Sandy Creek Airpark Community Blog

At least not as soon as previously thought.  The new airport is still on tract for opening in May for commercial operations, though by flying over it to view the progress it looks like there’s nearly a years worth of work to do.  Lots of drainage issues to clear up, lots of paving to be done yet, and none of the current FBOs have signed any leases for the new airport yet (so I’ve been told).

Apparently both the FAA transition team and the new owners of the old airport property have mentioned that the old airport will remain open at least until the end of July 2010 to aid in the transition.  Last time I flew over I noticed there appeared to be no construction progress for any FBO facilities; trying to get an FBO facility built and established in less than two months would be…well, pretty challenging at best if not impossible.  And the new owners have apparently discussed in their board meetings something about leaving it open for awhile longer than the July date as an uncontrolled field, at least until the economy starts to turn around which would make it economically feasible for them to start development.

So who knows what will eventually happen over there.  Everyone is taking a wait and see attitude and we all really feel bad for the people at the FBOs who’s job status are all in limbo.

The airpark management and residents are currently working on a Letter of Agreement (LOA) with Tyndall AFB which would influence operations at the airpark.  The initial LOA from Tyndall seems to insist on communications with Tyndall tower for airpark operations (in flight and on the ground) and suggests landing on runway 27 and departing on runway 09 to avoid Tyndall’s Class D airspace.  As written, it doesn’t address the requirement for airpark operations to communicate on our multicom frequency per the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs), and sets up a potentially hazardous operation by recommending using a separate runway for landing versus departures. Hopefully these issues can be resolved before it is signed.

Another weather-related update…

Yes, we had more rain here this past Monday night.  Another inch of rain in the old rain gauge.  But since it happened early in the week, everything should dry out enough to allow more flying activities to take place later in the week, including the weekend.  No further rain is in the forecast until at least next Monday or Tuesday.

We finally had a gorgeous, sunny, warm, and DRY weekend which brought out many of the planes based here and a lot of others who are frequent visitors to our local EAA chapter.  It also helped that we had our monthly EAA meeting on Saturday as well.  Because it hadn’t rained since the previous Monday, the conditions were great for getting around the field without sinking up to our axles (or wheel pants) in swamp stuff.  At one point the temperature even hit 70 degrees for a short time on Saturday and Sunday!

Living on an airpark flying your own airplane – ain’t living in America wonderful?

We had some more weather this morning – rain again.   Can’t say how much we received because I’m not at  home where the rain gauge is.  (UPDATE:  not enough to measure.)   But it’s mostly sunny now.  And it’ s forecast to be mostly sunny through the weekend!  That means that the runway may dry out enough to use for us “bigger” guys with more than just an ultralight!!!  Yippee!  I know that some of us are getting “cabin fever”.  It’s about time…

Someone at work said they had sleet near the beach last night.  I didn’t see anything like that here at the airpark.  Just cold rain.  Lots of rain.  According to my approximate reading of my precisely accurate rain gauge, we’ve received just under 1.5″ of rain (OK; maybe 1.375″  or thereabouts).  Looking at the radar, it seems most of the rain is beyond us now and there is nothing else coming our way.   I heard a report from a coworker a couple of hours ago who said they heard a report (from somewhere else) that it was snowing in Pensacola, 90 miles west of us.  Maybe it still might happen, maybe not.  Still have lots of low clouds right now.   So the revised forecast is:

Later today:  cold, wet, and cloudy
Tonight:  really cold, wet, and dark
Tomorrow:  cold, wet, and sunny.

Something must have mysteriously moved the airpark to some other part of the country because we’re obviously not in Florida anymore.  Snow is back in the forecast??  It shouldn’t be there in the first place!  This is what the forecast is now saying:

Come again some other….

NOPE. I ain’t gonna finish that. The rain, especially right before a weekend, needs simply to GO AWAY and NEVER RETURN!

I guess it’s obvious; we have yet another forecast (90% right now; earlier it was 100%) of rain for tomorrow. The earlier forecast was even calling for SNOW! Geesh! When will spring come and dry us out so we can all get our airplanes out and start using the runway again (as opposed to the taxiways)?? I just emptied the rain gauge so I can give you an “accurate” approximation of how much of that wet stuff was dumped on us when it finally stops.