Several pilots who park aircraft on Friedman Memorial Airport tie-down spaces were to meet today (Friday, Dec. 9) with airport manager Rick Baird about resolving questions of where to store small kits of maintenance equipment and small hand-operated machines for towing aircraft.
Baird has offered to buy and install a $2,500 bin that pilots could use for storage rather than leaving toolboxes unattended on the Hailey airport's general aviation parking ramp.
The issue flared when Baird sent letters to several pilots citing them as in violation of their leases by leaving maintenance boxes in the tie-down area. He called the problem a safety issue that risks the possibility taxiing aircraft might collide with the equipment or snowplows might destroy them.
The president of the Blaine County Pilots Association, Carlton Green, has been in a running battle with Baird over the issue. He announced several months ago he was one of the pilots who received a letter from Baird.
Green for months has argued with Baird at Friedman Airport Authority meetings that other airports permit pilots to leave maintenance boxes at their tie-down sites. The airport authority refused to take on the dispute, and told Baird to handle it as an administrative matter.
Tuesday night at the authority's monthly meeting, Green announced he was abandoning his fight after Baird told the board that Green had ignored several invitations to meet and discuss the problem.
Baird told the board he'd provide the large storage locker for any of the airport's 65 tie-down aircraft owners in an area accessible to the pilots but in a location removed from taxing aircraft and snowplows.
In other matters at the authority meeting:
· Baird reported that Mead & Hunt consultant Tom Schnetzer is completing a report on the economic feasibility of a new airport that would be available in several weeks.
· Authority member Len Harlig said discussions on renewing leases for aircraft parking would not begin until January or February.
· The board agreed to reschedule the January monthly meeting from Jan. 3 to Jan. 10.
· Baird reported that the Federal Aviation Administration would require cottonwood trees south of the airport and on the landing approach to have obstruction lighting. He said it probably could be solar-powered lights that would not violate the "dark skies" ordinance Blaine County is planning to enact.
