A few years ago, hangar owners at General Mitchell International Airport (KMKE) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started encountering difficulty when it came time to renew land leases with managers of the county-owned airport.
Worse yet, those same hangar owners, many with decades at the airport, felt cut off from airport management — so much so that a few owners dismantled their hangars and left.
Milwaukee County owns both KMKE and Lawrence J Timmerman Airport (KMWC).
KMWC is on the northern end of Milwaukee near where highways 41 and 175 merge.
KMKE is a few miles south of downtown Milwaukee stuffed between Highway 41 and Lake Michigan.
Both are surrounded by development, of course.
And both are experiencing what airports all over the United States are experiencing: Challenges from multiple different angles.
Airports are the targets of noise and pollution complaints. Safety is always a concern for non-pilots. In some cases, airports are the only relatively open space for miles around — space that could be made into something else. In other cases, those who own and/or manage the airport want to go in a different direction.
It’s this different direction that has caused consternation for long-term tenants at Mitchell Field.
A Grassroots Movement
In an attempt to preserve their place at the airports, a group of 10 Milwaukee area pilots got together to form the Greater Milwaukee General Aviation Association (GMGAA) as a non-profit organization.
From the GMGAA website: “The mission of the Greater Milwaukee General Aviation Association is to promote the safety of operations and continued development and inclusion of general aviation at KMKE and KMWC in cooperation with the pilots, users, the Airport Authority, Milwaukee County government, and the community at large.”
That seems like a reasonable mission. But then again, I’m not objective when it comes to general aviation.
Several months ago I spoke with both Jim Hausch and Scott Fisher about their struggles at KMKE.
Airport management had been non-responsive. No calls. No emails. No meetings. Despite repeated requests.
Today, Jim is president/secretary and Scott is vice president of GMGAA.
From GMGAA’s inaugural email newsletter: “One would think that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) would have the role of GA advocacy well-covered, but both AOPA and NBAA strongly encourage an organized, local effort. To some degree, the EAA model of local chapters proves the power and importance of a grassroots component.”
As good as AOPA, EAA, and NBAA are they can’t be all places and all knowing. It just doesn’t work that way.
EAA President Jack Pelton speaks to the grassroots topic in his April 2024 column in Sport Aviation: “One of the most important parts of EAA is our chapter network. One of the founding visions in 1953 was focused on reaching people at the local level.”
Local is where it is at.
GMGAA is now that local group in Milwaukee.
For Jim, Scott, and the eight others who stepped up when they heard “someone should do something,” good on ya.
As of this writing the group was nearing 40 paid members.
Those of us that have been based at KMKE for many years love flying in and out of the airport. It’s one of those rare larger city airports that still has the feel of a smaller field. We welcome the improvements that are being rumored for GA at MKE, but sure want to be included in the discussions and the final results. That is one of the reasons the GMGAA was formed. Any comments from our GA friends sure would be welcome.
“People need to be vigilant and proactive at saving their airports from the hand of people who have different ideas.”
Truth. And it isn’t just airports.
Tolstoy said “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
I’ll rephrase that a bit “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.”
Don’t sit back and complain, that accomplishes nothing. If you want to make it better, you have to get involved. You may have to hold your nose as you do, but the only way to make government work for you is to BE THERE and BE HEARD.
Best Regards
Miami Mike
There was a move to close the Portage County airport (C47) N of Madison late last year. I watched a live video of — literally — a hoard (“packing the house”) of users and others who spoke on behalf of the airport. The Board was overwhelmed by the turnout and promptly ended the meeting. I think they hoped they’d call another short notice meeting and slip it by the public. People need to be vigilant and proactive at saving their airports from the hand of people who have different ideas. Glad to hear GMGAA was formed; hope they have success.
Keep the numbers growing. It’s easy to blow off 1 or 2 people but 40 and more as you grow is hard to ignore.
The point of an organization – and *especially* a political organization or one that intends to influence governmental decisions – is that we are stronger together, much, much stronger.
If you stand up alone in front of a city commission meeting (which imposes a three minute limit on you), you are guaranteed to be ignored. If, however, you are the representative of a decent sized coalition of doctors, lawyers, successful businesspeople (a/k/a “pilots”) and local aviation businesses, suddenly there is significant political “muscle” involved, and even the dimmest elected officials quickly realize that they’d better pay attention and respond.
Another advantage of an organization is there is a single point of contact. The city knows who to contact and they can’t say “well we gave a notice but nobody showed up so we did what we wanted”. When the entire membership of the organization shows up at the city commission meeting (“pack the house”) and the commissioners realize these are the movers and shakers of the community, they’ll pay close attention. Further, they realize (in the back of their reptile brains) that these people not only vote, but have the resources, the time and now also the motivation to actually run against them in the next election and bounce them out of office.
Want to save your local airport? Get organized.
It’s a common problem where municipalities hire anti-aviation bureaucrats to manage airports. The first thing they do is run off those that are the heart of the airport.
Thanks for the story/press, Mr. Sclair.
Since the same airport authority manages MKE and MWC, it just made sense to focus initial recruitment and advocacy on those airports.
A surprise at our initial meeting on 12/20, was the presence/interest from pilots at airports outside Milwaukee country. I hope we can make a difference throughout Southeast Wisconsin.
If there is any takeaway for your readers it’s this: make the effort to form the group and get a seat at the table BEFORE it’s needed. If you wait for the crisis, you might be too late.
So? Creating an organization is a great first step, but what have they accomplished? Or has it been an empty exercise in futility?
Hard to say at this point, but I hope we can make a difference.