Skydive Laconia
Good evening Mr. Hemmel, nice to have you back in the discussion.
I believe that Mr. Hayes (TK) stated that Zephyrhills does 75,000 annual skydives. By comparison, our operation, at best, will do around 7,000 annual skydives per year. That's a mere 10% of their volume.
Rest assured though, the LAA has finally requested that the FAA, the only authority on safety in this matter, come in and do a site evaluation. We are thrilled about that. (We asked for it in November 2008). I think I have been more than gratious in my responses to all of your questions and factless accusations, so I would ask that you do me a small favor and respond to one question: When the FAA comes back and says, yes, based on our expert opinion, the Laconia Municipal Airport can sustain a skydiving operation, will you accept their verdict? Surely the FAA has enough experience (they wrote the FARs after all) to make such a decision, don't you think?
If your interested in doing some research along those lines......google the Santa Monica Airport and "airport access" and see what you find. Seems the airport sponsor there decided to limit the size of jets landing for "safety concerns", and the FAA came back and ordered them to allow the planes (threatened to fine them if they didn't comply I think) and most definitely threatened to revoke their federal funding if they did not comply. The airport sponsor appealed the finding, and.......lost the appeal. Why? The FAA stated (again) that they are the ONLY authority in airport safety issues. The best part? They cited in their brief that not one, but two federally funded municipal airports tried to ban skydiving (sound familiar?) due to "safety concerns" and both times the FAA came back in those skydiving cases and ordered the airport sponsors to comply or lose thier federal funding. It's all out there for you to do the research. Facts Mr. Hemmel. Not smoke and mirrors.
Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,
Tom
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