bdk wrote:
sandiego89 wrote:
I thought that got clarified. Santa Maria should be considered another satellite location to Chino, not "everything is moving".....
Clarify as you like, and this isn't directed at you, but there are a lot of changes happening at the airport that have nothing to do with the museum. One of the old dome hangars (remember the 1941 Abbott & Costello movie Keep 'Em Flying?) burned down last year and the plan is to replace it with some kind of jet center. San Bernardino County isn't looking for museum visitors or publicity, they are looking for a tax base. Hopefully between Yanks and POF there will be enough monthly events to keep the locals entertained.
I speculate that Chino will revert to a storage location for the static aircraft (and those aircraft seldom flown) while Santa Maria will house the regular flyers.
Just my opinion and I have no insider info! I agree 100%. The premise of Chino being a POF satellite location for a while is definitely true - nobody is disputing that. But, as BDK mentioned, there are many detrimental forces outside of POF's control which will effectively make the POF flying at Chino greatly diminished at some point and maybe even eliminated all together. In the future, either all or the vast majority of flying at Chino will not be practical for warbird flying. How long will it be? Nobody knows. Maybe it's 5 years,10, maybe 20 or longer? I've talked to the leadership at POF about this topic many times. Pretty much all of them think that this is an eventuality, but nobody knows the timeline. Hence, the move to Santa Maria to be proactive, rather than reactive.
it's pretty much happening world wide....the RAAF Museum at Point Cook is close to suffering the same thing as there is now a wealthy suburb surounding it,
Ever wonder why POF hasn't had an airshow in several years at Chino, even post-Covid? Well, there's a reason for that and it's driven by outside forces beyond the Museum's control. Encroachment is the single greatest threat to the survival of Chino Airport. As BDK says, the county/airport authority/board really is motivated by money, nothing else. It's the same thing that just happened at Stead airport and the Reno Air Races. Personally, I think it's an eventuality that Chino Airport ceases to exist. My belief is that it will be "'Santa Monica'd". I don't know when that will happen, but the land around the airport is just way too valuable. Does anyone remember back in the 70's and 80's when Chino Airport was considered "in the middle of nowhere", sandwiched in the middle of farms and cow pastures? Well, one by one, each farmer's plot is being gobbled up by multi-million/billion dollar corporations. As a farmer, it's kind of hard to resist the lure of many millions for your land. I don't blame the families for going this route, but at the same time, it will probably spell the end of Chino Airport at some point in the future.