SoCal Collision 1/9/2022

[fholbert]

I didn't know Aunt Bee ever learned to fly, I figured I must have seen every episode at some point but I guess not. The area Vic Morrow was killed in during the Twilight Zone filming was known as Indian Dunes, I used to ride dirt bikes there as a kid. It was also used for Baa Baa Black Sheep TV series as their "base" and they operated the Corsairs from there. Lots of TV and movie production took place there.

I thought I may have been the only person here who know of Indian Dunes. Some of my friends raced at Indian Dunes including a 9th grader who was sponsored by Maco. I lived in the Valencia housing development before it was a city. Went to WS Hart high school where many of my friends were getting jobs at a new place called Magic Mountain.

Before my time at Chino but, I’m told it wasn't uncommon the see the Baa Baa Black Sheep F4U’s at Chino for lunch.

A little known fact, Aunt Bea was a licensed pilot.

Aunt Bee of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Mayberry R.F.D" Fame began her show business career as a "Flying Beauty" in a traveling barnstorming show. She started as a wing walker, but soon learned to be quite a pilot. A big part of the show included the male pilot parachuting out of the plane while she was walking the wing and she would hop in to the cockpit do several tricks and then land the plane. When the U.S. entered WWII Frances was the third woman commissioned as a pilot in the Women's Air Corp and flew 14 missions (all within the U.S. and Canada) before the war ended and she started her acting career.

 

[knot4u]

Here we go again. People that chose to live next to an airport are now complaining about it. I hope if they succeed they house the ever present homeless people there, wouldn't want the hundreds of t-hangars go to waste in the middle of a housing crisis. I'm going to call my councilperson and my congressperson. I wonder if the people who pay their taxes would be a better neighbor? Time will tell.

Community Group Calls For Whiteman Airport In Pacoima To Be Shut Down

The non-profit group Pacoima Beautiful is calling on Los Angeles County make safety a priority, and shut down Whiteman Airport, where there have been a number of plane crashes recently.

losangeles.cbslocal.com

 

[mightynimbus]

Here we go again. People that chose to live next to an airport are now complaining about it. I hope if they succeed they house the ever present homeless people there, wouldn't want the hundreds of t-hangars go to waste in the middle of a housing crisis. I'm going to call my councilperson and my congressperson. I wonder if the people who pay their taxes would be a better neighbor? Time will tell.

Community Group Calls For Whiteman Airport In Pacoima To Be Shut Down

The non-profit group Pacoima Beautiful is calling on Los Angeles County make safety a priority, and shut down Whiteman Airport, where there have been a number of plane crashes recently.

losangeles.cbslocal.com

Yep, put up a massive homeless encampment,

 

[knot4u]

KVNY might have room for some of those airplanes, but it will be way more expensive. Burbank is not GA friendly. Agua Dulce is closed. Where are these people supposed to park their airplanes? Not to mention the EAA Chapter 40 that's been there forever. Do they want LA County Fire to shut down their helicopter operation there? What about the news helicopters that operate from there? If it closes I hope Pacoima chokes on the feelings of these idiots as it gasps for the tax dollars they'll lose.

 

[mightynimbus]

KVNY might have room for some of those airplanes, but it will be way more expensive. Burbank is not GA friendly. Agua Dulce is closed. Where are these people supposed to park their airplanes? Not to mention the EAA Chapter 40 that's been there forever. Do they want LA County Fire to shut down their helicopter operation there? What about the news helicopters that operate from there? If it closes I hope Pacoima chokes on the feelings of these idiots as it gasps for the tax dollars they'll lose.

VNY fuel costs as well, some owners would have an unpleasant ding to their budget.
To get cheaper 100LL at VNY you are self serve if I remember correctly, been a few years since I worked outta there.

 

[knot4u]

VNY fuel costs as well, some owners would have an unpleasant ding to their budget.
To get cheaper 100LL at VNY you are self serve if I remember correctly, been a few years since I worked outta there.

I'm not talking about fuel, I'm talking about square footage. The owners that now have hangars will be lucky to share a hangar or just tie down outside. Where are the rest of the airplanes going to go? I suppose Camarillo might be able to absorb some of them and maybe some of the airports in the San Gabriel valley and other airports to the east like Cable and Chino. I have no idea if Santa Paula has any room. In the middle of the sprawl of the San Fernando Valley there's Whiteman Airport, a place where anyone that might scrape up enough money to buy an airplane can store it, and they'd be doing it amongst a lot of like minded people. If you get a chance go down there on a warm summer weekend evening and walk around, lots of open hangars, friendly people, barbecues and coolers. I know it sounds quaint, but it really is the last vestige of that sort of community in the valley. An odd story, a few years ago a friend flew his Bonanza in with his wife and I was waiting at the transient parking gate but I didn't know the code. I called him as they were unloading and he didn't know it either. I had the gate open by the time they walked over, wanna guess what the 4 digit code was?

 

[CFI A&P]

KVNY might have room for some of those airplanes, but it will be way more expensive. Burbank is not GA friendly. Agua Dulce is closed. Where are these people supposed to park their airplanes? Not to mention the EAA Chapter 40 that's been there forever. Do they want LA County Fire to shut down their helicopter operation there? What about the news helicopters that operate from there? If it closes I hope Pacoima chokes on the feelings of these idiots as it gasps for the tax dollars they'll lose.

The movie One Six Right covers this subject, well airport closures and urban sprawling, with VNY is the focal point. Don’t worry about the loss of tax revenue, because the airport will be bulldozed and built over - it will become a new housing development or a commercial site and they’ll get the tax revenue back one way or another.

SMO will face the same fate, HTO is probably not far behind, same for RHV. At RHV they’re trying to starve the airport of fuel citing environmental concerns, but the loss of aviation commerce benefits who? You’ll find that this is the same formula across the country: A developer wants the land using environmental concerns and or cutting of fuel sales is just the mechanism to close it.

Think of Caddy Shack, Rodney Dangerfield wants the golf course so he can build condos on it.

Fun fact; the only new public airport built since 9/11 is in Panama City, FL (KECP).

 

[mightynimbus]

I'm not talking about fuel, I'm talking about square footage. The owners that now have hangars will be lucky to share a hangar or just tie down outside. Where are the rest of the airplanes going to go? I suppose Camarillo might be able to absorb some of them and maybe some of the airports in the San Gabriel valley and other airports to the east like Cable and Chino. I have no idea if Santa Paula has any room. In the middle of the sprawl of the San Fernando Valley there's Whiteman Airport, a place where anyone that might scrape up enough money to buy an airplane can store it, and they'd be doing it amongst a lot of like minded people. If you get a chance go down there on a warm summer weekend evening and walk around, lots of open hangars, friendly people, barbecues and coolers. I know it sounds quaint, but it really is the last vestige of that sort of community in the valley. An odd story, a few years ago a friend flew his Bonanza in with his wife and I was waiting at the transient parking gate but I didn't know the code. I called him as they were unloading and he didn't know it either. I had the gate open by the time they walked over, wanna guess what the 4 digit code was?

Oh I get it, I did not want to re-make your valid points, I was dusting it with some sprinkles

 

[knot4u]

The movie One Six Right covers this subject, well airport closures and urban sprawling, with VNY is the focal point. Don’t worry about the loss of tax revenue, because the airport will be bulldozed and built over - it will become a new housing development or a commercial site and they’ll get the tax revenue back one way or another.

SMO will face the same fate, HTO is probably not far behind, same for RHV. At RHV they’re trying to starve the airport of fuel citing environmental concerns, but the loss of aviation commerce benefits who? You’ll find that this is the same formula across the country: A developer wants the land using environmental concerns and or cutting of fuel sales is just the mechanism to close it.

Think of Caddy Shack, Rodney Dangerfield wants the golf course so he can build condos on it.

Fun fact; the only new public airport built since 9/11 is in Panama City, FL (KECP).

You're right. But where are these people going to store their airplanes? I remember flying into Agua Dulce as a student and getting a hot dog (the restaurant was known for it's hot dogs) with my instructor and it was fun. Fast forward a few months and while I was doing my private checkride the DPE had me fly there as an "alternate" for "weather", I did everything right, except for the go around, he called traffic on the runway but there was no traffic on the runway, I could see the entire runway and there wasn't an airplane on it or the taxiway so I told him there was no traffic, he told me there was traffic on the runway and I was beginning to wonder if he might've been having some sort of issue. Then he finally said just go around, no problem, transition from final to a climb, as we were climbing out the lady monitoring the CTAF kept asking for my tail number and saying how they were going to charge a landing fee. I had no idea how to answer and I looked at the examiner, the whole thing was his idea anyway, and he told me to ignore her and just fly back to KVNY. Not long after that the airport was closed completely. We're losing these cool spots where kids on the fence can actually get inside and it makes me sad. And yes, I did pass that checkride.

 

[fholbert]

It's not like the neighborhood around Whiteman carries any political clout. Warehouses and public housing, really a bad area. Don't think there's anything to worry about.

 

[SteveC]

You're right. But where are these people going to store their airplanes?
...

Capitalism will handle it. Stand aside.

 

[NovemberEcho]

HTO is probably not far behind,

HTO is already decided. Closing to the public early March. Supposedly going to re-open as a private field with PPR, but the reason it’s closing first rather than transitioning to private is so the town can “steal” the $10mil sitting in the airport fund and allocate to other town projects. Personally I (and most of the LI aviation community) does not expect it to reopen.

 

[fholbert]

You're right. But where are these people going to store their airplanes? I remember flying into Agua Dulce as a student and getting a hot dog (the restaurant was known for it's hot dogs) with my instructor and it was fun. Fast forward a few months and while I was doing my private checkride the DPE had me fly there as an "alternate" for "weather", I did everything right, except for the go around, he called traffic on the runway but there was no traffic on the runway, I could see the entire runway and there wasn't an airplane on it or the taxiway so I told him there was no traffic, he told me there was traffic on the runway and I was beginning to wonder if he might've been having some sort of issue. Then he finally said just go around, no problem, transition from final to a climb, as we were climbing out the lady monitoring the CTAF kept asking for my tail number and saying how they were going to charge a landing fee. I had no idea how to answer and I looked at the examiner, the whole thing was his idea anyway, and he told me to ignore her and just fly back to KVNY. Not long after that the airport was closed completely. We're losing these cool spots where kids on the fence can actually get inside and it makes me sad. And yes, I did pass that checkride.

Agua Dulce never closed. The restaurant closed but not the airport.

 

[knot4u]

It's not like the neighborhood around Whiteman carries any political clout. Warehouses and public housing, really a bad area. Don't think there's anything to worry about.

I agree, but the internet provides people without any education or experience a podium to shout from, and at least in LA the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, oftentimes with unintended consequences.

 

[SteveC]

I agree, but the internet provides people without any education or experience a podium to shout from, and at least in LA the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, oftentimes with unintended consequences.

The decision makers aren't very power-politic savvy, eh?

 

[knot4u]

Agua Dulce never closed. The restaurant closed but not the airport.

Are you sure? I was told it had closed and oddly enough I was looking at it on Google Earth the other day and there weren't any airplanes when that picture was taken. Maybe they tried to make it a private airpark?

 

[CFI A&P]

HTO is already decided. Closing to the public early March. Supposedly going to re-open as a private field with PPR, but the reason it’s closing first rather than transitioning to private is so the town can “steal” the $10mil sitting in the airport fund and allocate to other town projects. Personally I (and most of the LI aviation community) does not expect it to reopen.

I heard part of that, but figured the PPR would be so difficult to obtain, everyone will just plan on going to FOK until the self-fulfilling prophecy of closing HTO happens. “See, the airport gets so little traffic, it is a waste of resources and we’re going to close.”

 

[knot4u]

The decision makers aren't very power-politic savvy, eh?

No Steve. Look at LA and tell me I'm wrong.

 

[SteveC]

I agree, but the internet provides people without any education or experience a podium to shout from, and at least in LA the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, oftentimes with unintended consequences.

The decision makers aren't very power-politic savvy, eh?

No Steve. Look at LA and tell me I'm wrong.

Didn't you just say "the squeaky wheel always get the grease"? Are you saying that the "squeaky wheels" are the actual political power players in LA, not the big-money donators?

 

[knot4u]

Didn't you just say "the squeaky wheel always get the grease"? Are you saying that the "squeaky wheels" are the actual political power players in LA, not the big-money donators?

Yes. KVNY isn't going anywhere regardless of people complaining. That's where the money is. KWHP is in a mixed industrial/housing area in a "bad" area. Imagine living next to a concrete plant. But the money has no stake in it, their airplanes aren't there, they don't even know it exists so they're not likely to speak out. This isn't Michigan. So the squeaky wheel will get a lot of media attention, and it helps their cause to be viewed as poor and victimized by airplanes falling out of the sky. So in this particular instance the squeaky wheel might shut down that airport after they decided to rent an apartment nearby, the valley has tens of thousands of apartment buildings and small homes for rent but they chose to move next to an airport thats been there for more than half a century. I hate them.