Sun ‘n Fun (April 13-18, Lakeland, Florida) is coming up soon and I’m planning my residential airparks presentation. This is something I’ve been doing for a lot of years and I want to try something different this year.

Do you have questions about residential airparks? Are there things about possibly Living With Your Plane that you are particularly concerned about? Is your spouse questioning certain aspects of moving to a residential airpark?

I want to hear your questions and concerns or thoughts that you have so I can think about them in advance and attempt to come up with solutions. In addition, over the years, I’ve discovered that when a question is shared with the group sitting in on my program, someone usually can produce a good answer so I plan on sharing your questions with the audience.

Give me your thoughts as soon as you can. Contact me at dave@generalaviationnews.com. I look forward to seeing you all in Lakeland.

Question from Dave Hamann: Been following through the fence issue. For now this does not appear to apply to privately owned, public access airports. Mid Valley Airpark (E98), NM has been open to public for 40 years. However, should we in any way shape or form accept state money, I can see we may get in a bind.

Answer from Dave Sclair: You are correct in your assumption that private-owned, public-use airports don’t seem to be affected. Accepting a state grant for improvements might not be a problem either, although before getting into such an agreement it would be highly intelligent to have the agreements checked out for attachments to the FAA.

We received the following email from a Living With Your Plane reader today. Please post your feedback in the comment area below the letter.

I am looking for experiences and suggestions pertaining to residential airparks where a developer or individual owns the underlying land of the runway(s), taxiways, roads and other common areas. In my particular instance, the primary Home Owners Association (HOA) is chartered with maintaining these areas and has collectively paid for paving the runway, adding runway lights, grading and fill of graveled areas, etc. Attorneys have told the HOA that they are responsible for safety by this action of maintaining the runway and common areas, and less-so the underlying land owner.

Our underlying land owner is a resident pilot and dues-paying HOA member. However he is reluctant to relinquish his overall control. This has already caused conflicts where residents feel his actions on his land adjacent to the runway (declared right-of-way and easement) create an unsafe aviation condition, but are powerless to change it. The HOA is never consulted beforehand either. In addition, our small airpark with about 25 owners has three separate HOA/covenant boundaries which were determined when each area was sold. The irrigation and trash users are also separate entities. Read the full story

QUESTION: There’s a fuel tank in the ground on the residential airpark property I am interested in acquiring. The seller hasn’t had fuel delivered in a number of years but he says the tank is sound and there’s no reason it can’t be filled by a local distributor of av gas or auto fuel. What are the rules on this? Can I buy fuel in bulk? I know a lot of gas stations in town have had to dig up and replace their fuel tanks and I’ve heard that’s costly. Would a property like I’m looking at require that type action? Read the full story

QUESTION: I live on a residential airpark with covenants and deed restrictions that I consider to be pretty good. When I was looking into the property I followed the advice you offered during Sun ‘n Fun presentation about taking the CC&Rs to a good attorney and making sure I understood them.

After buying the property and moving here I discovered there are a few property owners who have failed to pay their annual assessments. The board of directors keeps talking about the situation but doesn’t appear to be doing anything.

At the last meeting I asked for the identity of those failing to meet the financial requirements of their agreement and was told that the BOD didn’t want to make that information public for fear of legal action or other problems.

My questions: should the identity of the miscreants be disclosed and what action should the board take? Read the full story

The Wall Street Journal quoted LivingWithYourPlane.com’s Ben Sclair when the newspaper highlighted three airpark properties for sale. The properties were located in Florida, Georgia and Indiana.

I’ll be doing forums at the Arlington (WA) Fly-in and AIrVenture Oshkosh in July. The Arlington presentations will take place Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12 and the AirVenture program is planned for July 31. At Arlington, I’ll speak at 10:30 am on Friday (July 11) and noon on Saturday (July 12).

At Oshkosh, I’ve been scheduled for 8:30 am on Thursday, July 31 in the NATCA Pavilion Number 8.

The Arlington times are great; before the heat of the day and prior to the airshow distractions. At Oshkosh, it’s kinda early in the morning but again, the time is before the heat and humidity builds up and well before the competition with the airshow later in the day.

At each of these events I always make sure there’s plenty of time for those attending to share their ideas and questions. Often, others in the audience can provide first-hand experience of an issue or there’s someone attending who is an expert in an area in question.

If you can’t attend but have a question or issue you want to share with the participants, please send me an e-mail and I’ll do my best to get it in front of everyone.

A reader comments:

I read with great interest your article on homeowner dues in airparks. I live on an airpark, and I have a question about dues paid by commercial enterprises on the airpark.

In our case,  the owner of a commercial – residential lot on the airpark resides on the lot, and he operates an aircraft maintenance business on the lot.

Do other airparks charge different homeowner dues for businesses located on the airstrip? A business creates more wear and tear on the airpark facilities and a business has the most to gain by having a well-maintained airpark. Our business owner is charged the same dues as all of the strictly residential property owners in the airpark.

I am curious to know how other airparks handle this situation.

Post your thoughts below.

Recently we asked insurance firms to tell us about liability insurance terms and fees for residential airparks. We received responses from Jon R. Shimer, Jr. of Aviation Insurance Resources and Norma Joyce of AUA. The information they provided is below together with the contact information.

Read the full story

Here’s an interesting idea for someone working on a new airpark or fly-in community somewhere in the West. This couple wants to relocate and work with someone on a project. Here’s what he writes:

My wife and I are considering a relocation to a residential airpark in the west where I could continue my small architectural practice. 

If you happen to hear of a developer, investor or builder who might need an architect/resident on site for the project, I would appreciate the information.

Thanks for the ongoing news and updates.

Douglas Frazier
douglaslfrazier@yahoo.com