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Document Links Below This Story Box... Winter Solstice Aero Union Tankers # 00 and # 14 prepare to shut down for the winter after the conclusion of the 2002 Fire Season at Reno-Stead. Reno-Stead Airport, a major Nevada BLM Air Attack tanker base, has an uncertain future due to plans for 120 kv power lines on the Northern and Western boundaries. Tanker pilots operating during hot-high-heavy firefighting operations during the summer will be required to takeoff in the face of 50- to 90-foot power poles and high tension lines to the North or West, depending on prevailing winds. As it is, the aircraft must take off in ground effect to get airborne in a hot and high altitude situation, with a heavy load of fuel and slurry with which to fight remote fires. If Reno-Stead Airport is shut down by the anticipated spread of the planned Industrial Business Center, with its large warehouse type buildings and multiple power-substations with 50 foot structures creeping across the landscape, the Tankers would have to move to Reno-Tahoe International -- which could cause traffic conflict issues -- or Minden-Gardnerville, putting the tankers farther away from the Reno community and slowing their response. Then you will have Air Safety issues and Fire Safety issues merging, in that, no one wants a Boeing 757 colliding with a Douglas DC-7 tanker on the approach lanes to Reno-Tahoe International. If a tanker has an engine failure immediately after takeoff, where would you rather have the aircraft maneuver? Over vacant land or over the housing suburbs of Reno. Further, no one wants to watch their house burn down or people being injured or killed because the Air Attack tankers couldn't get into position over a Reno wildfire -- while operating from Minden-Gardnerville Airport -- as quickly as they could from Reno-Stead. Winds are an issue as they can drive a Wildfire slowly or rapidly over dry brush and inaccessable terrain. Reno-Stead has also provided close Air Attack support to California wildfires. Silver State News Service cites as examples of what could happen to Reno-Stead and its Tanker Base: Glendale, California's Grand Central Airport as a prime example of an airport overrun by Industrial Manufacturing & Warehousing encroachment; Meigs Field, Chicago, as a prime example of a Local Government in walking over the rights of Aviators and the Community in closing an airport; and Bob Hope International Airport (Burbank, California) as one of a number of major airports threatened by Community encroachment. The position of Silver State News Service and its Editor is that these lands do not belong to the AAWC, RARA or aspiring Real Estate "Tycoon" Krys Bart -- the lands belong to the people of "Washoe County." Either Bart wants to run an Airport that happens to be home to one of the most long-lasting, prestigious Air Races ever held, or she wants to shut down the Airport and the Air Races and become a major player in the Real Estate business. Bart needs to choose which and soon, because once she decides, so too, do the people have a choice in her regard. Industrial Warehouses and Airports don't mix. The Reno-Stead Airport land and the Air Races belong to the people of Reno and Washoe County. All the people. The people should have a say in how Reno-Stead Airport lands are used. In the end, the lands are there for the benefit of the people, not solely for Big Business, Local Bureaucracies and/or their friends in Government. The lands should never have been sold by Houghton and RARA and as it was, Houghton reported only a portion of the infield lands as being sold. The BLM confirms that all the racecourse lands were sold to the AAWC by their AAWC vectors (infiltrators) inside of RARA. The Department of the Interior, BLM, and others are working hard to see that Local Government agencies, the Communities, the Public, Tribal Councils and Businesses in General, all have a say in deciding this matter...and that the matter is decided responsibly. The question is, will the truth come out as to why these power lines were required in the first place...to supply that Industrial Manufacturing and Warehousing facility, planned for Reno-Stead Airport's racecourse grounds. |