Darrell ChristoffersonFred,
I watched the city council meeting tonight (2/8) over the internet,
since I was not able to attend personally. Thanks for your input and
I appreciate all that you do in support of Kalispell City.
One item that came up during the latter part of the meeting was the
need to NOT overfly the football field when games are going on. I
would suggest that this might also include track activities in the
spring as well, and that this could be part of the SOP for
pilots/aircraft at S27. In addition I would think we could put out a
NOTAM about this so that incoming aircraft would not overfly the field
as well. I believe this could be accomplish by contacting the FSS at
Great Falls.
In addition to the above, I of course support the airport
"upgrade", making the runway longer if possible, re-orienting the
runway, and installing a PAPI system. All of that stuff will make the
airport safer and more user friendly. I will also benefit the
neighborhood and those who are whining about the noise, etc.,etc... I
also think it would be a good thing for the pilots to have a meeting to
discuss what we can do to mitigate some of the things that people are
complaining about. For example, when we take-off on runway 31, we
should execute a maximum angle of climb til we reach 800 feet, level off
and pull back the power. I am fairly sure that in our club 172, I can
be at or near 800 feet before I am over the North end of runway 31 and
thus pretty much mitigate the noise of a longer more level climb over
the town. So its stuff like this that us pilots could discuss and
suggest that might be middle ground and make some of those complaints go
away. Another one might be a specific "corridor" for helo flights,
that puts them over the least populated part of town near the airport.
Anyway, thanks for the good works.
Darrell J. Christofferson
President, Flathead Flyers LLC.....N4693L on the field.
406-317-0487