Michael and all,
A few years ago Steel Cities Region and my local club (the North Hills
Sports Car Club) used two different public airport facilities for
autocrosses. Both were small acitive airports and we did use the runways and
were courteous (moved our stuff if an airplane needed to land or take off,
no matter how rude the pilot was). The state department of Transportation
(Penndot) funds some of the airport activity (capital expen. etc.). When
the state found out about the extracuriccular activities at the airport and
that at least the SCR people were renting the site they moved to block the
activities by threatening to cut off funds (1/2 the airports budget). The
airports succumbed to the state and eliminated our activities. The state
came to the clubs (we had been specifically targeted) and said that because
the states liability insurance was so low ($100K per incident) that they
could not afford to allow us to run. They had been sued by a motorcyclist
who had an accident at an airport race near Maryland and lost. We all felt
that it was a political motivation (Eastern PA vs. Western PA or other) but
that was the official reason given.
The state (PA) paid a lot of money in that incident. By law the state cannot
be held liable for accidents on public highways used by the public in PA (no
matter how incompetent the engineering of the road is). If used for private
use (closed event) they apparently can. Hill climbs still happen on state
maintained roads here and I do not know how.
Ray Colbert
Pittsburgh PA
Steel Cities Region
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Poorboy [mailto:bitterrootprop@nidlink.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 1:56 PM
To: team.net
Subject: Public Airport Event Sites
Hi List,
I need some information from clubs that use Public airports as their
event sites.
We have a local airport with a large pad area adjacent to an active
runway. I
have been in contact with the airport manager and he doesn't seem the
have
a problem of us renting this area, but the County attorney is against
it. The
funny thing is the Sheriff Department uses the same area for their
drivers
school. The airport we would like to use isn't a very busy facility and
doesn't
have any commercial carriers there.
Does anyone know the FAA restrictions for using areas located within an
active airport ? I worked on a flight line for years and we had several
events
at the airport while the runways were still being used. I am thinking
this is mainly
a way to keep from having to deal with us.
I want to know as much information as possible before I tackle the
County
Commisioners.
Thanks for any and all the help.
Mike
http://www.asnw.org/
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