Who foots the bill?

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots, Web Exclusive | June 3, 2010

The aviation community is pretty well united behind the idea that airports have real value. Not all our neighbors are convinced, however. That doubt becomes especially pronounced when cash gets tight and somebody notices that airports are not free, and that municipally owned airports do not tend to generate huge sums of money that flows into the general fund.

So what is the value of an airport to the neighboring community? And who should foot the bill for running the place? These questions come up from time to time. At the moment, they are coming up and making news in Kelso, Washington, where at least one city councilman has decided that the airport may be of greater benefit to the residents as raw land than in its present form.

There is no doubt that a well-run, professionally managed airport can bring jobs, commercial investment, leisure services, and tourism to the area it serves. That’s to say nothing of the emergency access point it represents in times of real need. However, irrespective of that reality, the underlying issues that affect the airport’s success tend to involve management, funding, and creativity.

What benefit does the airport offer, and who is going to pay the bills to keep the lights on? As Kelso struggles with these questions, it behooves the rest of us to keep tabs on the situation. Because these questions, and these issues may very well pop up in our own back yards one day. Having experience with the discussion and an understanding of the concerns of the non-flying community can give us an edge when the battle comes to our home turf.

Read more about Kelso’s airport issues here.

Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. You can reach him at Jamie@GeneralAviationNews.com.

Keeping the peace

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | May 27, 2010

John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California, is not your typical airport. At least it’s not the typical airport I come in contact with. Bracketed on both ends of two parallel runway by highways, and surrounded by densely packed commercial and residential neighbors, noise is the enemy of airport operations. As it must be. Because to lose control of the noise situation would unleash the power of the public who have every reason to expect a peaceful night’s sleep – even if they did move into a home that is within sight of a ramp area frequented by executive jets and a wide assortment of GA machinery.

So serious is John Wayne Airport’s battle against jangled nerves brought on by noisy aircraft, SNA has instituted and maintains some of the strictest noise rules in the United States. But don’t take my word for it — the airport management proudly proclaims their anti-noise position on their website.

Take a peek at the General Aviation Noise Ordinance being implemented at John Wayne Airport, here.

So serious is their stance on this issue, John Wayne Airport maintains 10 permanent noise monitoring stations on the field. You only need to exceed the noise levels at one of those 10 reporting stations to run afoul of the decibel detail. And this is no toothless, feel-good policy, my friends. Violate the noise restrictions at SNA three times within three years and you will be denied use of the airport for the next three years! Continue Reading »

Learning the ropes from a seasoned pro

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | May 19, 2010

In 2001 a fellow by the name of Sam Hoerter published the second edition of “The Airport Management Primer.” This document is chock full of interesting observations and unique insights. It is an absolute goldmine of information that is pertinent to the management and operation of airports large and small. For an intellectual assault on a technical subject, it is a remarkably easy read that borders on being truly entertaining.

Clocking in at 84 pages, the remarkably conversational tone of this publication belies its real value in the marketplace. The Airport Management Primer is a “must read” for anyone who feels they are even casually drawn to the idea of managing, marketing, or operating an airport.

Hoerter knows of what he writes. The retired director of the Charleston County Aviation Authority spent two decades overseeing the management and operation of Charleston County’s three airports, which showed a marked improvement over the period of time he was at the top of that particular pyramid.

You can find a copy of Hoerter’s publication, free of charge, on the Internet. The book is available as a PDF, which downloads quickly due to its lack of complex graphics. This is a book filled with words, ideas, explanations, and rock-solid information. There are no pretty pictures hidden inside this beautifully written compendium of airport management.

Grab your own copy at: http://www.secaaae.org/PRIMER.pdf

You’ll be glad you did.

Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. You can reach him at Jamie@GeneralAviationNews.com.

A million dollars here, a million dollars there…

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | May 18, 2010

The issue of airport funding is always entertaining. Not because it’s of no great importance to the aviation community, but for exactly the opposite reason. It isn’t important to those who dole out the dollars. And that’s almost entertaining enough to make a responsible citizen cry. Ironic, isn’t it?

ABC News produced a report for television that sheds light on this exact oddity of discretionary spending. It focuses on the Johnstown Cambria County Airport in western Pennsylvania. The video is approximately two and a half minutes long, certainly not long enough to tell all sides of what is clearly a very complex story of a community that would otherwise be almost completely cut off from the rest of the world, and an airport that needs massive subsidies to be a viable entity in aviation.

As you watch this video, I wonder if you, like me, took note of the fact that this airport is located only three miles from a town with a population of approximately 25,000 people, yet it is funded as it if is located in the heart of a bustling megalopolis. Pittsburgh is a mind-numbing 70 miles away. Clearly the commute would be impractical for any reasonable traveler – or would it? Continue Reading »

In celebration of lunch at the airport

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | May 13, 2010

To be honest, I am not particularly fond of participating in business lunches. My method is to either work, or eat, but not to do both simultaneously. But even I can violate a personal rule now and then. So I convinced myself that the no-working-lunch thing was more of a guideline than a rule, and I plunged ahead with reckless abandon. I ordered a club sandwich, with turkey and bacon. My lunch partners went with a pressed Cuban and some kind of salad that was so wildly exotic that it held more fresh vegetation than the produce section of my local supermarket.

What ever happened to the board room, or the back room, or at least a dingy office with a file cabinet, a squeaky chair, a lopsided desk, and a surly receptionist tucked into the foyer? Oh well, I guess you meet wherever you can meet. And why not? The time and place isn’t what the meeting is about – it’s the ideas that pass through the space between the participants that really matters. And at least in this latest case, the result was positive for all concerned.

It’s hard to believe that a real change can occur because of the power of a good sandwich and a casual conversation — but that’s exactly what can happen if you apply yourself. The airport restaurant is my favorite place to meet and chat — although I will readily admit that I generally limit myself to a large coffee, since it’s mega-dose of caffeine lends a certain intensity to my already enthusiastic embrace of the airport as the center of my existence. Besides, nobody needs to hear my list of reasons why my home airport is the best place in the world to relocate to, while I have a mouthful of egg salad. That would be impolite, borderline disgusting, and undeniably counterproductive. A man needs to know his limits.

Lunch is not a limitation, as it turns out. Neither is breakfast, a mid-day snack, or an early dinner. If you have the chance to sit across a table from a potentially interested airport user or tenant, let me heartily endorse the airport restaurant as a great place to have that conversation. Whether your airport boasts a high-end gourmet restaurant, or a vending machine nestled between a Mr. Coffee dispenser and a roll-away tool box — nothing sells the idea of your airport’s charms like an hour or two on the field, in person. Marketing is marketing. There’s nobody better for the job than you, trust me.

As an added bonus, and a truly lasting conversation starter,  you never know who you might meet, or who might brush past you in the FBO. Even here in little ‘ol Winter Haven we have had the likes of John Travolta, Elizabeth Taylor, and Harrison Ford saunter past the counter on their way from the ramp to the parking lot. Who knows what regal personalities might grace your field one day — or how much of a hand you might have in making that event come to pass?

And to think, it might all start with something as simple as a cup of coffee, a bite to eat, and a casual chat.

Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. You can reach him at Jamie@GeneralAviationNews.com.

Airport management: A search and deploy mission

Jamie Beckett | General Aviation News, Politics for Pilots, Web Exclusive | May 3, 2010

Unexpectedly, and without any warning, the airport manager quits. It happens. Not often perhaps, but it happens nonetheless. More commonly the airport manager moves on to another position, or retires. It makes little difference in the operational sense. Change is a constant in business. Whomever fills the slot at the moment will be replaced at some point in the future.

This entirely foreseeable changing of the guard can come as a shock to the system, or as an opportunity to tune up the airport’s management structure. How you or your community take the issue on is as subjective as any other municipal decision that has to be made.

What is less common, and very probably more reasonable, is to get creative when a major change has to happen. If airport management has to change anyway, why not consider a complete rework of the structure as well as the personnel? Continue Reading »

First: Ask the right question

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | April 26, 2010

When I was a relatively young instructor I had the good fortune to call a small uncontrolled airport in central Connecticut my home base. Meriden Markham may not make the annals of aviation as a hotbed of technical achievement, innovative design, or the home of a manufacturing marvel, but I learned more about teaching, and business management, and the importance of successfully marketing a service during my time flying for Meriden Aviation than I have at any other flying job.

Part of that education was happenstance. It was nothing more complicated than good luck that brought me to work for a chief pilot named Frank Gallagher. It was Frank who taught me the valuable lesson that a well-planned cooperative effort can have far more powerful results than a Herculean individual attempt. I’m not entirely sure that was his intent, but that was the lesson I took away from my time in Meriden. Working together to achieve a clearly understandable common goal works. It’s just that simple.

As unusual as it may seem, my first assignment as an instructor at Meriden involved a file cabinet and a phone. There was no airplane involved. Frank simply pointed me, and another new-hire instructor, to a file cabinet full of student records and assigned us to select the students who had stopped flying, but had not earned their ratings or certificates. With that pile of files on our desks, we started making phone calls. Continue Reading »

Presenting a whole new perspective

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | April 19, 2010

While dodging raindrops and chatting amiably on Sun ‘n Fun Radio with the three highly animated hosts of the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast, the question came up: “What interested you most during Sun ‘n Fun this year?”

To be honest, those may not have been the actual words spoken. The fact that a river of air-cooled liquid was running down my back at the time may have distracted me from taking accurate notes. But that is a pretty fair representation of the question. Dave, Jeb, and Jack looked my way expectantly, microphones at the ready. The rain continued.

My answer would have been the same even if I was drowning. To paraphrase my response, this may have been my most satisfying Sun ‘n Fun ever, because I had the opportunity to escort an actual power-broker (Winter Haven’s City Manager) to both the Splash-In on Lake Agnes, and through nearly every square foot of Sun ‘n Fun proper on the following day. That is an opportunity I have never had before. What a break! I got to escort a public official through two major aviation gathering sites, on two successive days, and introduce him to the diversity of general aviation in an up close and personal way. And that’s important considering that this is one of a handful of people who is responsible for the management of the airport in the city I live in.

Consider these shocking revelations that we discovered.

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Discovering common ground

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots, Web Exclusive | April 15, 2010

Airshow season has begun. At least it has in Florida, where the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In and Expo is in full bloom. The skies are blue, the winds are brisk, and the rain is at least a time zone away. All in all, the conditions are perfect for the central focus of this auspicious annual event – hangar flying.

I know, you thought Sun ‘n Fun was about airplanes, helicopters, homebuilts, warbirds, whiz-bang avionics or some other nonsense. Nope. It’s almost entirely about aviation enthusiasts getting together with other aviation enthusiasts, to talk about everybody’s favorite subject – aviation and how we deal with it!

On opening day I spent an absolutely stellar afternoon talking to pilots from Kentucky, New Hampshire, Florida, Arizona, Virginia, England, and who knows where else. They all had questions, and they all had stories. And yes, each and every conversation I was drawn into was entertaining, enlightening, and entirely worthwhile. Hopefully, the other participants came away with the same sense of connection that I felt. Based on the fist-full of business cards and hastily scribbled notes I collected, it would seem the benefit was mutual. Continue Reading »

You’ve talked the talk, now walk the walk!

Jamie Beckett | Politics for Pilots | April 12, 2010

As I write this blog post it is Monday afternoon, April 12. In a few hours I will sit at the dais at City Hall, flanked by four fellow city commissioners, all committed to doing the business of the people. But tonight will be different. Tonight will have an undeniably pro-aviation angle to it, something that has not happened in my home town for many, many years. A sitting commissioner will sing the praises of general aviation, and he’ll do it on the record.

Like me, you know that a massive gathering of aviation’s faithful are coming together, even now, at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL) in central Florida. Sun ‘n Fun officially opens its doors Tuesday, an annual event that is celebrated by untold hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts from all over the globe. Some, like me, will be there in person. Others celebrate from afar, tied down by work, or family, or a stalled cold front that they can’t get over or around.

Like the Cubbies, we all hope for better luck next year.

Continue Reading »