Hi RI Swamp Yankee,
We're still here.....lol.
Basically, as we understand it, the FAA rep that came from Washington issued a report that, as we expected, found no reason why skydiving could not exist on the Laconia airport. The only thing left that could be debated on a local level was whether or not our presence would obstruct the IFR Glide Slope. I guess it's one of those "many, many concerns" that were implied but not stated back in Janaury of 2009......when this thread was first created. Anyways, based on our extensive research, we could find nothing that showed we posed any issues to the glide slope (more info on that back up the thread). And that the ILS approach was only critical when the ceiling was 800ft or lower and planes were flying in IFR conditions. The problem (for the otherside) is that we only skydive in VFR conditions, so that issue couldn't be used against us. Despite that being the only factual piece of information available about glide slopes, somewthere on their side of the table, someone is frantically looking for anything they can find to prove otherwise. If the otherside has shown anything, it is the power of a beauracracy to delay the just (us?). We are simply waiting for whatever info they believe is out there.......
So that's where we are at right now.
Not to worry though, as I said before, Mary and I are not going anywhere, and we have legal precendence on our side. There will either be skydiving on the airport in the near future or a forfeiture of their federal funding. I'd prefer they keep the funding and let us skydive, we'll see how they decide to handle it.
The dropzone I am at while we are forced to wait, had 500 tandem students (with additional non jumping guests) come out over the last seven days to skydive. Most drove 1-2 hours to get here. Thats about 750 people patronizing the local restaurants, bars, hotels and gas stations in the LAST WEEK. We expect another 1000 people this week. The 35 employees and contractors (that's 35 jobs) that I work with at our dropzone were all thrilled to have them. Skydiving based tourists and jobs should be at the Laconia Airport. Currently they are not...........
What cracks me up the most is that when I am not skydiving, I fly right seat in the Twin Otter and watch our plane share the same airspace with jets, both commercial Boeings and those little ones that the LAA is so afraid we'll scare away......all in harmony. Oh, and our runway is 13 miles from one of the largest international airports on the east coast. But hey, maybe jet pilots are simply trained better down here? (I'm kidding of course........we must actually be endangering them for our own financial gain, right?
)
Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,
Tom