another airport that may go down (BDR)

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.... 517515&rfi=8


http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,14...earch=filt er

Looks like someone needs to check into whether or not there have been
any AIP grants and if they are going to run for any length of time (say
5 years).

Later
Steve.T
PP ASEL/Instrument

That's an AOPA job. Hope they get on the ball and come down harder than
they did on Meigs Field.



"steve.t" wrote in message
oups.com...
Looks like someone needs to check into whether or not there have been
any AIP grants and if they are going to run for any length of time (say
5 years).

Later
Steve.T
PP ASEL/Instrument

It sounds like it's time for Sikorsky to step up and say, "You close the
airport, we are leaving the state."

I'm based at BDR and there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

The airport is actually in the town of Stratford but the city of
Bridgeport owns it. Stratford wanted some tax money for it as it is
quite a few acres of property. Bridgeport said "we are a municipal
organization, we don't have to pay property taxes" so Stratford took
them to court and the court sided with Bridgeport so it's been a ****ing
match ever since.

What Stratford doesn't realize is that Bridgeport is not going to be
handing back to the FAA any grant money, they don't have it to spare.

Bridgeport has lost pretty much all the manufacturing jobs it ever had,
there are factory buildings and warehouses standing empty and loads of
vacant space waiting for people to build something on it. There's no
demand for space in the Bridgeport area. Transportation is a disaster
here with I-95 choked with traffic and construction. Labor costs are
high and Connecticut has a pretty business-unfriendly
unemployment-insurance setup compared to other states. Most of the
manufacturing jobs have gone out of the country or down south. Hell,
even the presidential helicopter got awarded to Lockheed who are in bed
with some overseas outfits (who will wind up making parts for it).

The Urban Land Institute aparrently looked at the land and came up with
this proposal pretty quickly so you know how much thought went into it.

Across the street from the airport is the old Avco-lycoming factory
where until 6 or so years ago they built the turbine engines for the
tanks. That whole property except for a few small companies is sitting
empty and idle. There's no demand for manufacturing space.

This is just a politicians way to try and make some brownie points with
the constituents. They figure that the voters in town would rather have
a bunch of warehouses and tractor-trailers in their neighborhoods
instead of the few aircraft and very little auto traffic.

Robert



AirMan wrote:

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.... 517515&rfi=8


http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,14...earch=filt er

Sikorsky doesn't use that airport, they have their own up the river
who's class Delta abuts BDR's. Sikorsky lost the bid for the new
presidential helicopters as well. They are not having a good year.

jsmith wrote:

It sounds like it's time for Sikorsky to step up and say, "You close the
airport, we are leaving the state."

So if you had to give the odds of the airport being closed in the next 5
years, what would those odds be?

The decision on the Prez' chopper was undoubtedly a thumb in the eye payback
to the rabid anti-Bush Democrats that dominate CT national politics in the
region, in particular Dodd, Lieberman and DeLauro (3rd Congressional
District). Now these clowns are all in a dither to try to explain the
decision, blaming it on everybody except themselves. The contract value was
not all that big for Sikosky, but the symbolism...its the first time the
Prez will be flying around in a non-Sikorsky chopper.

No way that Bridgeport will close BDR down, if for no other reason than to
tweak Stratford's nose. But it'll be the final nail in Bridgeport's economic
coffin if they do.

The airport is woefully underutilized. If the region had some decent
corporate activity, that place would be buzzing busy, just as it was as
late as the mid-eighties when it had scheduled regionals.

I read a while ago that Bob Crandall was considering basing his new air taxi
operation, POGO, at BDR.




"Robert Chambers" wrote in message
. com...
I'm based at BDR and there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

The airport is actually in the town of Stratford but the city of
Bridgeport owns it. Stratford wanted some tax money for it as it is quite
a few acres of property. Bridgeport said "we are a municipal
organization, we don't have to pay property taxes" so Stratford took them
to court and the court sided with Bridgeport so it's been a ****ing match
ever since.

What Stratford doesn't realize is that Bridgeport is not going to be
handing back to the FAA any grant money, they don't have it to spare.

Bridgeport has lost pretty much all the manufacturing jobs it ever had,
there are factory buildings and warehouses standing empty and loads of
vacant space waiting for people to build something on it. There's no
demand for space in the Bridgeport area. Transportation is a disaster
here with I-95 choked with traffic and construction. Labor costs are high
and Connecticut has a pretty business-unfriendly unemployment-insurance
setup compared to other states. Most of the manufacturing jobs have gone
out of the country or down south. Hell, even the presidential helicopter
got awarded to Lockheed who are in bed with some overseas outfits (who
will wind up making parts for it).

The Urban Land Institute aparrently looked at the land and came up with
this proposal pretty quickly so you know how much thought went into it.

Across the street from the airport is the old Avco-lycoming factory where
until 6 or so years ago they built the turbine engines for the tanks.
That whole property except for a few small companies is sitting empty and
idle. There's no demand for manufacturing space.

This is just a politicians way to try and make some brownie points with
the constituents. They figure that the voters in town would rather have a
bunch of warehouses and tractor-trailers in their neighborhoods instead of
the few aircraft and very little auto traffic.

Robert



AirMan wrote:

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.... 517515&rfi=8


http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,14...earch=filt er

Robert Chambers wrote:
Sikorsky doesn't use that airport, they have their own up the river
who's class Delta abuts BDR's.

Right. A private heliport with its own Class D airspace. A real oddity.

It's a favorite BFR question of mine: "You're flying at 2000 from HPN to
GON along the shoreline. Describe all the various airspace you fly
through". The vast majority of people get BDR and HVN, but don't have a
clue that KJSD even exists, let alone has a class D airspace! My guess is
it's the most frequently busted airspace in the world.

We've had JSD's ATC down at safety meetings on a few occasions, they are
really nice folk but don't enjoy having their airspace busted. The
Brigeport ATIS tells you if JSD is open or not that's how much of a
problem it is.

They WILL see you they have better radar than NY Approach has, they can
see planes pretty much down to the ground at BDR - they even manage the
aircraft out of Florida where they do testing.

The JSD Folks will give you a transition pretty much for the asking
unless they are doing a lot of flying that day. The heliport also would
make a good emergency landing spot if you can't make it back to BDR.

Good BFR question though Roy, I'm sure the JSD folk would appreciate
more people doing their homework like this.

Robert

Roy Smith wrote:

Robert Chambers wrote:

Sikorsky doesn't use that airport, they have their own up the river
who's class Delta abuts BDR's.


Right. A private heliport with its own Class D airspace. A real oddity.

It's a favorite BFR question of mine: "You're flying at 2000 from HPN to
GON along the shoreline. Describe all the various airspace you fly
through". The vast majority of people get BDR and HVN, but don't have a
clue that KJSD even exists, let alone has a class D airspace! My guess is
it's the most frequently busted airspace in the world.