A land owner in CA. who is hoping some pilot gets killed.

[JOHN MILLER]

http://www.change.org/petitions/leland- ... rm=6736742


john

[carlisle1926]

Is the 4ft tall split rail fence on his property or the airports? If isn't the airports property, then why didn't they buy it if the extra length was needed for the runway? I can certainly see the danger of the fence.

[gary1954]

I live in Georgia, and have joined Jack Cook in e-signing the petition

[T-28mike]

The petition article is vague on details, but two things stood out to me. Mr Leland erected a fence on his property, but the petition claims it is the Airports safety overrun inferring that Leland just willy nilly erected a fence across an established airport runway over run. Which is it?

The FAA requires specific slope / clear zones (approach coridoors) to a runway. I have landed at airports with fences that are much closer to the runway than that one. If the fence were interfering, there would be a displaced threshold established at that end of the runway.

[The Inspector]

Seems to me that if the County and the Feds condemn the fences location as a safety issue , it either will be removed or it WILL be removed, or someones surviving family after a fatal accident will own the fishing lodge by court decree.

[Warbirdnerd]

I believe Chris Provost's P-40 and F3F are based at this airport...

[Dan K]

I believe Chris Provost's P-40 and F3F are based at this airport...

...and SO much more!


http://sonomavalleyairport.com/

[bdk]

Am I missing something here? How close is the fence and how high is it? If those are the trees in question behind the chain link fence, they certainly don't look very high. I've been to many airports and none of this looks unusual to me.

Chino built a 6' deep drainage ditch just parallel to runway 21 some years ago. Bob Pond's Hellcat flipped over in it a short time later. Seems like a big hazard to me, especially since there was never a drainage problem before, but it was put there by the airport.

[Kyleb]

It is a 4' fence and appears to be 50 or 100' off of the end of the runway. I don't know the legalities, but I would think a property owner should be able to put a short fence on his own property. If it interferes with the operation of the airstrip, the airport should have seen that coming decades ago and either not put the runway so close to their property line OR negotiated a lease, easement, buffer, or outright purchase of the land.

It isn't like the neighbor is erecting a 50' flagpole on the runway centerline....

[Chris]

I know that photos can really distort perspective as to how close or far an object may be but from what I can tell, this doesn't appear to be a safety issue anymore than any of the fences that have been erected around every airport since 9-11. If you have a brake failure, chances are if you cant get it stopped, you are going to hit a fence at almost any airport depending on the runway length. The fence at Falcon Field here in Mesa Az is eight feet tall. Perhaps there is a significant safety issue if an aircraft overran the runway and there was no barricade. Cant make an intelligent decision unless we have all the facts.

[wgrosz]

If you watch the news broadcast, http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=8828014&pid=8828011
on the Sonoma airport website you will see this image in the video (I've boxed the fence in red and the required safety zone in blue) that shows the are in question.



The guy also had built a gun range facing the runway that the city made him remove.

[Chris]

just curious but what does the "R" mean at the end of the runway in question. Aren't taxiways usually designated with an alpha designation?

[bdk]

Why not trade use of the fire suppression pond on the airport for fly fishing in exchange for unobstructed use of the runway overrun area? The fly fishing guy then would maintain the fire suppression pond to the benefit of the airport.

Sounds like the neighbor is a bit of a jerk and marches to a different tune.

Is it the primary runway that is affected or a secondary one?

[Punisher05]

Wow. Something that I might actually have some knowledge about on here...

I've been in Airport Ops for 7 years now. Per the FAA, you have to have a safety area that is 1000' off each end of the runway and 500' wide (or 250' each side of centerline), but that is for FAR Part 139 air carrier operations. The standards are a bit different for GA airfields, so I don't have express knowledge on this one.

The FAA prefers airports find a way to acquire land or get some kind of navigational easement for the approach and departure ends of the runway...I have to admit this situation is quite odd to me. If wgrosz's picture is correct (and I have no reason not to think it is) then a fixed fence directly through the safety area is a major problem.

Unfortunately enforcement on these things can be quite tough; for those familiar with Part 77 regulations (basically, tall stuff like buildings, cranes, etc within navigable airspace), a contractor can choose to put up a crane without having an airspace study, the local airport can raise heck over it, but in the end there's no set way to enforce a Part 77 airspace impact.

Just my $0.02 at oh-dark-early.

-Brandon

[gary1954]

The guy also had built a gun range facing the runway that the city made him remove.

I imagine on any given day he and his friends/customers could go out and shoot a few approaches and departures