With more and more municipalities assuming the role of manager and fuel supplier at our airports, the contact person and telephone number for the airport is oftentimes that of a city engineer or administrator, who works Monday thru Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and not on weekends, and who is not available to assist pilots. That makes contacting this person, especially on the weekends in the event of an emergency, or for basic services such as fuel prices and availability, and ground transportation, next to impossible.
To ensure that pilots can contact the city official responsible for airport operations at any time, we encourage all state aeronautics offices to solicit the names of persons who are available 24/7, and publish this information in their respective airport directories.
In addition, we encourage municipalities to post NOTAMS whenever needed, and when fuel is not available, it is important for the municipality to also notify each of the vendors, which solicit fuel price information for posting on the Internet so that information is removed. A pilot that sees a fuel price posted on the Internet or through flight planning software, such as AOPA’s FlyQ Electronic Flight Bag or Foreflight, may assume that the airport has fuel and may not always check NOTAMS (although they should). This is where a dedicated airport manager or fixed base operator is important to the safe and profitable operation of any airport, but the economic reality is, such services are not always possible.
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In this issue, you will read about some great advances in general aviation in regards to “sales tax exemptions” on aircraft parts and labor, and also in regards to an amendment to another state’s Recreational Use Statute to provide liability protection for private airport owners. This is the same protection afforded any landowner for such other recreational uses as snowmobiling, ATV operations, and cross-country skiing. Read also about the current status of the “Third Class Medical,” and what you can do to change this requirement.
