Ok! All you folks now living on a residential airpark, interested in doing so or just want to make sure the right to have homes on airparks remains valid – please read the following carefully and send me your responses as soon as possible.

Brent Blue is an individual who has been aggressively fighting the FAA over the agency’s recent efforts to eliminate Through The Fence (TTF)
agreements.

He told me that “I met with the FAA today. They have been on a road trip to gather information on TTF airports and to hear from TTF hangar home owners to “possibly change policies.” They met in Erie CO, Independence OR, Sandpoint ID, and Driggs ID.”

Blue said he considers “most of their arguments against hangar homes theoretical or without valid foundation. They continually mentioned children and pets on airport operations areas, driving by unauthorized individuals on the runway (e.g. teenagers drag racing), and residential homes being built near airports because hangar homes are already there (e.g. you cannot fight off non aviation homes if you have aviation homes present).

“I think we are probably both in agreement that these are invalid arguments but as part of the process of supplying comment, I thought it would be good to give them numbers even if they were zero.”

Blue is seeking input from people on airparks relative to the issues the FAA has brought up. Please provide your personal experiences on the following issues so we can tabulate them and provide them to the FAA:

1. Are you aware of any accidents involving children or pets on taxiways or runways? If yes, please provide airpark name and city and approximate date.
2. Are you aware of any incidents of unauthorized use of the runway by autos, 4 wheelers, or other non aviation conveyance? If you are aware of such incidents, how was it dealt with by the homeowners.
3. Are you aware if zoning for single family dwellings used by the airpark encouraged any non aviation homes being built close enough to the airport to present noise issue?

“We know these numbers will be low, but given the large denominator of private airparks, we can use the results as an example of actual experience instead of theoretical risk. We will use these numbers to support our comments which we will be working on with the FAA in two weeks,” Blue concluded.

Can you help? Please send your comments right away to dave@generalaviationnews.com and I’ll tabulate them and get them to Blue.

The AOPA, in a letter dated December 18, has asked the FAA for more flexibility in its “proposed ‘one size fits all’ approach to airparks and other residential through-the-fence (TTF) operations at public-use airports”. A story posted to AOPA Online notes:

“The new FAA guidance acknowledges no acceptable residential TTF agreements, a statement that AOPA considers a significant departure from the agency’s past policy.”

As we’ve discussed before on this site, the FAA is taking a position against through-the-fence airparks at federally obligated airports. The FAA has issued a memorandum relating to “Compliance Guidance Letter (CGL) 2009-1-Through-the-Fence and On-Airport Residential Access To Federally Obligated Airports”. Our opposition to the CGL and memorandum are based on a number of points. We have submitted the following statement of our opposition to the FAA proposal. Read the full story

The Tillsonburg (Ontario, Canada) News is reporting that Tillsonburg Municipal Airport is expanding its runway to 5,500 feet. From the story:

“The extension is part of a multi-pronged investment in the airport. Other initiatives will see the construction of a new 1,800 square-foot terminal building, resurfacing of the existing runway and a feasibility study on establishing an airport industrial park and airpark. The majority of the money – 90% or $2.1 million – came from the federal Community Adjustment Fund.”

Does anyone know if the Community Adjustment Fund and/or Transport Canada has any restrictions against thru-the-fence operations on a federally funded airport? If you know, comment below. Either way, click through to read the story. Hopefully some exciting things happening in Tillsonburg.

Idaho’s “Bonner County is moving forward with a plan to buy out the developers of a controversial residential development at Sandpoint Airport with federal funds,” according to a story in the Bonner County Daily Bee.

Under the proposal, 95 percent of the buyout cost would borne by FAA and the remaining 5 percent would be funded through the Panhandle Area Council or some other funding source that has not been identified yet.

A new organization, ThoughTheFence.org (TTF), used the AOPA Aviation Summit to announce its’ formation on Thursday. The organization has been formed by pilots to fight the FAA’s prohibition of hangar homes at publicly funded airports.
Read the full story

From a University of Nebraska-Omaha press release:

“Omaha – Catherine (Kate) M. Lang, acting associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Airports, will be honored by the Aviation Institute of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Monday, Nov. 9. Lang will receive the William F. Shea Award for her contributions to aviation and will present the 2009 Charles W. Durham Distinguished Guest Lecture.”

Read the complete release at the above included link.

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) commissioned a survey to “gather data on the significance and predominance of inconsistent FAA regulatory interpretations”. Not surprisingly, NATA found a large number of respondents experienced inconsistent application of the FARs from “Regional, Aircraft Certification (ACOs) and Flight Standards District Offices (FSDOs)”.

I wonder how this balances with AOPAs drive to push FAA to look at thru-the-fence (TTF) operations on a case-by-case basis. To inconsistently apply a non-regulation, if you will. For example, from Heidi Williams (AOPAs Senior Director of Airports) July 1 letter to Catherine Lang (Acting Associate Administrator, Airports for the FAA), Ms. Williams writes, “It appears that the flexibility the agency once adopted in looking at though the fence operations on a case by case basis has been eliminated.”

So… the Airports division in the FAA is in the lead when it comes to removing flexibility. Wonderful! (Note heavy sarcasm!) While there is no FAR regulating TTF operations, we all know that FAA does have the funding lever, and is starting to use it. For example: no more federal money unless you get rid of (or provide a plan for getting rid of) existing TTF agreements.

No doubt we’d like the FAA to change its position on residential TTF at best (not likely), or to exhibit “inconsistent application” or flexibility across all FAA regions at least. I worry this NATA survey could make our desire to achieve FAA flexibility on residential TTF harder to achieve. Read the NATA press release below.

Read the full story

The following is list of airports that are having conflicts with the FAA over Thru-the-Fence issues. If you are aware of another airport in such a controversy, please send us the information about the conflict as well as any communications that are available.

We’ll maintain this list in an effort to bring the issue to the flying public. Here are the airports we currently have on our list:

Read the full story

I hope you read the letter we published (yesterday) from Catherine Lang, FAA acting administrator for airports. It was addressed to Brent Blue of Jackson Hole, WY and was in response to his questions to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt relating to thru the fence (TTF) problems.

The letter from Lang spelled out the FAA’s positions more clearly than we’ve ever seen and they provide valuable insight. The FAA’s viewpoint, as explained by the acting associate administrator, also clearly shows us the errors of the FAA thinking.

Read the full story