The FAA has informed the Grant-Valkaria Town Council in Florida that it cannot restrict flight training operations at Valkaria Airport.
The town had asked the FAA if it could pass an ordinance that would prohibit flight training, including recurrent training, at the airport, which is owned by Brevard County, according to a report at AOPA.org. The story notes:
“The town of Grant-Valkaria has no authority to regulate air traffic,” the FAA wrote. The agency further specified that the town cannot “deny access to any aeronautical user; close the airport; designate preferential runway use; prohibit touch and goes; and prohibit aircraft run ups, among other things discussed in the ordinances.”
Flight training, is at it’s lowest point in 44 years of such record keeping. Marketing efforts are practically non-existent at small aviation businesses that serve and would be the promoters of the value of general aviation to local communities. AOPA’s extraordinary efforts and industry partnerships, like GA Team 2000 (Be A Pilot.com) in the late ’90s fizzled out as the economy turned south. Unless flight training becomes more attractive a business and more affordable for students, and soon, we can predict the end of public access to light general aviation in our lifetime. Pilots and planes are already old. An affordable Cessna’s 162 Skycatcher with new enticing learn-to-fly promotions cannot come soon enough. http://stevewilsonblog.com/2009/09/17/the-162-cant-get-here-soon-enough.aspx