Orange Curtain to drop at Fullerton ??

"FULLERTON June 20, 2008 – The Fullerton Municipal Airport – Orange
County's last general-aviation airfield – is $3.9 million in arrears
for city franchise payments.
City officials want the airfield's revenues to match what it costs to
operate.

Founded in 1927, the city-owned airport started paying a franchise fee
in 1982 after officials determined local government was financing many
airport services, including police, fire, accounting, employee
recruitments and benefits and the ordering of goods.
"The initial payments were $200,000 and kept constant until 1992, when
it was decided the fees should increase to keep up with inflation
according to the consumer price index," said Glenn Steinbrink, the
city's finance director.

For fiscal year 2008-09, which begins July 1, the payment will be
$320,000, which Steinbrink said the airport will be unable to make.
"If the airport weren't there and there was some other use, the city
could bring in property taxes and other taxes such as retail sales tax
or hotel-transient occupancy tax," Steinbrink said.
...
Part of the financial problems erupted when a hangar construction
project fell two years behind, and costs increased more than expected,
Steinbrink said.
In 2005, a $6.2 million, 15-year loan was secured at a 4.15 percent
interest rate. Payments were set at $569,000 annually.
Airport director Rod" Propst figures that the loss in rent from most
of the 149 new hangars over the two-year period amounted to
approximately $240,000. The project was completed in March."

IMHO, the traffic can be split between ONT, SNA and the gov. site at
Los Alamitos.

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:12:24 -0700 (PDT), wrote
in :

"FULLERTON June 20, 2008 – The Fullerton Municipal Airport – Orange
County's last general-aviation airfield – is $3.9 million in arrears
for city franchise payments.



History:
http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts...rt/history.asp
Fullerton Municipal Airport is the last general aviation airfield
still in Orange County. It traces its origins back as early as 1913
when barnstormers and crop dusters used the then vacant site as a
makeshift landing strip.

Since those inauspicious beginnings, the Airport has grown into a
modern and efficient transportation center which has played a
significant role in the growth and prosperity not only of the City of
Fullerton, but of all of Orange County.

It took a person with imagination to see a future for the 53-acre plot
of land that would become Fullerton Municipal Airport. The land, o ...

Fullerton Municipal Airport has played its part in writing aviation
history over the years. In 1949 Dick Riedel and Bill Barris piloted
the Sunkist Lady to an endurance flight record, staying aloft 42 days.
In 1965 Hacienda Heights housewife Nancy Brissey landed a two-seat
single-engine plane at the Airport after piloting it 2,500 miles from
Vero Beach, Fla., the first solo flight of such duration by a student
pilot.

The Airport has also played host to many celebrities, including
President Gerald Ford. An early celebrity was daredevil test pilot
Johnny Angel, who created a sensation when he flew a fleet of surplus
B-18 bombers from Downey to Fullerton after World War II for repairs.
He then led the fleet to Venezuela where he ran a transport operation.
With an 86-foot wing span, the bombers are the largest planes ever to
land at the Airport. In 1929 Hollywood descended on the Airport for
filming of aerial sequences for the adventure movie, "Hell's Angels."
Airport lore has it that millionaire recluse Howard Hughes also paid a
typically mysterious visit, arriving at the field shortly before
midnight one night to sign the agreement to purchase the land for his
Hughes Aircraft Ground Systems Group facility in Fullerton. Hughes
reportedly left without ever bothering to tour the property he had
just purchased in a multi-million dollar deal.

Today, Fullerton Municipal Airport encompasses 86 acres, and has room
to accommodate 600 planes. Its expansion days over, the Airport now
concentrates its energies on maintaining its reputation for excellence
as it continues to meet the present - and future - transportation
needs of the citizens of Fullerton and of all of Orange County.



Contacts:
http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts...t/contacts.asp
Location
4011 W. Commonwealth
Fullerton, CA 92833

Airport Office (714)-738-6323
Airport Office FAX (714)-738-3112
Control Tower (714)-525-1623
ATIS (Automated Terminal Information System) (714) 870-6222
ASOS (Automated Surface Observation System) (714) 870-1372
Tartuffles Restaurant (714)-870-9235
Aviation Facilities, Inc. (AFI), Air BP Fuel (714)-773-0741
General Aviation, Inc., Chevron Fuel (714)-526-6611
Air Combat USA, Inc (714)-522-7590
Cardinal Air Services, Inc. (714)-528-2290
Gerdes Aviation Services (714)-525-7545
John Edwards, CFI (714) 832-2690 or (714) 608-2434
Orange County Fire Authority, Air Ops (714)-447-0151
Fullerton Airport Pilots Association (F.A.P.A.) (714) 893-6140
Civil Air Patrol Fullerton Composite Squadron 56 (714) 866-3203
Funoutside Aviation Academy 714-992-2138

Contact us via email at:

Airport
General 714.738.6323
Manager Rod Propst 714.738.6323



http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts...ac/default.asp
Airport Advisory Committee

Note: The Airport Advisory Committee, which provided the Airport
Manager and the City Council with input on issues affecting the
airport, was disbanded by action of the City Council.

Year - 2005
Agendas Minutes
August 25, 2005
February 24, 2005

Year - 2004...



It appears that the city has amended the airport fees and authorized
funding for airport operation in the 2008-2009 budget:
http://fullerton.granicus.com/MediaP...d=&e vent_id=
http://fullerton.granicus.com/MediaP...d=&e vent_id=


IMHO, the traffic can be split between ONT, SNA and the gov. site at
Los Alamitos.

Fullerton airport is a training field with a CAP operation and
accommodations for 600 aircraft. Last time I checked, there was a CAP
operation at Las Alametos, and training is available at Santa Ana and
Long Beach, but Onterio would not be viable for aircraft owners to
relocate, and there isn't room at Santa Ana.


If Fullerton goes, Orange County will only have a single airport left:

Meadowlark Closu
http://bannerbob.net/Meadowlark.htm
As far as I can recall, the airport didn't look much different when it
closed to what it was on that first visit. The air was clean and the
hamburgers were tasty (must have been the salt air?). After leaving
East Long Beach, I made a stop at Huntington Beach airport. Huntington
Beach airport was located right where the power plant resides now, and
for many years one of the old airport buildings was visible on the
property. After landing there, I walked across PCH and spent a
little time looking at the waves. I managed to get oil stains on my
pants from walking through the ice plants that grew in the sand. Here
are few pictures from that trip: Note: You can click on the
thumbnails to enlarge them, and then click again for a
super-enlargement. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the
super-enlargement to take place; play with it.

Between East Long Beach and Fullerton were several airports: Cyprus,
Haster Farm, Horse Farm, and east of L16 was the vacant military
field, Mile Square which is now the site of several golf courses and
many houses. This picture is from a March 15th, 1950 Los Angeles
Sectional. L16 does not appear on this issue.


Note that in this 1954 San Diego Sectional that L16 is named East Long
Beach, and is 2000 feet long. Also Huntington Beach Airport is shown.
On a March 1955 both fields are shown. The Los Angeles March 19th 1956
Sectional ( not shown) has the field named Sunset Beach. In the second
picture taken from a October 3rd, 1956 San Diego Sectional the field
is shown named Sunset Beach, is now 1900 feet long, and the Huntington
Beach airport is no longer listed.





Capistrano Closu
http://www.members.tripod.com/airfie...rangeCo_SE.htm
Capistrano Airport (L38), San Juan Capistrano, CA

An unfortunate accident on May 28, 1977 brought out a lot of negative
community feelings toward Capistrano Airport.

A single-engine Citabria made a crash landing in the San Juan Creek
(which paralleled the runway at Capistrano), killing a girl who was
riding her bike in the creek wash.


Bob Cannon (who ran a banner towing business at nearby Meadowlark
Airport) recalled the details of the accident:

"I had just gotten my SkyAd business going when I was introduced to a
'competitor' from the east coast.

I hated the thought of having a new competitor but met the guy one day
when he dropped in to L16.

His name was Albert Sibi Jr., and I hired him to do a job.

Back then if a guy told me that he had a waiver I was naive enough to
believe it without asking to see the credentials.

On Memorial Day, 1977 Saturday the 28th of May Al was making a banner
pickup.

He was not using the recommended procedure of having a 3' piece of
plastic tubing over the tow cable at the aircraft release end.

That tubing prevents the tow cable from getting tangled into the tail
wheel & rudder levers.

More ever, it turned out that Al did not have a banner tow waiver nor
even a commercial license.

He disappeared after the accident & to my knowledge was never again
seen.

At least there was never any newspaper reporting of him nor any
scuttlebutt."


According to Jim Higgins,

"I believe the Capistrano airport was closed (which, as memory serves,
occurred in the late 1970s) after a banner towing plane made an
emergency landing & struck a child.

Ironically, the accident did not occur on the runway but in an
adjacent dry river bed.

It probably gave the local populace the excuse they had been seeking
to close the field."

Jim Bermingham recalled, “Capistrano Airport... was closed on June
1st, 1978.

I flew the last aircraft off of it that day.

The airport owners (property developers) were using the towplane
accident as an excuse to close their airport, so they could develop it
for more lucrative uses (as commercial property).

The owners had earlier donated the airport to the city, but the deed
had a clause that the city must use it as an airport, or the owners
could re-posses it.”

Strangely enough, even though the Capistrano Airport has been closed
for over 20 years, the San Juan Capistrano Municipal Code still has a
section dealing specifically with regulating the Capistrano Airport.

It generally limited operations at the airport to non-commercial
purposes, other than those of Capistrano Flying Service.

The 1994 USGS aerial photo showed that the site of the former airport
had been completely redeveloped, with a number of commercial buildings
built along the former location of the runway, and not a trace of the
former airport appeared to remain.




Other Orange County Airport Closures:
http://www.rapp.org/archives/2005/02/airport_closures/
February 21, 2005
Airport Closures

Over the past few years, I’ve had discussions with various people —
many of them pilots — on the subject of airport closures.

I see these closures as the biggest threat to general aviation. Even
worse, they’re a sign of an ever more homogenized society in which
anyone who has the temerity to want to fly must be either a dangerous
lunatic who obviously hasn’t been taxed enough, or — the more
understandable of the two possibilities — a terrorist.

A surprising number of my fellow aviators here in Southern California
don’t seem to think there’s a problem, despite AOPA’s warning that
airports are closing in this country at the rate of one per week. To
be sure, some pilots just aren’t married to aviation the way I am, and
don’t really care what happens to it. Especially if it happens after
their flying days are over. If GA goes away, they’ll take up golf. Or
speed walking. No skin off their backs.

But a larger percentage of those who slough off this issue probably
just haven’t been around long enough to know just how many airports
Orange County has lost. However, thanks to a tip from a fellow pilot,
I’ve located a list of the airports that were in Orange County:

* Haster Field, Westminster
* Horse Farm NOLF, Stanton
* Huntington Beach Airport, Huntington Beach
* Meadowlark Airport, Huntington Beach
* Cypress Airfield, Anaheim
* Capistrano Airport, San Juan Capistrano
* El Toro MCAS, El Toro
* Mile Square NOLF, Garden Grove
* Balboa Airport, Newport Beach
* Palisades NOLF, Newport Beach
* Hangar City Airport (later Tustin MCAS)
* Fullerton Airport, Fullerton
* John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana

And here’s the list of airports that are still he

* Fullerton Airport
* John Wayne Airport

An impressive list for a county with four million people. Aren’t w...

They miss the whole point of having the airport there. I'm sure someone knows what revenues the airport brings to the
local economy. If all the activities at the airport were 'taxed' it would not be possible to have any airport exist. I
wonder how much it costs to keep I-5 open? Do revenues from I-5 match what it costs to operate it (he he)?


wrote in message ...
"FULLERTON June 20, 2008 – The Fullerton Municipal Airport – Orange
County's last general-aviation airfield – is $3.9 million in arrears
for city franchise payments.
City officials want the airfield's revenues to match what it costs to
operate.

Founded in 1927, the city-owned airport started paying a franchise fee
in 1982 after officials determined local government was financing many
airport services, including police, fire, accounting, employee
recruitments and benefits and the ordering of goods.
"The initial payments were $200,000 and kept constant until 1992, when
it was decided the fees should increase to keep up with inflation
according to the consumer price index," said Glenn Steinbrink, the
city's finance director.

For fiscal year 2008-09, which begins July 1, the payment will be
$320,000, which Steinbrink said the airport will be unable to make.
"If the airport weren't there and there was some other use, the city
could bring in property taxes and other taxes such as retail sales tax
or hotel-transient occupancy tax," Steinbrink said.
....
Part of the financial problems erupted when a hangar construction
project fell two years behind, and costs increased more than expected,
Steinbrink said.
In 2005, a $6.2 million, 15-year loan was secured at a 4.15 percent
interest rate. Payments were set at $569,000 annually.
Airport director Rod" Propst figures that the loss in rent from most
of the 149 new hangars over the two-year period amounted to
approximately $240,000. The project was completed in March."

IMHO, the traffic can be split between ONT, SNA and the gov. site at
Los Alamitos.