May 18, 2011
Alva Review-Courier/Newsgram
Page 8
Lynn Says
Good grief. No web site has correct Alva Airport information By Lynn L. Martin As a pilot, I know there are both private and government sources to obtain airport information. But, it is easier to look to the internet to gather quick information in order to make a fly or nofly decision. We’re talking about facilities information. Later, another decision closer to flight time is made as to whether the weather is safe. For me, the facility’s requirement has five important features: I prefer a paved runway, a lighted runway, 100 LL fuel, a courtesy car, and no control tower. The reasons behind my thinking go like this: a paved runway is safer than a turf runway. When Alva had a turf runway, one would often see NOTAM warnings about possible “gopher holes.” A lighted runway is preferable. It is easy to take off from an unlighted runway at night. The aircraft’s landing light handles that well. However, if the aircraft has immediate mechanical trouble and the pilot needs to circle back quickly, lack of runway lights is a real pain and makes a safe landing very difficult. The need for re-fueling capability is obvious. Far more private flying would occur if pilots didn’t have to face rental car expense. I used to fly to Oklahoma City a lot. But free courtesy cars have disappeared there, and I can’t afford the $70 minimum expense of a rental car.
Most small town airports provide a junker (usually a worn out police car) as a free loaner to transient pilots. The unwritten rule is the pilot replaces the gasoline he uses in exchange for use of the vehicle. The town and airport benefit because the pilot will usually purchase aviation fuel and he/she and the passengers will drive into town for a meal and other items. While I learned to fly at an airport with a control tower (Lambert Field in St. Louis), tower routing procedures can waste a lot of time. Also, there is a lot more aircraft traffic or the place wouldn’t have a control tower. With more traffic there is a greater chance of running into each other (just like on the ground in a car) so I go with the better odds. If there is no other airplane nearby, you can’t hit it. Just a couple of weeks ago, I photographed a wedding in Lakin, Kan. I did not see a single aircraft in my part of the sky either coming or going. In compiling information for the trip to Lakin, I used internet sites exclusively. In that search, I also looked up the Alva Regional Airport and was shocked to see NONE of the sites mention the new runway. Web Sites For example, www.alvaregional.com shows we have one paved north-south 4400 ft. runway and one turf eastwest 1800 ft runway. Even the city’s own web-site, www. alvaok.org, shows only the old paved runway and still shows the now non-existent grass runway. Another site, http://www.city-data. com/airports/Alva-Regional-Airport-Alva-Oklahoma.html#R2 displays the same out of date information. The next web site is almost useless: http://oklahoma.airportbug.org/airport-13821.html It still lists Gerald Benson as the manager and has no runway information whatsoever. The site I prefer to use is http://www. airnav.com/airport/KAVK. This is the site I used to look up information on the Lakin, Kan., airport. It too shows only the shorter N/S runway and the non-existent
turf runway for Alva. I mentioned this to Alva Airport Manager Erik Stewart and he said most of these sites get their information off of an official FAA form and will not change the information merely because someone calls them and says something has changed. He said the secret is to get the FAA to update the form . . . which they’ve been trying to do. I can understand such a policy. At the newspaper, we generally will not publish a funeral or death notice unless it originates from a funeral home. We want an “official” source that we trust. Nonetheless, this obsolete information means that the Alva airport is not seeing as much benefit from the new longer jet-capable runway because pilots can’t learn about it. I just received a new batch of aviation maps to which I subscribe. The new runway is not mentioned in these either. Must visually identify airport And there’s one other glitch that most people wouldn’t think about. If I flew from a distant point to the Alva airport believing there was only one north-south runway, and upon arrival looked out the aircraft window and saw TWO northsouth runways, I would be very bothered by this. If I’m expecting a single runway, and see parallel runways, I’m going to be pretty convinced I’ve mis-navigated and flown to the wrong airport. Early in pilot training, student’s are told to be absolutely certain to visually identify their intended airport. Many screw-ups have occurred when a pilot was looking at the wrong airport while talking to the proper control tower. This means he receives clearance to land and it is a total surprise to the people at the wrong-airport to see a plane landing on their runway. Here’s a web address telling of many such mistakes mainly by commercial airline pilots: http://www.thirdamendment. com/wrongway.html Anyway, someone needs to pull whatever strings are available to update the Alva aiport information so we can benefit far more from the improved facilities.