The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is encouraging nearly 3,000 private airport owners to respond to a data verification request they may have received in the mail from the FAA, asking owners to verify airport records by June 30, 2020, or risk being listed as “closed” in the FAA’s online database and removed from aeronautical charts.
If the FAA does not receive periodic updates about private airports from owners, charts may reflect incorrect airport information, or in some cases show private airports that no longer exist, AOPA officials note.
If the owner of a private airport has not verified the information since January 2018, the airport could be listed as “closed indefinitely” in the FAA’s airport database starting in July and would be removed from charts during the next charting cycle.
If airport information has been provided to the FAA since Jan. 1, 2018, no action is required.
Owners can view the date of the data that the FAA has on file by searching for their airport, and looking at the date next to “Last Info Request Date.”
“This applies to airports that the FAA is aware of because the owner has previously notified the FAA that the airport exists, and has provided critical information, such as runway dimensions,” said Adam Williams, AOPA manager of airport policy. “A common example would be if an airport is for private use only, but the owner still wants the airport to appear on aeronautical charts.”
The FAA will restore an airport to aeronautical charts once the owner notifies the agency that the information in the database is correct. More than 2,900 airport owners have not provided new data since January 2018, he said.
Private airport owners can also respond via the Airport Data and Information Portal or by contacting their local FAA regional airports office.
So the local rancher near me has a short grass “airstrip” that is covered with fences and farm stock grazing. There is no real airstrip there, but it continues to be listed on VFR maps with an R for restricted. Why is it permitted to exist? How can it be reported and delisted? No aircraft has been there for 40 years!
It’s a good idea to provide the FAA as well as other sources, the correct and updated information about safety aspects of your private airport, even if it’s not on the chart. However, it’s objectionable to provide information regarding the specific based aircraft such as the registration and owner information. That should not be the job of the private airport owner to provide. Besides it’s a privacy issue. (Is there any privacy?)
Of course with ADSB, registration information, Flightaware and other entities, that information is already available to the FAA. At West Houston Airport, we don’t give out private information of our customers, which is specifically related to the aircraft location. Holding a private airport hostage by refusing to list it on the charts or not listing it in the appropriate manner in government publications might be held against FAA if there was an emergency and the airport was not shown on charts, regardless of the airport’s capabilities. Something to think about.