I'm hearing my link above to the PE story is not working...so below is
the story copied in whole. What you don't see is that in another part
of the paper the District Attorney is going after our original nemesis
Jeff Stone. The tenticles of graft appear to be wide spread with Jeff
at the political center. Gliders are just part of his story/political
undoing. A train wreck couldn't happen to a more
deserving...er...self-serving.... guy.

LT


HEMET: FAA rules gliders wrongly ousted from airport



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10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, February 16, 2011

By JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise


The Federal Aviation Administration has ruled that a Hemet glider club
may return to a Hemet airport it had been forced out of by Riverside
County.

In a ruling issued this week, the FAA said a safety evaluation found
that two parallel runways at the Hemet-Ryan Airport could operate
simultaneously, contrary to the county's claims.

The issue has been under review since late 2009 when the Orange County
Soaring Association was ordered off the airport property, where it had
been based since 1991, and the runway the gliders used was closed.

Story continues below

2009 / The Press-Enterprise
A rift has been under review since 2009 when the Orange County Soaring
Association was ordered off Hemet-Ryan Airport, where it had been
based since 1991. The county can appeal the FAA decision or present a
plan to accommodate the gliders, or it risks losing all federal
funding for the airport.
"We always felt the airport can still be shared by all the users
including us," Chris Mannion, vice president of the soaring club, said
Wednesday. "All we looked for was for the county to let us be part of
this discussion on how use the airport. But the expedient thing for
them to do was to toss us off the airfield."

Riverside County now has 30 days to appeal the decision or present a
plan to accommodate the gliders, or it risks losing all federal
funding for the airport.

"Riverside County is in violation of federal law and the federal grant
obligations," according to the order.

Riverside County officials were still reviewing the FAA ruling, which
they had just received Wednesday, to decide whether to appeal, said
Chad Davies, senior airport development specialist for the county. The
Riverside County Economic Development Agency oversees the airport.

When county officials ordered the soaring club to leave the airport in
September 2009, they said it was because it was unsafe for gliders to
use a smaller runway that was 300 feet from the main runway.

Since then, gliders have been allowed to land at the Hemet airport,
but they could not be stationed at the site or use the main runway for
takeoff.

Davies said Thursday that county officials believe safety issues
remain at the airport, and will review procedures and work with the
FAA to address any outstanding issues. He said the current plan still
poses a liability.

"We see a dangerous situation and we're moving to head off an incident
before someone is killed," Davies said.

The FAA ruled that airport officials did not offer sufficient evidence
that the runway needed to be closed for safety reasons. It said they
could not restrict access and continue to receive federal funding.

A safety audit conducted at the airport last year found that gliders
could operate safely from the runway, according to the ruling.

FAA officials did make several recommendations that glider pilots said
they would agree to.

Recommendations include that all glider pilots should make calls on an
airport frequency, and that glider launches should be provided a two-
minute window clear of other runway traffic.

County officials said the gliders' removal was unrelated to a plan to
relocate or expand the Cal Fire Air Attack base that is housed at the
airport. The airport's main 4,300-foot runway is slated to be extended
by 1,300 feet as part of a $19 million renovation.

Mannion said since the soaring association was displaced from the
airport, its membership has waned. The approximately 100 gliders that
had been based in Hemet now use other airfields in Orange County, Lake
Elsinore, the Coachella Valley and the Mojave Desert.

Members said Hemet provided an ideal location because of the winds
that come off Mount San Jacinto and allow glider pilots to fly across
the area and as far as the Mexican border and the coast.

"It's really killed our club," Mannion said. "Once they shut down
operations, it scattered our members to various fields and had a real
chilling effect. This is a great asset to Hemet and we're looking
forward to return to start flying again."