think that is plenty of maintenance.)
the runway used to be ~4000' long. The wisdom of the town fathers (and clout of
the lone resident on a side road) resulted in the runway being cut down to 1800'
and the side road extended across where the runway used to be, just so the one
lone resident could have a more direct route into town.
One of the results of the lack of proper surface maintenance is nearly every
flight results in one or more new chips taken out of the our prop blades.
The town tries to charge landing and tiedown fees. However, they are unwilling
to designate a person to collect such fees. I'm sure such fees, if vigorously
collected, would eliminate the aircraft traffic at the airport.
Just to help things along, a few years ago, we had a mayor that wanted to
'upgrade' the town. One of his projects was an excellent sign near the airport
entrance that could be easily read from the highway (large, white with black
lettering) The town fathers caused the mayor to be ousted, then replaced the
good sign with a two tone brown, unreadable sign.
There are already lots of empty businesses in town due to the high taxes.
Just this last year, one of the two grocery stores in town went out of business.
Even most of the taverns are out of business.
It does not help that some of the city fathers want to tear down the airport and
build a strip mall.
Note: The airport is quite a ways off the highway, so such a strip mall would be
a failure)
There are some local pilots that would like to keep their planes at the airport.
However, the town fathers refuse to allow any more hangers (currently 7) to be
built.
So, landing fees are not the only bad things that can happen to a local airport.
The town fathers are the biggest problem.
R. Williams
---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Lyle Cox" <mailto:LyleCox%40funaerosports.com>
To: <mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:53:36 -0600
Subject: RE: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: North Bend Regional Airport
(OTH) i...
> That's a good question..both pieces…..exempting the locals and how
> do they charge touch and goes. I've never paid a landing fee, so
> I'm quite unfamiliar with the whole thing.
>
> From: mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mailto:medicbill%40aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 8:50 PM To:
> mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo
> group Re: North Bend Regional Airport (OTH) i...
>
> A lot of airports are the ones who sell the fuel which probably
> explains the $25 credit if you buy fuel. Just their way of trying to
> make the fees more acceptable for GA aircraft. My bet is they probably
> exempt aircraft based at the airport. Curious how they handle aircraft
> who do touch and goes. Probably only charge if you park your AC there.
>
> In a message dated 6/26/2012 7:42:30 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> mailto:LyleCox%40funaerosports.com writes:
>
> So I don't understand…..if the airport is charging the
> fee…..what does buying fuel have to do with it?
>
> From: mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mailto:medicbill%40aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 8:39 PM To: Sport_Airc
> mailto:raft%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re:
> North Bend Regional Airport (OTH) i...
>
> If you pay the fees probably the airport. If you buy fuel depends on
> who sells the fuel at the airport. So if you buy fuel most of it goes
> to the fuel company as usual.
>
> In a message dated 6/26/2012 7:36:20 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> mailto:LyleCox%40funaerosports.com writes:
>
> So who does the 25 bucks go to? The FBO or the airport?
>
> From: Sport_Airc mailto:raft%40yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mailto:medicbill%40aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 6:39 PM To:
> mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo
> group Re: North Bend Regional Airport (OTH) i...
>
> I agree fees for GA need to be fought with everything you got. Looking
> at their website the fees are not that excessive and you get $25
> credit if you buy $25 of fuel..
>
> Bill
>
> In a message dated 6/26/2012 4:37:37 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> mailto:garyo%40bak.rr.com writes:< /o:p>
>
> I guess the last thing we need right now is an airport. I mean, just sayin...
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4GLTE Phone
>
> -----Original message-----
> From: Bob Comperini <mailto:bob%40fly-ul.com>
> To: mailto:Sport_Aircraft%40yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tue, Jun 26, 2012 22:51:13 GMT+00:00
> Subject: Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: North Bend Regional
> Airport (OTH) is now imposing landing/use fees - Boycott On 02:16 PM
> 6/26/2012, Michael Coates wrote:
> >Personally, I think y ou are being really shortsighted.
>
> Yeah, I know things like this are more commonplace in other parts of
> the world. So are ATC "user fees". But it's just not common here, and
> never has been, which is why there is more resistance to it. You just
> know they're going to continue to try forcing u ser fees down our
> throats until some day we all just give in.
>
> --
> Bob Comperini
> e-mail: mailto:bob%40fly-ul.com
> WWW: http://www.fly-ul.com/ <http://www.fly-ul.com/>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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------- End of Original Message -------
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