During a recent aviation gathering, I spoke with someone who mentioned a small residential airpark that I couldn’t find in our directory of residential airparks. He said he thought the airpark, with only 4 or 5 homesites, was too small to be included in our directory.

An airpark is an airport with 2 or more homesites! That means we want to list every airport with at least two homesites so if you know of one, please complete the airpark listing form or at the very least, send us the airpark name, city and state and if possible a contact name.

When not fighting the FAA created fiasco on residential through-the-fence access, Dr. Brent Blue (founder of ThroughTheFence.org and AME) was building a modified Murphy Moose that he calls “Blue Bear”. After an 11-year labor, above is a photo from an April 7 flight at Driggs, Idaho. From Brent’s email, “For those who want to know: 3500# gross weight, 360 hp Russian M14P 9 cylinder radial, cruise is about 120-130 mph, and it is set up for amphibs.” With all the focus on the myriad challenges we in the aviation world face, it is nice to remember it really is about the airplanes, and the people who fly them. Congratulations Brent.

During EAA AirVenture, several home / hangar owners asked about the proper maintenance on their hangar door. Since they weren’tt the original owner of the structure, they couldn’t find printed material on what they should or shouldn’t do to make sure their doors worked – 0r continued to work – properly.

Figuring others had the same questions, we asked several door manufacturers to send us some information. The first response was received is reprinted below and as we receive additional comments we’ll add them. Read the full story

I’m preparing my program for AIrVenture 09 and hope some of you can help me with new photos from your airpark. I’m looking for some good aerials of your airpark as well as some ground shots showing amenities that are included at the facility.

Send your photos to: dave@generalaviationnews.com

Be sure to include the name of the airpark and the city and state as well as your name and a contact email or phone.

Thanks,

Dave Sclair

Editor – Living With Your Plane

Whiteplains Plantation (SC99) located in Gilbert, South Carolina has seen a recent increase in real estate activity. Inquiries and requests for information are forwarded to Steve Sanderson (217-766-4213), who routes them to the appropriate association officials.

During the past 6-8 months we have averaged about one inquiry per month, and have been visited by several families who have toured our fly-in community neighborhood.

At the moment we have several existing homes on the market, some home/hangar lots for sale, a few hangar lots available and one or two hangars being advertised. There are at least two real estate closings coming up in the near future, and several families are planning to come to visit soon.

Recently we’ve updated all the links to residential airparks that are listed elsewhere on the Living With Your Plane webpage. However, we have over 600 airparks listed in the LWYP Directory but there are only about 150 websites in our list.

If your airpark has a website and it isn’t included in our extensive list of airparks, please give us the url for your fly-in community so we can add it to our links. There’s no charge for the service!

Unfortunately, we found a number of broken links and several that no longer exist. During this exercise we tried to reach every fly-in community to which we have established a link asking them to reciprocate with a link to our website from theirs.

If you’re having trouble putting together a website or need to get information out to residents and prospects, please tell us what you are trying to do so we can offer you some assistance. E-mail us at dave@generalaviationnews.com

A plan to develop a 19-lot development adjacent to the privately-owned Sky Manor Airport at Pittstown, New Jersey, has hit a bumpy road and the property has been turned over to the primary lender, Metuchen Savings Bank.

Ken Totten, chief lending officer, said his bank took over the property when the original developer couldn’t repay development loans. As a result, the bank is now marketing the 15 lots to which it now has clear title.

Read the full story

With Spring just around the corner, maybe it’s time for you to take a good look at the condition of the runway and taxiways and other related facilities at your residential airpark.

Far too often maintenance and normal upkeep is put on the back burner during the winter months. That’s especially true in areas where the property gets buried in snow or other inclement weather. With that time situation, flying is often down and the net result is that problems with the runway and taxiway are missed.

Here’s a quick checklist to get your airpark into top shape for the upcoming increase in flying weather and related flying activities:

1. Read the full story

Editor’s note: here’s another in our planned series of stories describing state by state the airparks listed in the Living With Your Plane Directory. We started with Alaska and will tackle one state per issue unless there are a particularly low number of airparks in that particular state. In that case, we’ll try to do several states in the same story.

As always, we welcome your comments and ideas and of course, if your residential airpark isn’t listed or if you have information about other fly-in communities in the state for which we’re reporting, or any other state, let us know by filling in this form with the appropriate infomration.

Georgia counts 27 airparks with three of them currently in planning or under construction. The earliest state facility, Pinewood Airpark, opened in 1967 at Douglasville, GA.

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There are many thriving airpark communities in the United States and now the trend is even growing internationally. With increased security hassles at major airports in combination with more people coming to aviation through the Sport Pilot License and VLJs, the benefits of access to private aircraft travel abound.

Track home developments and master planned communities dot the suburban landscape with cookie cutter replication and seemingly unrestrained reproduction. It’s obvious people are looking for an accessible sense of belonging, variety and meaning in their living space and neighborhoods these days. The airpark lifestyle represents freedom, an active lifestyle and adventure – things I see more people are gravitating towards and would like to be a part of.

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