"Dave S" wrote in message
ink.net...
Ok... I am a firm believer in private property and courtesy...

However.. if this is a PRIVATE field then the city cops have no business
enforcing what amounts to "traffic laws" on this PRIVATE PROPERTY. You
cant get a speeding ticket for ignoring a stop sign on a private road or
in a private parking lot...because city traffic rules dont apply there.

Minor nit: if the private property owner asks for traffic laws to be
enforced, they may be. For example, at a local business campus, some roads
are private. But speed and stop sign enforcement has been done in the past,
on request to the local law enforcement.

More relevant to this particular discussion, note that the laws are actually
part of the zoning regulations, and violations are criminal offenses, not
infractions (as one might expect). There is plenty of precedence for such
laws being enforced on private property.

But, semantics aside.. this is a small affluent town, with a small
affluent town mentality, that stacks the deck against the out of towner
who cuts it close. I think it would be WONDERFUL if they put in an ASOS of
some kind and tied an "airport closed" message to a photo cell...

I certainly agree that the necessary information needs to be made available
to the pilot. Your idea of an ASOS with a notice as to whether the airport
is open or closed is an excellent one. But, my bet is that most
"violations" occur either just before or just after sunset, and inasmuch as
the arrests are probably a decent money maker for the city, there's probably
not much support for spending public money for the benefit of the private
airport.

I also think that given the criminal nature of the offense, an arrest needs
to be accompanied by more than just the officer's statement. Real proof of
violation needs to be provided. Finally, I think it's absurd that a
violation of even a half hour could be considered legitimate, given the
likely true nature of the regulation (noise abatement). Aeronautical safety
must be given highest precedence, and an allowance for the sometimes
variable nature of flight times must be made.

As I mentioned before, I suspect anyone who cared enough could actually take
a violation through the court system and come out on top. But you need
someone willing to pursue it that far, without any guarantee of winning.

Pete