Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Airport jet congestion handled smoothly

Friedman manager fires back at pilot group


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Corporate jets filled the parking ramps last week at Sun Valley Aviation new facility on the southwest corner of Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey. Photo by Willy Cook

Friedman Memorial Airport's largest single concentration of corporate jets arrived and departed without a hitch last weekend due to plenty of advanced planning, said Airport Manager Rick Baird.

Virtually all of the high-end jets brought executives and their families to the annual Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley.

Baird said that beginning Tuesday, July 5, the stream of jets began arriving at the Hailey field—60 the first day, 65 on Wednesday and 75 on Thursday.

Then the steady flow of departures began on Friday, July 8.

The airport also had less ramp parking space this year for the jets, since Sun Valley Aviation's northeast ramp area has been closed down and parking is mainly concentrated at the field's southwest corner.

Although data from the Friedman control tower cannot distinguish aircraft ownership, Baird said statistics show that out of a total of 702 flight operations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 449 of them were instrument flight plans, which generally involve larger, faster aircraft.

Baird said 40 daily IFR operations are normal for the airport.

Meanwhile, Baird told the board in a cryptic aside that Friedman Memorial might be shut down briefly during the three-day visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in mid-September to create "sterile air space."

He hinted that federal agents have been inspecting the field, indicating the anticipated visit of numerous VIPs requires special security other than that provided for the Dalai Lama. However, he declined to say who the VIPs might be.

During last Thursday's Airport Authority meeting, Baird also fired back at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which had criticized Baird for trying to restrict VFR (visual flight rules) aircraft traffic during the peak arrival and departure hours of Allen & Co. corporate jets.

He told the board an indication of AOPA's inaccuracy could be found in its press release that said, "Hailey is home of the famous Sun Valley Resort."

Baird said AOPA also was "inflammatory," "condescending" and "unflattering" to Allen & Co. in the press release by saying "such folks (corporate executives) don't appreciate much delay or inconvenience."

He rejected claims that AOPA was responsible for "nixing" Baird's plan to control VFR traffic.

Baird said the Federal Aviation Administration modified his original plan to close the airport to VFR traffic by allowing pilots of VFR flights to reserve a "slot" in the traffic system like IFR flights. Pilots who are not instrumented-rated file VFR plans, but must be sequenced into traffic flow for landings and takeoffs like IFR traffic.

Baird said that the "slot" system also helped derail plans of some pilots to beat the system. Baird said that some IFR pilots file flight plans to Twin Falls, cancel the IFR plans and then fly to Hailey without control of the Salt Lake Air Route Traffic Control Center in hopes of making a faster trip.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.