John Travolta sues his home airport

Back in the early '80s, I became involved with Arthur and Terri Jones
when Arthur attempted to start an airline in the Los Angeles area using
3 B-707 aircraft that he had purchased. The attempt failed when Arthur
refused to provide adequate financial data to the DOT. Forbes listed him
as one of the 400 most wealthy individuals in the country at the time.

Arthur employed me back in Ocala as a 707 pilot and to train Terri for a
B-707 Type Rating.

I was one of the first of the pilots to fly his 707 freighter from that
runway which at the time was somewhat less than 6,000'.

At light weights, this was enough runway to takeoff as long as all four
engines were running and in fact, once past Vmcg, three engines were
enough. The problem was in getting to Vmcg. No matter how light the
weight, Vmcg required a runway length long enough to accommodate a
takeoff weight of 245,000# and at 5,600', we were only long enough for
235,000#.

I explaned this to Arthur a couple of times but he didn't seem to care.
Seems as if when he planned the runway, they (?) planned for V1, but not
for Vmcg, but V1 cannot be less than Vmcg.

Arthur was one of the most disgusting individuals that I have ever
met.....I didn't last long, a couple of flights and I was out of there,
back to Miami.

I guess that sometime after that, someone (maybe the FAA) convinced him
to extend the runway. I had been told that it could not be extended
straight ahead due to proximity to a road or houses. One can see now
that it's angle was changed to gain the extra length, and you can also
see the added section. It is my opinion that this added section was
never intended to support the weight of a B-707 except in the event of
an engine failure and an aborted takeoff (stopway).

Arthur and Terri were one of the many interesting experiences that I had
during the three furloughs that I experienced during my 24 years with
PanAm.

Check out the following links for more interesting stuff about Jones.

http://www.jumbolair.com/jumbolair.htm
http://www.jumbolair.com/blacktie.htm

Bob Moore

On 22 Jul 2007 01:14:41 GMT, Bob Moore
wrote in 28:

Arthur and Terri were one of the many interesting experiences that I had
during the three furloughs that I experienced during my 24 years with
PanAm.

Check out the following links for more interesting stuff about Jones.

http://www.jumbolair.com/jumbolair.htm
http://www.jumbolair.com/blacktie.htm

Wow! Finally a comment from someone who has some firsthand knowledge
of the issue. Thanks for the insight, Bob.

If your assessment of the runway construction is correct, it would
appear that Travolta may want to consider funding some improvement
work, instead of throwing away in legal fees enough to fund correcting
the runway defects. It's doubtful that his insurance would cover his
B707 operations given the current airport master record.