Minutes of the Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee 5/18/97 The Little River Airport Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee met on Sunday, 18 May 1997 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm in the Clubhouse at The Woods, 43300 Little River Airport Road, Little River. Four committee members were present: Joel Bornstein, Trey Loy, Tim Scully, and Fran Tucker. Lee Edmundson and Grant Wheeler also attended. Andy Becker was present for the latter half of the meeting. We agreed that the next Ad Hoc meeting will take place Sunday, June 1 from 4-6pm at the Woods. Minutes ------- The minutes of the last two meetings were approved. Tim said he'd correct the 4/20 minutes which misspelled Lee's name. Discussion of the 5/4 minutes led to a discussion of the limits on large aircraft use of Little River Airport. Tim briefly explained FAR part 139 which regulates aircraft with seats for more than about 19 passengers. [Research of the FARs after the meeting revealed that Part 139 applies to aircraft capable of carrying 30 passengers or more.] At one time, Little River was certified under Part 139, but this added substantially to the cost of the County's insurance policy for the airport. When the budget got tight, this part of the airport's insurance was dropped and the County stopped Part 139 operations at Little River. The Ad Hoc Committee looked into this two years ago, in the context of movie company use of the airport. At one time, large passenger jets were used by movie companies to bring their crews to Mendocino for filming movies. The volunteer fire departments from miles around used to come to provide adaquate emergency services. Our research determined that movie companies are able to come to Mendocino with smaller aircraft and that Part 139 certification is not essential to their use of the airport. There are no plans to renew Part 139 certification for Little River Airport. Reports on recent events ------------------------ Tim reported that he received a FAX from Ukiah, with the agenda for the 5/19/97 Health, Welfare, Planning and Transportation committee meeting. The AAC resolution is agendized for 11:30-12:00. A phone call to Norma, the clerk of the committee, yielded the following. - the committee feels that it has adequate public input. - it wants to spend the 1/2 hour on 5/19 working with County Counsel to revise the resolution - the full Board will probably hear the matter on June 10 [it now appears that this has been delayed until after June 10] - Tim suggested that there may be quite a bit of comment on this topic at the Board meeting. Norma said she would suggest 30 minutes on the Board agenda Tim further reported that he had done a little work on the CAD map of the airport vicinity and passed around maps showing how the Coastal Zone clips the corner of the airport property. Someone pointed out that last year's timber harvest was inside the Coastal Zone. He also read a letter from Mr. and Mrs. E. Davenport, writing in favor of the proposed GPS approach, and he offered to read Dr. Jonas' letter in support of the GPS approach. Everyone had already seen this. He also read a letter from Dean Strupp in support of the GPS approach. Official Airport Committee -------------------------- Trey said he's worried about a possible conflict with the Brown Act if we continue to meet off the airport, at the Woods, after the committee becomes official. He said he thinks that the Brown Act requires meetings to be held on the property about which the committee is meeting. We agreed that Tim will write to the Supervisors and ask them to pose this question to Peter Klein. Trey said he'd get Tim the exact section number for the paragraph in the Brown Act that raised this concern. Trey went on to say that if there's no Brown Act problem, he thinks that holding meetings at The Woods is a good plan - it may reduce polarization and make it easier for non-pilots to participate. The committee agreed that Tim should send a FAX to the Supervisors, reminding them of the changes we recommend in the draft resolution. We reviewed the text of the proposed changes in the 4/20/97 minutes. We also agreed that Tim should ask for a copy of the revised resolution. Letter to Coast Guard --------------------- Trey said we should write to the Coast Guard and ask them why they come to Little River for practice approaches. Someone else said we should also ask them if they have a private instrument approach to Little River - could they get in if they had to? Andy said that there are two Coast Guard commands - the fixed wing aircraft are commanded by McClellan AFB in Sacramento, and the Sea King helicopters are based in Arcata. He also said that the Coast Guard has asked him about getting jet fuel at Little River. They lose 40 minutes of flight time making a round trip to Ukiah to refuel. Trey pointed out that the neighbors don't want jet fuel to be sold at Little River, because they are afraid it would encourage more jet and helicopter traffic. Andy said that many jets already come, they just buy their fuel elsewhere. For example, a jet from Texas had to stop in Reno for fuel because he couldn't get it at Little River. The County lost $300 in revenue from that one sale. Lee said that the Master Plan is 8 years old and that the official committee may be asked to update or revise it. Trey said that no change is needed - neighbors just want to keep the airport the way it is. He considers it worth allowing the airport to run a deficit, just leave it as is. Tim read a response to the GPS survery which Ukiah's airport manager submitted. Ukiah estimates that getting their several instrument approaches may have increased traffic by 10-20%. Tim said he believes that this increase is from the various commercial users of the airport, such as Fed Ex, UPS and the Forest Service. Grant said that Ukiah's instrument approach is more sophisiticated than the one proposed for Little River. Tim said that he doesn't believe that any commercial operator (such as Fed Ex or UPS) is interested in operating from Little River - he did a telephone survey of these and other operators last year and was told that there isn't enough demand - it is more cost effective for UPS and Fed Ex to truck to and from Ukiah. Lee said it isn't customer demand but cost that is the deciding factor. Fran said that the Ukiah airport is Municipal - they have actively worked to develop the airport to generate revenue. Charles Peterson's letter makes it clear that the County doesn't plan expansion at Little River. Lee said - Charles is only one of 5 votes. Mike Scannel (County Administrator) wants the airport to break even or make a profit. The discussion touched on the airport's underground fuel tanks and the 1998 deadline. Trey said that the tanks won't be coming out, the 1998 deadline was a paper tiger. Lee passed out copies of a report on research he'd done with Vickie Spitiacci of Reach, the Ft. Bragg hospital's emergency service and with Rick Page, Mendocino County District Preparedness coordinator. Reach had 20 fixed wing aircraft requests in the 1996-7 period. 35% were declined due to weather. There were 78 helicopter requests during the same period, of which 19% were declined due to bad weather. All requests were logged as emergencies, though some may have been elective. Rick was in favor of a GPS approach at Little River. Although Emergency Operations has a plan to bring in a portable tower, lights, beacon, etc., there might not be time in a disaster to establish a GPS approach. This could delay emergency operations in bad weather. Rick was also strongly in favor of an AWOS or ASOS (automated weather station). Andy Becker commented that helicopters can operate VFR in worse weather than fixed wing aircraft, but they are much more expensive. There was some discussion about the lack of weather data from Little River as a contributing factor to some of the declined emergency flights. The weather may not always have been as bad as they thought. Trey said that in a major earthquake, Highway 1 would be closed, so any emergency airlift to Little River would be of limited value. Trey believes that Coast Guard boats and ships would be of more help in such a disaster. He also pointed out the possible problem if an airlift aircraft arrived and the weather was below landing minimums. Andy said that the Coast Guard hospital ship Mercy is moving its base from San Francisco to San Diego. Lee gave Tim a FAX from Steven Antler to the Supervisors regarding the AAC resolution. Lee also asked Tim to put his letter to the Supervisors into the record. Fran asked if "immediate neighbors" could be pilots. Steve Antler's proposal specifically excluded that possibility. Fran wondered if there should be any designation of how many members should be pilots or non-pilots. Joel said that the issue has become too polarized. He feels that the community is ganging up on pilots. Trey said that he sometimes feels that the pilots gang up on him. Tim asked if Trey felt he had been muzzled or intimidated. Trey said he certainly felt intimitated by being a minority. Trey said that if we get mad, at least we come back to the next meeting and keep working together. Andy said that in Marin County, the AAC has the airport supervisor attend all meetings. Fran asked if this was done ex officio - she said that the Woods meetings work that way, when she attends as manager. Trey and Lee were invited to a meeting on the 27th being held by Diane Wiederman and other active opponents of the airport. He believes they plan to discuss forming a separate committee. Trey and Lee were uncertain about attending. It depends on what the Supervisors decide. Lee said he'd tried to encourage the opponents to come to this AAC meeting. Joel said - they want to maintain polarization. Lee said that he liked the draft GPS report. He feels that we are trying to practice "big boat" politics, in contrast to the divisive approach some opponents are taking. Some folks don't want to know the facts. Grant said that he doesn't have much sympathy for people who oppose without the facts. Trey said that only a few people on each committee do the work but the other folks need a place to have their say. Fran said it is ok for the committee to continue meeting at the Woods. We agreed to meet next on June 1 at 4pm at The Woods. The agenda will be: - approve minutes of previous meeting - reports on recent events - official Airport Advisory Committee - GPS instrument approach - agree on agenda for next meeting Ad Hoc Airport Committee voting members: ----------------------------------------- Joel Bornstein pilot, flight instructor lives near airport Trey Loy non-pilot, lives near airport Jack Reichel pilot, businessman Tim Scully pilot, computer programmer, lives near airport commutes by air to Oakland weekly Ray Yates non-pilot, Albion businessman Fran Tucker non-pilot, neighbor of the airport manages the Woods Ad Hoc Committee alternate members: ----------------------------------- Michael Moore pilot, economist Dick Ahrens pilot airport neighbor Susan Winding airport neighbor, non-pilot, local business owner ********************************************* * AIRPORT MEETING Sunday June 15 at 4PM * ********************************************* Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee An Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee has been formed, consisting of a mixture of pilots and neighbors of Little River Airport. The committee's next meeting will be from 4pm-6pm on Sunday June 15 at the Clubhouse at The Woods, 43300 Little River Airport Rd. We usually meet every other Sunday. Interested parties are welcome to attend these meetings. The agenda for this meeting is: - approve minutes of last meeting - reports on recent events - official airport committee resolution - letter to Coast Guard - GPS instrument approach - agree on agenda for next meeting The committee is seeking additional alternate non-pilot members who are interested in working on airport issues. We are meeting every 2 weeks on Sunday from 4-6PM. Interested parties may send comments by mail to: Tim Scully Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee