DeadHead

I decided to take the little ones to a small local uncontrolled airstrip to look at some planes. Airport manager chased us down and told us to leave because the airport was private property.

Airport is public use, and I was under the impression that I wasn't breaking any rules here. I remember always seeing random people plane watching at uncontrolled fields in my CFI days. Airport manager also claimed that he just kicked out a flight instructor who came in to practice.

Curious if any airport managers, specifically, could chime in with some of there background.
Was I dealing with an over-zealous airport manager, or was I out of line here.

Details......

Non-Towered, Uncontrolled Field. Single-Runway with little traffic.
Restricted vehicular traffic, as in you need a scan card to bring your vehicle onto the property.
Airport was fenced in, but has multiple open access points for pedestrians to get in.
No signs near entry points indicating authorized personnel only or restricted access.
No special keycards, passcodes, or badges to access ramp. (i.e. I didn’t bypass any security measures)

rickair7777

Post 9/11 my home patch instituted controlled access inside the fence. Basically you have to be a renter, owner, instructor or pax to get inside and have access to planes. Before that there wasn't a fence, and you could just wander around the ramp all you liked.

JamesNoBrakes

Sure, they are free to make their own rules, but it's a public use airport. They can cry me a river.

DeadHead

I got into it a little with him, and at one point he said he just he had a problem with flight instructor flying in there with a student.
Sounds like he kicked out an outside flight school flying into there from what I gathered.

I’ve seen airports restrict training flights, or amount of landings, for noise abatement, but I didn’t think an airport manager had the authority to “bar” outside flight schools from training at the airport. Nothing noted in the AF/D.

I’m just a little confused on what type of authority an airport manager has in restricting people from a public access airport. I mean if I was meeting a friend there who had an airplane hangered there, would I need to be escorted at all times?

DeadHead

That is exactly what I was thinking.

DeadHead

How did they go about doing that, out of curiosity?

Did the airport have closed fence access and signage depicting this?

123494

So you weren't inside the airport fence? If you were on the ramp or surrounding areas, I can see why he would be concerned. If you were just sitting in the parking lot of the FBO or a bench facing the airport, I don't see how it would be a problem.

DeadHead

I was inside fenced area, but the fence had large open gaps in which pedestrians could easily walk through.

EMAW

“Public” airports runways are open to the public for use. However, with an increase in security you have to have a reason to be there. You can’t just go wander around. If something were to happen, the owner/operator of the business whose ramp you were on would be liable. There are certain airports around the country in which even uniformed and badged crew members must have an escort to and from their own aircraft.

rickair7777

IIRC there were some fences along the perimeter (to keep kids, animals, illegals off the runway?). The FBO/GA ramp was not fenced pre 9/11, that was added after. With gates with a combo code.