Colorado legislature overtly anti GA

[Mayfield]

https://aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2024/february/15/colorado-lead-studies-failed-to-detect-measurable-aviation-pollution?utm_source=ebrief&utm_medium=email

Is this accurate JR?

 

[WaspAir]

Sadly, yes.

There's a hostile attitude growing. Boulder airport, for example, to use a Monty Python description, isn't dead yet but it's coughing up blood.

There's a plan to impose statewide curfews and ban or limit touch and goes, and even to prohibit taking federal funds to avoid the stay-open obligations that come with it. All this is from people moving in next to long preexisting airports.

Some of it is driven by developers lusting after land and some by idiots who moved next to known airports while hating airplane noise.

I had a recent experience being accosted by an airport neighbor (he's lived there for 18 years and flight operations have been going on for 37) suddenly developing an irrational fear of a glider crashing into his house. Gliders sometimes pass over him in the pattern at 600' or more, but he accused us of hovering over his house to spy into his windows.

Lead from fuel is a convenient justification to demand action until proven factually baseless, and then they just go down the list to the next excuse to demand closure. Like many political disputes, facts have little influence.

 

[okikuma]

 

[okikuma]

There are growing manufactured hostile attitudes against all of the enjoyed pastimes of the politically labeled "privilege" citizens of our country.

Wayne

 

[MikeBoyette]

Californication? Perhaps too much use of the substance that allows one to fly in their living room,therefore no need to have an airport.

 

[Aerofoam]

I want one of those gliders that can hover!

 

[GyroChuck]

There was a new housing development going up next to our club airport property. One of our club members was looking for a house so he went with his wife to check out the model houses. One of the questions he asked one of the sales persons was "What about the Airport". The sales person told him the Airport was being shut down. That was 24 years ago. Airport still there and our club is still there.

 

[WaspAir]

Californication? Perhaps too much use of the substance that allows one to fly in their living room,therefore no need to have an airport.

Equally sadly, this is a national trend, not of California origin.

 

[okikuma]

Sadly, yes.

There's a hostile attitude growing. Boulder airport, for example, to use a Monty Python description, isn't dead yet but it's coughing up blood.

There's a plan to impose statewide curfews and ban or limit touch and goes, and even to prohibit taking federal funds to avoid the stay-open obligations that come with it. All this is from people moving in next to long preexisting airports.

Some of it is driven by developers lusting after land and some by idiots who moved next to known airports while hating airplane noise.

I had a recent experience being accosted by an airport neighbor (he's lived there for 18 years and flight operations have been going on for 37) suddenly developing an irrational fear of a glider crashing into his house. Gliders sometimes pass over him in the pattern at 600' or more, but he accused us of hovering over his house to spy into his windows.

Lead from fuel is a convenient justification to demand action until proven factually baseless, and then they just go down the list to the next excuse to demand closure. Like many political disputes, facts have little influence.

JR,

Many years ago, a public meeting was held by several homeowners associations (not duse paying HOAs) in the San Fernando Valley about airplane noise from Burbank (KBUR) and Van Nuys (KVNY) airports. I was able to get up and present my 3 minute spiel on how the airports have the ability for all homeowners can come to visit the airports to see first hand the operations and the aircraft that operate. In that short presentation, I asked the homeowners to invite pilots and aircraft owners into their houses to see and hear first hand the obtrusive airport noise aircraft are making inside their houses so together we all can come to an agreement to mitigate the noise. The roar and hateful comments I received from every homeowner in attendance about how they will NEVER let any airport worker and/or pilot set one foot inside their houses. I asked what they afraid with our presence? The truth be discovered about the actual amount of aircraft noise experienced inside their domicile?

I wonder if these homeowners complain in Warsaw, Indiana?

And business owners in LaGrange, Kentucky"

 

[okikuma]

Other people in other countries have a more logical sense of living with near by transportation.

Wayne

 

[MikeBoyette]

JR,

Many years ago, a public meeting was held by several homeowners associations (not duse paying HOAs) in the San Fernando Valley about airplane noise from Burbank (KBUR) and Van Nuys (KVNY) airports. I was able to get up and present my 3 minute spiel on how the airports have the ability for all homeowners can come to visit the airports to see first hand the operations and the aircraft that operate. In that short presentation, I asked the homeowners to invite pilots and aircraft owners into their houses to see and hear first hand the obtrusive airport noise aircraft are making inside their houses so together we all can come to an agreement to mitigate the noise. The roar and hateful comments I received from every homeowner in attendance about how they will NEVER let any airport worker and/or pilot set one foot inside their houses. I asked what they afraid with our presence? The truth be discovered about the actual amount of aircraft noise experienced inside their domicile?

I wonder if these homeowners complain in Warsaw, Indiana?

And business owners in LaGrange, Kentucky"

I know where that is. It's the closest town with a Lowes to Mentone. I don't recall seeing the RR though.

 

[Tyger]

I want one of those gliders that can hover!

Yeah, that would be really great for spying on houses near the airport!

 

[Sv.grainne]

I spent 5 years off and on working in Boulder. The airport when I was there had some GA aircraft and lots of gliders.

The whole area, Boulder and Boulder County have many good ideas and a share of bad.

Boulders openspace initiatives have been great for keeping areas undeveloped and accessible but not sure what's going on with the airport.

Way to much development, so encroachment with the airport is inevitable. So sad.

 

[okikuma]

I know where that is. It's the closest town with a Lowes to Mentone. I don't recall seeing the RR though.

Mike,

As I was coming outside of the CVS to get to my vehicle, I heard a train horn and then noticed the tracks in the street. I walked over to see at the Northern end of that street a train heading Southbound towards me. When the people purchased those houses, they knew the railroad tracks were there in the street.

Wayne

 

[MikeBoyette]

Mike,

As I was coming outside of the CVS to get to my vehicle, I heard a train horn and then noticed the tracks in the street. I walked over to see at the Northern end of that street a train heading Southbound towards me. When the people purchased those houses, they knew the railroad tracks were there in the street.

Wayne

Exactly. I bet some still complain bitterly about it too.

 

[Doug Riley]

The general public once felt a warm fuzzy glow about GA. This probably derived from Lucky Lindy (1927) and our victory in WWII (1945). It's been a minute! The glow has worn off with the passage of time.

What's replaced it is fear engendered by 9-11, and the fact that a GA accident always will lead the news -- with, of course, the omnipresent cellphone video.

Then there's the very cool, calculated tactic of buying real estate next to an airport (with noise factored into the price), betting that you can crush the airport with a bit of aggre$$ive lawyering. With the airport gone, the buyer enjoys a windfall of increased value. Finding and exploiting "hidden value" in an asset is a good ol' American tradition. There's nothing California woo-woo about it.

 

[j4flyer]

I don’t thing Ca is the only state effected by greed. As states recede into the red they look for funding. Airports usually don’t generate the long term funding that housing contributes. I’ve heard some of the “keep em open” speeches. They speak about funding generated by the airport but forget a majority of their arguments apply more to permanent residents/ homes than to airports. What I don’t see explained much is the emergency use factor. Airports can be used for firefighting aircraft, relief delivery’s in the event of disasters and points of exits for trapped people during disasters. Having seen our small airport use all its fuel to help firefighting aircraft during the California fires and bringing supplies to our airport for logistical support, a lot of residents were awakened to the necessity of a close runway. But, then there’s the greed factor. That’s one that has no limits.

 

[okikuma]

I don’t thing Ca is the only state effected by greed. As states recede into the red they look for funding. Airports usually don’t generate the long term funding that housing contributes. I’ve heard some of the “keep em open” speeches. They speak about funding generated by the airport but forget a majority of their arguments apply more to permanent residents/ homes than to airports. What I don’t see explained much is the emergency use factor. Airports can be used for firefighting aircraft, relief delivery’s in the event of disasters and points of exits for trapped people during disasters. Having seen our small airport use all its fuel to help firefighting aircraft during the California fires and bringing supplies to our airport for logistical support, a lot of residents were awakened to the necessity of a close runway. But, then there’s the greed factor. That’s one that has no limits.

Bob,

You're absolutely correct.

During the 2017 Thomas Fire in Ventura County, Santa Paula Airport KSZP was used as a rotor wing fire base to combat the fire. The cries to remove the airport went down to zero and the the support for the airport to stay went way up.

Wayne

KSZP during the Thomas Fire.

 

[MikeBoyette]

My Californication comment was said because the people in the legislation there seem to attack personal rights. I didn't mean to offend. I was TDY there in 1994 and loved it. It was already overcrowded then. I can't imagine what it's like now.

 

[WaspAir]

We all like to tease about other states.

My law school dean at Stanford certainly did. The official motto of the school (it's in German, not Latin, which is rare in itself) is "the winds of freedom blow", to which the dean added "eastward from California".

There was once a comic strip called Shoe, about some birds who ran a newspaper. In one strip a character asks "what's the time difference between here and California?" The other answers " they're about five years ahead of us."