Pre-2008 Archived Articles

Sunday, May 8, 2005
Mather Airport Celebrates 10 Years
KTXL-TV Ch 40 (FOX), Sacramento (CA)

RANCHO CORDOVA — Mather Airport celebrated its 10 year anniversary as a civilian facility Sunday. The air force base closed in 1993. Today Mather serves as a county-run cargo airport. As for Mather’s future, management says they would like to lease even more buildings and grow their cargo business.

Sunday, May 8, 2005
Commentary
An authority that has lost its way
By JOHN VAN DOORN
The San Diego (CA) North County Times

It may well be time to get rid of the kids on the San Diego County Airport Authority or to arrange spinal transplants.

Friday, May 6, 2005 Deadline on airport proposals criticized By Janine Z??iga The San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune City officials from Coronado and Imperial Beach are complaining that new deadlines to complete proposed land-use plans for nearby military airports are not realistic.

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 1, 2005; 1:28 PM

BEND, Ore. — Nancy Huntsman uses her small plane the way some mothers use their Volvos. She straps in her two children, yells at the dog to hop in the back, pops in a DVD for the kids to watch and then takes off to fly over soaring mountains and parched deserts. Three hours later, they land at an airstrip near grandmother’s house in northern California.

A congressional hearing yesterday explored the question of what to do about the ailing Aviation Trust Fund as the House Aviation Subcommittee began to examine options. The Fund, which supports airports and the airspace system as well as FAA operations, is suffering from a dwindling reserve (which could be gone by 2008). The law that authorized the current funding structure, which depends largely on an airline ticket tax, expires in 2007. (The future of the fund beyond that is now under discussion. No decision has yet been made to dissolve it.) “That [ticket-tax] approach will not sustain us into the future,” FAA Administrator Marion Blakey told the panel yesterday. “I see a need for fundamental change.” .

NBAA, NATA, GAMA And AOPA Leaders Stage Major Assault On Capitol Hill

It was a major show of unity on the part of the so-called alphabet groups — leaders from four of them testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday, all adamant against the possibility that user fees will be imposed on general aviation in America.

No title Hazardous Instruments Keep Pilots From Planes At least 12 aircraft owners at Chino Airport in California have been unable to get to their airplanes for more than a month because of their neighbor’s hobby of collecting luminescent dialed instruments. San Bernardino County officials say there are enough old airplane instruments painted with radium-226 inside two hangars occupied by Preservation Aviation Inc. to create a radiation hazard.

No title During April and May 2005, the Department of the Navy will conduct an amphibious operations training exercise along the shoreline and within facilities associated with Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California. In order to support these hazardous activities, Restricted Airspace (R2503D) has been established adjacent to existing restricted area R-2503A/B. The R2503D’s airspace…

The Little River Airport Advisory Committee (LRAAC) has been working for several months jointly with the Mendocino County Department of Transportation (DOT) on a presentation which LRAAC hopes to make to the Board of Supervisors’ Public Resources subcommittee in May. LRAAC has 4 non-pilot and 3 pilot members and advises the Board on airport matters.

Director of Airport Systems Planning San Diego Regional Airport Authority