In the early 1980s, while playing in a band called The Broken Hearts (our one and only album remains available to this day, amazingly enough), I wrote a song that contained the following stanza.
There’s a fence around you, I can’t get over it’s so high
There’s a fence around you, I can’t get round it it’s so wide
The fence was of course metaphorical, erected by a young woman who was not as agreeable to exploring a deeper relationship. No complaints. She was a private individual who owed me and the wider world nothing in particular. She had every right to take a position that was steadfast, even if it was somewhat hostile.
Little did I know back in those bohemian days of my carefree extended adolescence that fences would one day become the bane of my existence.
Aviation is my second career. Or maybe my third, depending on how you count my professional aspirations and efforts. Yet, aviation has always been a part of my life. Aircraft have always fascinated me in a way that is difficult to articulate, but it is an undeniable visceral reaction that seems to be common among pilots and aviation enthusiasts the world over.
Part of the appeal is the wide-open spaces to be found at the airport.
Throughout my youth and even into the first decade and a half of my career as a pilot, the only physical barrier to aviation was the Earth itself. My view from the ramp was unrestricted to the left and right, as well as upward. The pavement below my feet was the only impediment to my freedom of movement. Up was possible. Down was not.
That was before the fence debacle. Being federal in nature, the policy of erecting steel structures around the entire perimeter of even small general aviation airports was quickly adopted by local governing bodies. Signs warning of grave consequences for entry onto the airport grounds were evident from every vantage point. Gates were closed off, homes and businesses with nearby hangars were locked away or locked out to limit public access. The average Joe or Jane not only felt as if they were barred from entry, they literally were.
Like so many broad stroke plans, the intent was understandable, yet the application of the edict has had minimal effect on the problem it was intended to correct. Unwelcome visitors still wander onto airport property to do damage, steal tools and avionics, and generally misbehave. This activity is rare, but that has more to do with the average person being generally decent than it does with the impenetrability of the blockade.
Truthfully, anyone with access to a hardware or home improvement store will find a wide array of inexpensive, easy to operate tools that have the capacity to best the fence. I often get a kick out of the coyotes that roam the infield at airports here in the south. I’m fairly certain they don’t know the gate codes, but they seem to get in and out of the facility easily enough. Perhaps they trained at the Wile E. Coyote Institute of Creative Entry.
When I was a CFI at Meriden Markham Airport (KMMK) in central Connecticut, there was a picnic table and random seating on the grass just outside the FBO door. It was common for CFIs, aircraft owners, students, and even random lookie-loos to enjoy the sunshine of a summer morning, watching aircraft take off and land. It was a pleasant environment.
In Winter Haven, Florida, where I have made my home for many years, there is a row of benches on a shade porch that once served that same function. Today, those benches and the flight school are inside the fence. To reach the porch a visitor needs to know the gate code. A sign mounted to the fence lets folks know the gate code is the same as the CTAF.
I wonder how many pilots knew what the CTAF was when they first visited an airport to check out the cost and viability of learning to fly? That’s a rhetorical question, of course. We all know the answer.
The intent of the fences was to ensure public safety. An issue that was arguably rarely, if ever, a problem to begin with. Yet, those fences are having a detrimental impact on the cities and towns that own those facilities. Not to mention the implied message that the public is not welcome on the field or at the businesses housed there.
Keep in mind as you ponder this conundrum, thousands of these fenced facilities are owned and operated by those same local governments. They are supported by tax dollars supplied by the very people whose access has been restricted. Today, the message is clear that general aviation airports are high security areas to be avoided at all cost.
As ironic as it may be, at the exact moment in time when it has become apparent the American workforce is light on pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, and the wide variety of skilled individuals necessary to serve the public, we have committed ourselves to limiting access to airports and making aviation as difficult to access as possible.
Is it just me or do you see the problem too?
Would it not make more sense to use airports as the greenspaces they truly are? To allow the public to picnic and play there. To welcome families who choose to spend an afternoon in the sunshine. To cater to young boys and girls on bicycles who wish to lay in the grass and dream of a future where they have a place in aviation, too.
If security is the issue, there are better methods of achieving that goal. If encouraging a future workforce to get into a high tech, high income field of endeavor that will move all of humankind into a better, safer, more prosperous future is of interest to us, then those fences should go.
It’s time.
Jamie will be on SocialFlight Live March 16, 2021, at 8 p.m. Eastern. You can register to watch here.
Thank you Jamie for another well written article. I also want to say I support your opinion.
Until those who cry the sky is falling and we must create policy and law understand, that those who trouble the law abiding population are not turned away by laws, policy, fences or lines in the sand, the law abiding persons will continue to carry the majority of the burden. Delivered fitting consequence, to those hell bent to do harm for their own perceived benefit, is the only deterrent with potential success.
Freedom is not without consequence. We don’t thank our citizens in the Military enough, but that isn’t where I’m going with that thought. The rest of us citizens need to accept the consequence of Freedom and not expect our Military and Peace Officers to carry that alone. Especially now and not for the short term. Selfish bullying types, including politicians, will try to impose their will and inevitably do harm, they will prey on the few in hopes to intimidate the masses, that seems to be a horrible fact of life but one that can be reduced. Laws and regulation are not the answer, in my opinion, laws, regulations and policy should protect Freedoms not encumber them. If the net effect is that the mass citizenry is burdened, we are probably no taking the correct path. I would go as far as to say that approach is less a solution and more a cowardly act meant to grab power over the meek. Name calling and proliferating violence is much the same cowardly approach, it certainly can’t be considered heroic.
Jamie’s article is a call to take action. This is a small but great example of harm that is being done by handing down law and regulation in the name of serving the citizen. I don’t feel like it has served me in any positive way, has it improved your life, has it improved anyone’s existence? How and where do we go from here exactly?
Given that the jihadis are hell bent, and bound, to exploit any and every security hole, fences are understandable. Until this nation recognizes that the mohammedans are our mortal enemies we will suffer the loss of our freedoms.
The Mohammedans & the Democrats. Those are our mortal enemies. These are not safe times. Our Capital is still surrounded by fences with barbed wire at the top. Who are they afraid of?
Some of my fondest aviation memories were of the time I based my C-172 on a grass strip in Pensacola Florida. On weekends they offered glider rides to the public so people turned out in large numbers either to take a ride or simply enjoy spending time around airplanes. Regrettably, circumstances forced me to sell my airplane.
It was a similar situation earlier in my life when I was a part time instructor at an airport in Pascagoula Mississippi. We never knew who would show up on the weekends but we knew the the atmosphere would generally be festive. Cherished memories!
I suspect that is no longer the case at either of those airports and that Big Brother has imposed restrictions to entry to keep out the “riffraff”. Somehow 9/11 changed everything for thousands of airports and the locals’ access to them even though the events of that day were a one time and isolated occurrence. To me this invokes an all-too-true quote from Ronald Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help'”
Hi, Jamie.
Two things involved me in your well-written article. The first was the coincidence of having KMMK as the first stop on my long cross country in a 7DC Champ.
That was back in 1975, and I was seventeen at the time. The second was your absolutely spot on discussion and conclusion about the effect of fences on general aviation.
I think your article hit the target, square on. But unfortunately, we are living in an age, and in a badly damaged country, where the spirit of freedom and common sense is compromised by a federal government run amok.
I might add this. A full-half of our population is going to have to decide if they want to live free, as the independent, self-reliant and basically moral individuals that shaped this country, or as the ignorant property of a nanny state.
That, I think, is the fundamental issue.
Excellent comments, wish I had read yours before writing mine. Any other ideas that won’t need to digest for two years or more?
The best view in Athens, GA is not at Sanford Stadium. Walk through the FBO at AHN and have a seat on the bench to enjoy the best view Athens has to offer. If you are lucky, the airport gang will also be there and the conversation will rival the view!
Years I was talking with Bill Sweet. He relayed tale about spending night in hanger.
As I recall he was awakened by the sound of an airplane taxiing about 2 AM.
The next morning many parked airplanes were on their tail, engines removed with a cutting torch. Avionics were gone too.
Fences don’t keep flying pirates out.
I think this team was caught later. They had tent to cover anyF light as they cut and used a crane to load their loot.
Flying Pirates huh? They brought a crane in on their Pirate Ships? Sorry…not buying this AT ALL.
I agree Jack, but when I kept my Funk at Harvey Young Airport in Tulsa back in the ’80s, I had a beautiful new wooden prop stolen one evening. Harvey was a bit cantankerous and would remove or chain a prop if someone was behind on tie-down fees so I first thought it might have been him even though I was prepaid for several months. When I knocked on his door to ask why, I found out that I only lost a prop but a J-3 lost an entire engine, and some birds in a maintenance hanger lost radio stacks. The culprits pried open the sheet metal on the back of a hanger to gain access even though the airport wasn’t fenced. The folks that did the deed were knowledgeable about aircraft because they had removed my spinner, cut the safety wire, unbolted the prop, and put all the part inside the spinner under the aircraft. The engine cowling from the cub was also neatly left under it.
Sorry you were violated like that.
This however is another perfect example of not deterring the perpetrator of crime. Jim Macklins’ story is another, though perhaps leans more the fact that his friend is a really sound sleeper, must have been more noise than a taxiing aircraft, or was that cover for the operation too?
I have to admit, I feel that my hanger, airplane and such should be more secure due to the fence and the quarter mile of nothing between them. What doesn’t make me feel good or welcome is the addition of restrictions on myself and other owners without benefit or real cause other than making us feel like criminals. Could this be a form of discrimination? I fly, therefore…..I might be too independent.
Hi, Mark.
I came from an environment where no one needed to lock their houses. Kids could be gone all day, without fear from their parents. And women didn’t need to carry handguns.
Not until we had open borders, ruined our schools and made drug addicts of a nation did I see the first professional theft of this kind.
Early on, we would have solved the problem in the same way that a Maine lobsterman deals with someone stealing his family’s hard-earned livelihood.
The person who helped themselves to what didn’t belong to them was likely to regret their transgression, or not walk the earth, again.
Now, we are the kinder and more understanding fools who are living in fear and having their lives revoked. Our government calls that progress.
Good evening John,
One can assume we would agree on many things. I have heard of a John Carroll and Jim Carroll in my neck of the northern Midwest, could that be you?
I am fortunate on many levels. One is to live among people with generally good character and values. Sadly though, many express a submissive or defeatist attitude toward taking action, even to just making their opinion heard at all times, not just when asked. We have given power to the Politician by NOT conveying our contrary position, letting them know we don’t see this as progress. Silence is assumed as agreement. This shouldn’t be seen as limited to only those who represent our particular district either. We need to take back the “Government by the People” and not sit by waiting for the next official chance to vote.
Not yet, Mark. Though I have seriously considered such a move. I actively oppose the evil that I see happening.
People have to remember that the election was both digitally and mechanically stolen. Just because things appear to be marching toward communism doesn’t mean that the mass of people support that bitter migration.
Even many democrats must resent the burning of American cities by groups like BLM that are opposed to freedom. Those same voters must sense that the national media have become propagandists and that there is nothing healthy about getting your way, at the expense of the nation.
I’ve tried three times to respond, but none of those entries has been recorded.
Mark,
No, I am not that person, but I have tried four times now to respond to your latest comment, with no success.
I was talking with Bill Sweet. He relayed tale about spending night in hanger….That’s quite a “tale”. Sounds like an NBC Movie of the Week. Not like anything based in fact.
Ah to live in the perfect world where the “me generation” doesn’t trespass to race cars up and down taxiways or runways – just because they want to and can – and the courts support their position because no one put up any impediments to their access…
I’m in the generation – like Jamie – where access was pretty much unrestricted and you could even sit just off the end of the runway at KTUL to watch the commercial airliners and local Air National Guard squadron depart in their growling / screaming giants of steel and aluminum. But life in general isn’t like that any more and we’ve seen that the old adage of “locks only keep honest or lazy folks out” is more true than ever.
But, like Jamie, I too wish we still had Red, Blue, Green, and Purple fuel at the pumps and civil courtesies were still common, and airports didn’t need fences. Just another disappointment we have to live with until people change…
Hey Jamie, If the band decides on a reunion tour there is a nice grass strip in northern MI that would love to host. Oh yea we don’t have a fence either.
To quote a few good men. “You want answers, I give you answers”.
We are too soft to punish the the offenders. The crimes go unpunished in this county. Little kids run the schools and the family. Then they grow up to be teenagers still getting their way, spoiled and demanding. No self discipline. Then they get into their early twenties still living at home, I can’t imagine it for me. Some go to college, spend their money on things other than education and now demand we pay for their loans.
Stop spoiling our kids, put discipline back to the parents. If of course the parents even care enough about the family and less about the house, car and status.
Commit to God, family and country, in that order and you won’t need fences or locked doors anywhere.
There’s a risk assessment tool available at Homeland Security for fencing at airports. High risk is commercial passenger service, big airplanes, fuel farms, lots of flight training, proximity to population centers, military bases, nuclear power plants (and probably proximity to politician’s homes). Risk scale is zero to 100.
High risk means fences, cameras, gates, metal detectors, etc.
We ran this risk assessment tool on our small private airport, and our risk score was five out of 100. A couple of small airplanes, no fuel, no flight training, a grass strip, it is a budding fly-in community where people will be able to taxi their airplanes right from their hangar-homes directly to the strip. We’re on the east coast of Florida, not off in the wilds of Patagonia. (We even have that new-fangled “electricity” stuff here.) We also have a deaf, mostly blind “guard dog” who will lick you to death, so be warned.
It all depends on risk (real or imagined). Municipal governments which own and operate airports are extremely risk averse, and they can get Uncle Sam to pay for the miles and miles of fences.
Want to be comfortable? Think small . . .
Jamie is totally correct on this one – especially concerning fencing installed at great expense around light GA airfields. After all, aviation provides tremendous personal freedom. Why are we discouraging people from indulging their curiosity? The bad guys aren’t at all bothered by fences. Locking people out only discourages the very folks we most want to be interested in and sympathetic to what personal flight is all about.
Such a blessing it is to look out my front window at my airport and its half-dozen hangars, with no fence between. But then, few would understand why one would live in North Dakota; and fewer still would appreciate flying a 55-year-old airplane.
I live this problem at Tacoma Narrows Airport every day. The new Airport Manager has taken it upon himself to get the gates closed 24/7, currently being open for business hours. All for “security”. This would put my business behind the fence, barring easy drive up for customers, mail, and freight companies.
Funny thing, a nearby airport that IS closed 24/7 had a mechanics hangar broken into two weeks ago. A computer and some minor tools were stolen. Aviation stuff was untouched. How’s that security thing working out?
Interesting to note that both of these are county airports and have the same airport manager…
Is this a “Trump, tear that wall down” plea? Sure sounds like it…Fences have their places. Sounds like the author is still a Bohemian….
“If security is the issue, there are better methods of achieving that goal.”
So why not write about them in this article? Throwing this out there, letting it splatter on the ground and walking away from the statement is of no help in solving the issue.
Come on Don, YOU are the answer to this issue, or are you incapacitated?
Winter Haven, Meridan? Come on, look at Opa Locka or North Perry, they border on some of the highest crime rate neighborhoods. Airports are not parks, they are more like highways which also have barriers to keep people out.
However…Naples has a deck outside of the airport where families can watch planes come and go. That I will go for.
Right about Naples, even listen to ATC on a speaker provided on a pole.
First it was military bases, then the airports,now its the capital, soon it will be the DMV! (Just saying 😉