Reminder - Warwick - N72 Fly In

[rkittine]

Hi,

Just wanted to again ask who thinks they may be coming to the Fly In at Warwick on Sunday July 17th? And, the number of people in your plane / group.

Please respond here or E-mail me at rkittine"at sign"aol"dot"com

Looking forward to seeing a lot of nice Aeroncas and meet a lot of great Aeronca drivers. This is my first attempt at this, so if it seems like a good place to meet, I will try to set up something more formal next year or maybe in the Fall.

(Other tube and fabric planes welcome)

Right now there is no rain date.

Ciao - Bob

[rkittine]

For those coming, please check Notams for the airport in advance. We will be closing the grass runway 26 / 8 for parking, but have not determined what hours and whether we will do this on Saturday too.

21 L / 3 R (Paved) and 21 R / 3 L (Grass) will be available.

Unicom 123.00

[rkittine]

Also check weather as we do not have a Rain Date. The advanced forecast for Saturday looks Iffy!

[DC Krog]

Just checking but the fly-in is on SUNDAY the 17th. I don't want to be a day early! If the the weather is nice I should make it up there.

DC Krog
7AC-4084
NC85344

[rkittine]

There are some people that are going to try to come on Satursday and will be staying over. The advanced forecast I was able to get the other day only went as far out as Saturday. Now I have one that covers Sunday and at this point it looks great. Hope to see you there.

[DC Krog]

Thanks for the update and hope to see you there.

DC Krog
NC85344
7AC-4084

[rkittine]

Things are all set for tomorrow. 26 / 8 will be used for parking and is closed to transients. If you think you need that runway do to wind, call in on Unicom 123.00.

We will try to keep parking far enough away from the active part of 26 / 8 to allow for use if necessary.

Paved 21 L and 3 R will be open all day as will 21 R and 3 L - Grass.

If you see a plane of the same model as yours park in that line as we will try to put 7 Series, L Series, 11 Series, 15 Series and Citabtrias into parking groups.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

Regards, RPK

[rkittine]

Just wanted to thank all you Aeronca Drivers that came. It was a great day. Next year I am planning on Mid-May to beat the summer vacation rush.

Hope to see you all again somewhere soon.

Regards, Bob

[rkittine]

There are more pictures on www.Aeronca.org

My 7CCM and a Few More

7CCM - CROPPED - RS - 3.jpg (76.25 KiB) Viewed 7652 times

[MikeB]

Somehow I almost hate to ask this question but how do those of you who are involved with flyin's handle the liability issue? We (the Flying Club) have had a pancake breakfast and fly in every June for at least 20 years. Never had any issues but it's always been in the back of my mind since I was president of the flying club for many years and still serve as unofficial 'airport manager'. Finally wrote 'term limits' into the by laws and wrote myself out of a job . Liability insurance is out of the question as it would show a loss for us. We always do Young Eagles if the weather is good and that event is covered by EAA insurance (after meeting their critieria). Personally, I feel it's a great event for community relations as the community really turns out especially if the weather is good. There is no charge for the pancakes (donation only) and we are incorporated as a 'non-stock corporation'.

Mike

[rkittine]

Hi Mike,

That is a very good question and a hard one to answer. We invite people to stop by and this is a Municipal Airport and not a private strip, so it is open to the public to begin with. From that standpoint, I believe we have the same liability if people just drop in as when we invite them to drop in. This Fly In was sponsored by the Warwick Valley Pilots Association and myself. We did not charge for the lunch, which I personnally paid for and did not even accept contributions. I am not sure how I will handle it next year, but that is what I did this year. I am a member of the Pilots Association, which runs the airport under lease from the municipality, but we are insured as any regular airport normally is.

I know that this does not fully answer your question, but I hope that it helps a little.

Regards, RPK

[MikeB]

Thanks! Obviously being a municipal airport your situation is different than our 'private' airport. We never deny anyone flying in but try to make them aware that we have no insurance. It's too bad we have to worry about stuff like this when we're trying to do something that benefits the community at large. Without us there would be no airport, small operation as it is and all funds are used for airport improvements. Other expenses are paid by hangar owners and flying club members.

Mike

[rkittine]

Hi Mike,

I think that most privately owned airports without insurance, get their places listed as Restricted / Private, even though there is no one restricting landings. This is the case with the seaplane base that I use in the Hudson River at August Field. The owner lets anyone who wants to come in, but it is listed on the chart as R.

1C3 - Argyle, is privately owned, but he has insurance and the airport is listed as unrestricted.

There are also some grass runways listed as Agricultural? I guess that was to allow for dusters or something. One such one is for sale in Lake Katrina New York, you can see it on Barnstormers. John Morrow, the owner may have some additional information he can share with you. He will allow people to fly into his grass field, only if they get a check out from him as it has some issues, but no restrictions on landing on the Esopus Stream which is adjacent to his property and where his private seaplane base is.

Ciao - Robert

[MikeB]

Thanks... I am interested in how other 'private or restricted' airports operate. As I mentioned previously, we've never had any issues and most of those who fly in on our Saturday morning 'airport loafer/coffeedrinking/landing judging ' are members anyway. Obviously our situation isn't going to change a whole lot unless there's a big jump in aircraft ownership which I doubt will happen. Basically we (the Flying Club) own the airport and lease the ground space to the hangar owners for .12 a square foot which includes membership and electricity. This pretty much pays the bill and taxes for the year with a little leftover to put in the bank for emergencies.

Airport is: 3WN9 on airnav.com and the website is: http://vikingflyingclub.community.officelive.com

Should also mention that anyone headed to or from Oshkosh is welcome to camp overnight. We're about 18nm SSE of EAU and about 135 nm west of OSH.

Mike

[Nathan K. Hammond]

Robert, glad the fly-in went well. It's nice to have little places to sneak out too on the weekend.

Mike, as for liability, it's always on our mind at Peachstate. In fact, it was the major drive to build the new museum and restaurant on the other side of the runway. Originally, the grill was 35 feet from the runway side, and we parked airplanes along the parallel taxiway. So people were always within a significant amount of danger, at least more so than a normal airport. During day to day operations we took it for granted, because everyone out there was affiliated with aviation. But as the fly-in's grew, so did the prescience of the general public.

The new building is about 300 feet from the runway side and sits before the displaced threshold. When we have an event, we draw hard on the EAA chapter and CAP kids to keep an eye on spinning props. There are two main aircraft sparking spots; show center where "signatory" (Aeronca's at an Aeronca flyin, Antiques at a AAA flyin) aircraft park and general parking. Signatories are wing walked in and out because of the proximity to general public, other aircraft are handled by flag men. We have a safety fence setup around the restaurant, but you can walk around it; similar to SnF or Oshkosh. We want the public to see and walk around the airplanes. But we have signs posted everywhere about spinning props, children on a lease, general safety, etc...

One of the big items to be careful of, radio advisory. For some reason, a lot of pilots forget how to fly when around other aircraft, and depend on the radio for everything from a landing clearance, to pointing out every other airplane. Understand, you can't give "clearances," only advisories. And keep them short; "wind 180 at 47, gust 88; traffic using runway 36, multiple aircraft in the area, use caution."

Basically we do everything possible to setup a safe environment and carry one day insurance for the big events (about $1500 I think.) But if something bad happens, we're still screwed. That's just the way it is.

nkh