I was contacted last week by Chicago Tribune reporter Serena Maria Daniels who was doing a story on residential airparks. Sadly, airparks came into focus as a result of a couple of recent aircraft accidents. Daniels and I spoke three or four times. While the story wandered more into the accidents than I would have liked for an airpark feature, Daniels and her editors did a nice job. Read for yourself here.

By Mack McKinney

We are a mixed bunch at Brady Landing Airpark.  No rich, fat cats living here.  Only one guy is retired.  The rest of us put in 60-80 hours each week at jobs ranging from construction manager to software and mechanical engineers to inspecting merchant ships worldwide.  Me, I’m just a teacher.  My wife and I operate a small consulting firm that teaches systems engineering and Project Dominance (basically Project Management on steroids).  When the weather lets me, I take our old 182 Skylane to my teaching jobs along the East Coast.

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Chuck Zuvers from Missouri will be building an apartment in a mini-warehouse that will overlook the runway adjacent to his property. He’s looking for apartment floor plans. Anyone have anything they are willing to share? Post a link in the comments area below, if you have the plans online, or email them to me (ben@generalaviationnews.com) and I’ll share them with all.

Phuket Airpark, located in the Thailand, is in development. From a story in the Property Report, “Plane-owners will be able to park their aircraft in private mini-hangars attached to their villas at the development, which is the brainchild of Thai businessman Suchard Raksangob.” Read the rest of the story here.

Ken Hewson sent us the following note wondering how to finish the interior of his new hangar next to his home. Any ideas? Post them below in the comments section.

“I have a hangar beside my home (Lynden, WA) that I am building. 2000 sq ft with 17′ walls. Looking for ideas other than sheetrock to clad the interior walls. I’m thinking T1-11 on the bottom 8′ then corrugated metal above that. Any photo’s, ideas or places to get ideas. Thanks.”

The Troy Airpark residential airpark in Troy, MO, just completed a rebuild of its runway. It is now 2,200 feet long and 25 feet wide with a parallel 50-foot turf strip immediately north of the asphalt.

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We received from the following note from Zeigh Ownesby regarding lenders:

I am a registered user of your web site, but need a little more information. Do you have a packet and/or links to information for bank officials who are familiar with fly-in communities? The bank that I used before on a previous airpark had to be coached extensively on what this concept was. Otherwise, they kept viewing a runway close by as a primary negative detail instead of the biggest positive amenity of the area. Now I am having to do this all over again for a land loan elsewhere. Any information to help would be appreciated.

I directed Zeigh to the Resources section of the website. However, we have just three contacts listed. I’d appreciate any additional contacts we can share with others. Comment below, or email me at ben@generalaviationnews.com.

Caption: Wayne and Marian Owens bought a home on the marsh near the community dock at Eagle Neck Airpark.

By BILL WALKER

It’s not unusual for Bunny and Jeff Anderson to begin their Saturday mornings with a boat ride on the tidal creek a short distance from their runway home at Eagle Neck Airpark in coastal Georgia. The Andersons are a flying family but being near the water was one of the key attractions that brought them to this aviation community developed amid one of the most pristine salt marshes on the East Coast.

Eagle Neck Airpark, 1GAO, sits a few feet above the tidal flow of the Atlantic behind St. Catherines Island 45 miles south of Savannah, Ga. About 30 families live on the airpark and there are approximately 50 additional building sites within the heavily wooded development.

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Planehook Aviation Services takes issue with the FAAs proposal to prohibit residential through-the-fence operations at publicly funded airports. In a white paper [download here] released October 5, David Hook, Planehook’s president outlines the impact to security the proposal would create. From the white paper, “this FAA policy proposal contradicts previously established national policy and bears no evidence of having been coordinated through the Aviation Government Coordinating Council and the Aviation Sector Coordinating Council.” The three-page document will be Planehook’s official response in the Federal Register.

The Full Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (U.S. House) will meet on Wednesday, September 22 at 10 am (EDT) to hear “Residential Through-the-Fence Agreements at Public Airports. Action to Date and Challenges”. The hearing will be available as a live webcast. Click the above link and find the graphic (left) in the upper left quarter of the website.