Minutes of the Little River Airport Advisory Committee The committee met at 9am on Friday 2/27/2004 at the Clubhouse at The Woods. 1. Open meeting at 9am 2. A. Present: Tim Scully, Kathie Sarin, Susan Winding, Cheryl Quist, Trey Loy, Jeff Osier-Mixon, Steve Schoolman B. Visitors: Eric J. Miller, Steve Ford (DOT), Tom Peters (DOT), Ann Brown C. Excused: D. Absent: 3. Minutes of the two previous meetings: approved 4. Correspondence: A. notes from a February 2 meeting between Dave Thorpe (airport supervisor) and Tim Scully B. 2/1/2004 letter from Trey Loy to the committee c/o Tim Scully C. notes from the 2/20/2004 LRAPA (Little River Airport Pilots Association) meeting 5. Steve Schoolman explained that the cost of commercial insurance rose sharply so that it no longer made economic sense for Coast Flyers to do aircraft rental, flight instruction or scenic flights. 6. Eric Miller introduced himself as an applicant for the open pilot alternate position. He has lived in the area for 25 years, is a pilot and former owner of Coast Flyers. He spoke in favor of the airport as a community resource. He now works as Battalion Chief for the Fort Bragg area for CDF (from the Navarro River to Rockport and inland to the James River). He made a correction to the notes from the LRAPA meeting, saying that native species are desirable on the airport, but that they should be mowed regularly to control their height. 7. Tom Peters commented on management of weeds in the cracks. He said that burning is good, but ideally should be followed up with crack sealing. We have an overlay in the capital improvement plan which will help a lot. But that is probably a few years off, depending on available funding. Steve Ford added that a fabric layer will be used between the existing pavement and the new overlay to stop reflective cracks from forming. The last time we did crack sealing, high pressure air was used before the sealer was applied. Sometimes a router is used. 8. Tom Peters (DOT) reported that on February 4th, Dan Gargis of Caltrans inspected the airport both for Caltrans and for the FAA. He pointed out a number of trees in the approach trapezoids which are the highest priority for removal. The 34:1 trapezoid for runway 29 has most of the problem trees. He also said that all of the brush in the runway safety areas must be cleared (an aircraft should be able to touch down there without tipping over). The transition area to the South is the next priority, followed by the transition area to the North. Eric Miller suggested hiring Byron Fales to use his front-mounted drum grinder to make a first pass over all the cleared areas so that a conventional mower can be used for ongoing maintenance. The chipping and mulching resulting from this is better than burning. Tom Peters said that the FAA hopes to get a GPS approach procedure implemented by the end of this year, once the most urgent trees have been removed and a plan agreed on for removing the others. The county will be flagging the airport property line in the next 2 weeks. Chuck Boyer has contacted Parlin Fork or Chamberlin Creek to request conservation camp crew help. Tom Peters has written to the Nature Conservancy to let them know that some trees on their property are too tall. Perhaps this will be the first step toward negotiating a land swap. 9. The county has received a letter from the FAA saying that they want next year's Capital Improvement Plan to be filed early. Tom Peters asked for the AAC to agendize this for next month so the plan can be completed by the April 5th deadline. The county plans to not file an FAA grant application this year due to lack of matching funds, but hopes to file one next year for the AWOS. They'd like to have Mead Hunt (consultants) work on the AWOS cost estimate and siting, which may take 6 months or more since it will involve considerable back and forth with the FAA. Committee members said it is very desirable for the AWOS (or ASOS) to have the ability to report ceiling and visibility. This would make it much more useful to the majority of pilots. 10. The FAA has informed the County that NOAA is scheduled to do an obstruction survey at Little River later this year (hopefully after the most urgent trees have been removed). The data from this survey will be used in designing the GPS approach and in vegetation management. 11. There was a brief discussion of cutting vs topping trees. Trey Loy said that topping is not cost-effective for airport purposes, but homeowners may choose to top their trees. 12. The committee voted unanimously to recommend appointment of Ann Brown as a non-pilot member, and to appoint Eric Miller as a pilot alternate member. 13. Steve Ford (DOT) reported that he has made more progress on refining the hangar specification. He visited Napa County airport and was shown a number of things to watch for in hangar design which Napa learned the hard way. Among other things, he learned that 3 part rolling doors tend to need frequent repair due to the bashing they suffer, Trey Loy spoke again in favor of "garage door" type doors and in opposition to rolling or sliding doors. There was some discussion of larger hangars. In the event that larger hangars are built, the county doesn't want to rent one hangar to multiple tenants, but everyone agreed that we should change the rules to allow subletting. DOT has the loan application but can't submit it until a detailed budget has been developed for the hangar project. 14. Gene Calvert approved the brochure project proposed by SouthEast Publications. Tim Scully will follow up with them to see if they are still interested. 15. Susan Winding said that 2 weeks ago an airplane engaged in aerobatics immediately after takeoff, including a roll while climbing out very steeply. She said that this is hazardous and should not be done over a residential area. It would be much safer for this activity to take place out over the ocean. 16. We agreed that the committee will meet next at 9am of Friday March 19. The agenda for this meeting is: Approve the minutes of the last two meetings Communications (letters, FAXes, etc, sent/received since last meeting) status reports and discussion on: * The GPS approach, vegetation management plan and its implementation * additional hangars at the airport * LRAPA application for a pilot/tourist supply shop * discuss filling the vacant nonpilot alternate positions on the committee * agree on the Capital Improvement Plan to be submitted to the FAA in April Reports from subcommittees Public comment Agree on a date, time and place for the next meeting Agree on agenda for next meeting NOTE: The committee is seeking two alternate non-pilot members. An alternate can vote when replacing an absent regular member. Nonpilot members and alternates must live within a 10 mile radius of the airport. Members and alternates must be registered to vote in Mendocino County and willing to attend all of the committee's meetings, which are held from 9 to 11 am on the 3rd Friday of each month in the clubhouse at The Woods. Contact Tim Scully, Trey Loy or the County Clerk for an appointment interest application for any of these positions. Members of the Little River Airport Advisory Committee ------------------------------------------------------ Trey Loy non-pilot, lives near airport Little River, CA 95456 Tim Scully Albion, CA 95410 inactive pilot (lost medical) email: computer programmer, lives near airport Steve Schoolman pilot, flight instructor & woodworker Mendocino, CA 95460 Cheryl Quist nonpilot Susan Winding airport neighbor, non-pilot, business owner Jeffrey Osier-Mixon pilot Alternate Members of the Little River Airport Advisory Committee ---------------------------------------------------------------- Kathie Sarin pilot Robin Bell nonpilot ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2/7/2004 meeting with Dave Thorpe Dave suggested that if the County were to buy a decent power mower, he would be willing to mow the weeds. Dave said that a number of people have called looking for sight-seeing flights, air taxi services or flight instruction. It appears that Coast Flyers is no longer offering these services on a regular basis, if at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trey Loy February 1, 2004 Tim Scully Chairman Little River Airport Advisory Committee 32191 Albion Ridge Road Albion, CA 95410 Subject: List of persons telephoning me for membership appointment interest application forms. Dear Tim, The following is a chronological list of persons who have interest in LRAAC membership: Calls received after December newspaper public service announcement. Dr. Glen Shols Ex-pilot Mailed an application. Milt Kuhl Worked for aircraft co. short time Sells aircraft posters. Would come to meeting. Calls after Tom Wodesky's E-mail in early January, 2004 Alberta Cottrell Mailed her application Lorraine Buranzon was to come to meeting Did not return phone messages. Sam Levine ex-pilot Was to come to January meeting Ralph Ascencio was to come to january meeting pilot on hangar list Ann Gyle Brown Came to meeting Got application Calls after January 22, 2004 Mendocino BEacon front page article: Leonard Dill son is commercial pilot on hangar list mailed him application. Bill Shaffer pilot Mailed him an application. That's all for now. Sincerely, Trey Loy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Little River Airport Pilots Association met on 2/20 and discussed vegetation management issues. Dick Ahrens reminded us that there was a discussion some years ago of planting kovar sheep fescue as ground cover. Eric Miller said this might help, but that native plants and volunteer trees will still grow in the area and will need to be controlled. Tim Scully said that whatever we plant should not attract birds, since they are a hazard. Someone mentioned attracting deer too. We talked about the idea of buying a brush hog or mower to manage the cleared areas. Eric Miller said that a dedicated machine that lives at the airport would be best. It is all too easy for seeds of undesirable plants to travel with a machine that is hauled from one job to another. We discussed the type of trees or bushes to plant as a barrier to sound, wind, etc. in the zones with a greater height limit. The suggestions included rhododendrons, shore pines and wax myrtle. We talked about the importance of controlling the weeds in the cracks of the runway and taxiway. Eric Miller said he has offered the County the use of inmate crews to do weed control, but he hasn't heard back from the County yet. There was some agreement that a weed-eater is not effective in this task.