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’ve been tracking residential airparks for 30 to 35 years now. Over those years I have seen the number of airparks we’ve become aware of increase dramatically. All those airparks have always been there but it took publicizing this type life style to get the flying public really aware of them.

Each year I am surprised by the number of people I speak with at flyins who comment on the idea of living on an airport in a residential community. Frequently a male says he thinks the idea is great “but I can’t get my wife to even think about it.” And yet, the thousands of families living on the more than 600 airparks we have in our directory seem to be happy with their decision.

Until recently the biggest threat to the serenity and enjoyment a lot of people on airparks enjoy has been disagreements about who is going to mow the grass around the runway or whether the monthly assessment should be $50 or $75.
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We received the following query about soil texture. Please post your comments below.

I’m an extension soils specialist working in Kansas and have received a request for help from a small airport that has many problems with their grass runways. Has anyone ever tried to change the soil texture before? In this case, they want to add sand in order to improve the soil texture and soil strength. Thanks for any help you can give me! I’m going to email Dr. Unruh at the University of Florida now. Thanks. DeAnn Presley.

We received the following from Andre Durocher / Pontiac Airpark:

I am building the Pontiac Airpark with a clubhouse, gym, sauna, pool, spa, tennis court, marina, golf holes. I would like to know if most of the airpark offer amenities like this. Thank you.

So… What type of amenities does your airpark include? Who paid for the creation of any amenities? Was it the developer, homeowners association or some other entity? How are these facilities maintained, both physically and financially? Does the airpark carry property and liability insurance on the amenities? Are there restrictions on the use, ie, can you bring non-resident family and friends on an unlimited basis?

Post your answers below. They can provide valuable background information for other airparks, as well as your own.

Earlier this year, we asked for some data from our subscribers relating to airpark sales activity. The summary can be read here, but we received the following comment from Sweden just today. To read the other comment (13 in total) click here.

We have a magnificent airpark in Sweden where all 45 plots were sold in the time of six months. Now there are a few plots for sale (40 000 USD for a plot that fits hangar and house!) and that is even above the prices they were sold for initially.

Johan Hammarström
Chairman of the AirPark

We are a well established fly in community in the Atlanta area. We have corporate bylaws, and a new set of covenants to comply with Georgia code 44-3-220. None of this is a problem.

What we need some help on is a thru the fence agreement between one of the property owners and the HOA. One of our owners owns several acres adjoining community/HOA owned property and they keep horses there. At the present, they simply access their property “thru the fence” from their property, then across HOA property, then onto their adjoining land. We’ve not had any problems, and really don’t expect to, but I suggested a Thru the Fence agreement should be drawn up to establish the rules, guidelines, restrictions, etc for this resident to access his adjoining property (which is NOT part of the subdivision at all). He is quite agreeable to this and would like to draw up something.

Does anyone have any Through the Fence agreements they might be willing to share, to help us create something?

Thanks,

Chuck Hanna
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Everyone today is aware of the slowdown in the economy and most officials lay the blame on a real estate bubble bursting. And, this came as a result of the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market and the resultant decline of the construction industry.

The country as a whole has fallen into a deep, deep recession with banks and mortgage companies and Wall Street firms failing or getting propped up by the government. We all have read story after story about the stock market wiping out the savings of countless individuals and banks and businesses closing their doors.

Over the years we’ve found that the general aviation industry usually went into recession a little later than other businesses and took longer to recover.

But, what about the residential airpark movement? Our past surveys revealed a profile of airpark residents as being between 45-60 years old, children usually gone, well-established in careers or professions and financially in the upper middle-class.

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2008 obviously was not the greatest year for real estate or the stock market as everyone is aware. What the year as bad for residential airparks as it was for other real estate properties? Did airpark lots sell during the year? How about resale of existing homes? How did the market hold up dollar-wise?

How about letting us know if any lots or houses on your airpark sold during 2008. And, if you have an idea of the price range, fill us in on that, too. We’ll compile the information and share it as soon as we’ve had a sufficient response.

The short survey below should only take a few minutes to complete. It also allows you to leave comments and we encourage you to do so.
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We received a note from Lars de Jounge at Indian River Aerodrome (Vero Beach, Florida – Click here for directory details – subscription required) asking about annual fees.

Specifically, he wants to know if Living With Your Plane has information on annual home owner fees charged airpark lot owners. Residents of Indian River currently pay $900 per year and Lars is concerned that is too low.

Following is a slide (click image for larger version) from the presentation Dave Sclair made at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh this past summer.

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The Living With Your Plane survey on buying and selling residential airpark properties didn’t bring as many individual responses as we had hoped for but several of the ones we received apparently included both a purchase and sale.

And, in the case of some real estate professionals, multiple sales were recorded on the same form. For example, one real estate professional indicated the sale of two homes and six lots during the last year. The end result is that it appears we received information on about 35 to 40 transactions.

Our survey was designed to discover whether residential airpark properties were suffering a sales slowdown like much of the residential market in many areas of the country. We also sought information on how long a property had been on the market, how the asking and selling price compared, the price range of the property and whether there were plenty of lookers for the property. Read the full story