The Dec. 6, 2021, edition of the Santa Clara Airport News (SCAN) newsletter is quite a read. The county of Santa Clara, in California, operates both Reid-Hillview (KRHV) and San Martin (E16) airports.
A few of the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective).
- 100LL will no longer be available for sale starting Jan. 1, 2022. This change will take effect at both airports.
- Incredibly, nine 50-year leases all expire at the end of 2021. The county will offer month-to-month lease agreements on four of the parcels. The remaining five (spotlighted in the newsletter) will be allowed to expire and be followed by county takeover of management of those properties.
- The county will, eventually, take over all fueling operations at KRHV. The plan was to start fueling ops Jan. 1, 2022.
- The county still plans to close the airport in 2031 after the FAA grant assurances expire. The county is “pursuing any and all available paths to early closure prior to 2031.”
- Interestingly, the county is seeking to fill four Airport Operations Workers (AOW) positions at KRHV.
This three-page newsletter feels like an outline for an airport-based horror movie:
- Stop selling the fuel a huge number of your tenants need.
- Take over the leaseholds for long-serving airport businesses and fueling operations.
- But make sure those fueling ops are not ready when the calendar hits Jan. 1.
- Continue to seek an expedited path to airport closure, but hire staff to keep the drain clear so the airport will ultimately spiral down through it.
As one who was a mere participant fighting to save RHV in 1996 and who has been on Board of CAAPSO organization fighting this round since 2016, there are several things commenters and pilots should be aware of.. First, the neighborhoods around the airport have (because of cheaper housing) become predominantly Asian and Hispanic minority communities. They have distorted views of safety (1 person/year killed by falling airplanes on ground in US) and consider aviation to be “playground of the rich”.. They are being promised cheap housing and open space but will get congestion, gentrification and displacement from the county if airport closes. And the property (~180 acres) is worth well over $1 Billion dollars. When the mayor can start a PAC asking local developers to contribute and raise $400,000 in 1 afternoon, you can understand the power of big money to lie about intentions and grab the land for development. The airport’s fate is now in the hands of the FAA and federal government, as 3 of 5 County Supervisor politicians favor closure and redevelopment over retention. And finally, the lead politicians are sharing information and tactics weekly with the anti-airport advocates in Santa Monica, San Diego (Montgomery Field) and Los Angeles (Whiteman) as part of an organized attack on wealthy racist hobbyists and as alleged advocates for housing…Your airport could be next…
Following the closure of the San Jose King Road airport in 1959, Herm Barnick and my Dad, Richard Bauer, moved their company, Gee Bee Aero, to the west side of Reid’s Hillview Airport. The company was engaged in major aircraft repair and aircraft recovery and salvage. In the the mid-1960s, they moved onto the airport after Santa Clara County purchased it from the Reid brothers, Cecil and Robert Sr. The county changed the name to Reid Hillview. The hangar they erected on the airport is the large hangar at the north end of the airport with the fencing behind it just above “Hillview” in the photo’s title.
Prior to the airport’s purchase by the county, I soloed power aircraft by Frank “Pinky” Pinkerton in one of Pinky’s Aeronca 7AC. Two years earlier, I soloed in gliders at Les Arnold’s Sky Sailing airport in nearby Fremont, CA (that airport is now abandoned). The following year, I took my private power dual with Mac McMurdo at Spartan Aero.
After the county purchased the airport, I took my commercial check ride as well as some aerobatic dual with Amelia Reid and my MEL ATP with Cliff Hodges at Reid Hillview.
So basically from the age of 12 to 27 years old, I either worked on or flown from the airport. I’ve seen the airport grow and now witnessing it’s slow death. It is sad that young kids will not get to experience what I have. What was Reid’s Hillview like? Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daHCBhdDUf4&t=1503s
While in high school, I took a date to see an upcoming folk singer from New York City at the San Jose Civic auditorium: the singer, Bob Dylan; the song, “The Times They are a Changing”.
AOPA needs to create the “Richard Daley” award, to be annually awarded to whoever, institution or person, is voted by members to be the top enemy of GA.
Ah, same playbook they used against us at SMO. Strangulation. Pretend keeping the airport opened but get rid of key tenants, cut services, even shorten the runway for the alleged noise of jets, and aim to shut the airport down. SMO is a shell of what it used to be. I fought for my entire flying career since 1979 against the bastards and they will never stop. Developers want the land and they pay the politicians to do their bidding. I served as Vice-President of the Santa Monica Airport Association for years trying to stop them and work out some arrangements for accommodation. But no luck. We even went to court to try to stop them. AOPA was of no help – Mr. Baker when I met him didn’t even know the history of the battle after they just jumped in and put together a vote on it all. Then, the FAA folded on us and made a back-door deal with the city and we are now playing out the clock. Good luck. Another sad chapter
Here we go again. Many commenters are predictably trying to make airport closure another red-blue issue—because now everything apparently has to be that. But this is not a red-blue issue so much as an urban-rural issue. In reality airport closure is a decades long-standing problem for GA in virtually every state—mostly in purban areas. There are many factors. One factor is that most people don’t want to live near a busy airport like RHV—including many pilots, by the way. Airplanes are noisy and smelly, and many folks are scared of a 172 ending up in their living room. Nothing red-blue about that. A second factor is that land has become orders of magnitude more valuable since many GA airports were built, and while a GA airport does contribute economically to its surroundings, its hard to stave off development of a very large land parcel for much much more lucrative uses. (That’s capitalism! Remember?) Unlike most commenters here, I’m a GA pilot who is realistic enough to see that many airports like RHV that have been surrounded by houses, schools, and churches over the many decades since they were built in once-wide-open spaces are in understandable jeopardy. The politicians who are voting to close urban airports like RHV are (by and large) responding to the majority of their constituents who don’t want to live near an airport anymore and to capitalists who want to make more money. That’s not about red-blue. That’s about urban-rural. And that’s about money. Yes: It is frustrating that neighbors of airports knew they were choosing to live near an airport when they located there and now want it removed instead of removing themselves. But people are frustrating. No surprise there. Can we stop with the reflexive California bashing and red-blue social media BS here in the pages of GAN? Can we just come together in this place as pilots and talk honestly about airplanes, about flying, and about saving as many airports as we can? Can we leave the chest-beating and finger-pointing elsewhere? That would be great. Thanks.
I agree with your statement. But you offer no solutions. Are there solutions to prevent the closure of small public use airports. Are we doomed ?
Your statement offers no solution; am i to assume that we GA pilots should just take it in ass… with no reach around
I don’t claim to be an expert on saving airports, but it seems to me it starts with being realistic about the main sources of the problem— (1) busy airports are unpopular in urban areas due to noise and safety concerns and (2) land is increasingly valuable for other uses—and then organizing an effective opposition locally as best as possible. It’s going to be an uphill struggle, to be sure, but to me it’s not productive to just point fingers and declare everyone you disagree with a bad person.
So the source of the problem is the urban-rural yes? then since RHV was here prior to the urban-rural development, shouldn’t it stand to reason that those that don’t wish to live near an airport just simply relocate themselves? seems like a simple solution. if I bought a house next to a known busy landmark, i wouldn’t down the road complain about said landmark and vote for its closure. I would suck it up or move because i no longer wish to live near it.
Sorry, but you’re completely wrong!
Having spent a lifetime in infrastructure development (including in California) I can assure you that this is exactly a red-blue issue. There is always a direct correlation between the concentration of ‘blue’ and the apparent clout of NIMBY, NOPE, CAVE and BANANA-types. And nowhere is that clout higher than in California.
The fact that there is always a blue-connected developer happy to turn any locally-unpopular airport into a high-density housing area complete with shopping malls and ‘low-income housing’ does not make it a ‘capitalism-problem. It is still indeed a ‘blue-problem’.
“One factor is that most people don’t want to live near a busy airport like RHV—”
Yet they choose to buy a house there?
That is the definition of insanity.
And the cure for these interlopers I can’t put in print.
This is exactly a red vs. blue issue. Look no further than the push for the removal of 100LL and CA’s other policies meant to ban the use of all internal combustion engines. They already banned the future sale of smaller gas-powered engines for lawn & garden, generators for RVs, outboard boats, pressure washers, etc.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/december/09/aopa-concerned-about-mandated-fuel-policies-in-california
its not like something can’t be done to “fight” against this boards one sided management style…..where are the pilots and businesses affected by all this?
Seems like all residents of Santa Clara either need to march on the city or move away to a more friendly area.
The cities interest in housing taxes means more to them than anything else. Show your support by moving your tax dollars elsewhere. If enough people leave and find a great life elsewhere they will go broke. Those of us who have lived in the CA mess and moved are supremely happy elsewhere.
Give em the finger and get the heck out.
Too many of us just standby and watch the anti airport operators at work. When was the last time YOU went to a meeting of the airport owning entity, hopefully with a contingent of fellow pilots, and made a pitch for the airport, including supporting the needed improvements? Also take along a list of the benefits of the airport and the economical benefits it brings to the community and hand them to the reps of the owners. Many look upon the airport as a haven for the wealthy plane owners.
Well – when was it you showed up at a meeting in support of the airport. Yes – it takes some work to do that but there are plenty of people or groups willing to help if asked. We used a math class at the local college to do an analysis of the benefits of the airport as a class project and it opened lots of eyes and minds about things they never associated with the airport. Resulted in the local paper running three stories about the benefits, plus two programs on the local TV station.
News and comments like this make me thankful for living here in the cold outback of the Dakotas, with my lowly C-150 in the stable down the road. Hangar rent at $60/month, regular gas at $3.05 a gallon at the local co-op and an airplane worth less than a new compact car — priceless. Who would want to live here? Yeah, right!
As I was leaving the FBO where I rent a hangar, a local TV crew asked if I could be interviewed to respond to a petition that had 200 signatures from nearby homeowners demanding the airport be closed. As if on cue, while I was explaining the FAA studies showing the financial benefits that an airport brings, two Navy students in fatigues walked behind me. I mentioned the role that the flight school has providing Primary Flight Training for the military. Then Scott, one of two State Fire Patrol officers, passed next to me. A moment later, the Air Ambulance landed after taking a patient to the Emergency room at the hospital. To simple minded legislators, none of that must be important. That was over 10 years ago and our airport is secure, although Mr. Grumpy still complains.
Only in Commiefornia. Just wait until all the pesky little planes are gone. These nitwits don’t realize everybody driving a big plane started in a little plane. How are they going to get to all those exotic faroff locales for vacation? Oh, I know, they’ll just drive their Prius.
The last one to leave California, be sure to turn off the fuel pumps. (Oh wait, they are already off, never mind.)
Be sure to sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/support-reid-hillview-airport-and-improve-a-vital-community-asset?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_13988809_en-US%3Av10&recruiter=703298624&recruited_by_id=57a99d70-1683-11e7-88ef-ad5fbcefcdd9&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&share_bandit_exp=initial-13988809-en-US&share_bandit_var=v2
Done
At this point, anyone who is surprised by anything like this happening in California is either hopelessly dense or simply not paying attention.
Elections have consequences. Gavin Newsom survived the recall election in Santa Clara County with a 3:1 margin. Saner people may want to head east – the rest please stay in California.
Head east for sure. Just don’t come to TN. Nothing here but grits and humidity. 🙂
The main problem is that so many of the people that consider themselves “saner” aren’t really. The result then is that they ruin where they live, get tired of the state of things, then move somewhere else, only to complain about how “backwards” things are in this new area, and then seek to “fix it” by voting for all the same kinds of policies and politicians that ruined the old area.
One need look no further than Georgia and Colorado for clear examples. And, unfortunately, it’s starting to happen where I am; they always start with the growing, prosperous areas and corrupt from there…
You didn’t mention that 2 of the 4 fuel providers have already moved to offer 94UL.
Unfortunately, only low compression, non-turbo aircraft can use it.
Mike Bush offers some good advice to those who cannot use 94UL, in a recent newsletter.
A must read is the book “Term Limits” the first of a series written by the late Vince Flynn. Probably only found in used book stores.
The fools who are bailing out of CA for AZ will in a few years find themselves out of water. The Guv Ment has no plan for water crisis in the SW.