Glider enthusiasts floating over the Redlands airport to land at a nearby brewery have a right to the airspace just as much as pilots of larger aircraft, federal officials said last week, but safety should always be the primary concern.
Pilots using Redlands Municipal Airport have been complaining of near misses with paragliders, and a December letter to the Federal Aviation Administration led the agency to hold a meeting to discuss the concerns and find solutions.
“Everybody has access to the airspace; we’re not saying you can’t come in here,” Anthony Wood, a manager with the FAA, told the several dozen attendees on Feb. 14 at the airport.
FAA regulation 103.13 says ultralight vehicle operators must yield to aircraft and cannot create a collision hazard, he said.
“That basically means that you see-and-avoid and don’t cause a conflict,” he said. The meeting at times turned heated and officials did admit there were discrepancies in what audience members considered created a hazard.
The airport has inexperienced students flying helicopters and planes, and no air traffic control tower, pilots and instructors said.
Pilots periodically accused paragliders of swooping in over the runway for a beer; paragliders, who take off from the peaks north of the airport, said they know what they are doing and that landing there can be done safely.
Hang glider and airplane pilot Jonathan Dietch, who has landed next to Hangar 24 Craft Brewing several times, called the meeting productive.
“It could not have gone better, including the consternation,” Dietch said. “This way people got their frustrations out in the open. If people aren’t heard, then you can’t work with them.”
Carl Shaffer, the airport supervisor, made a list of the next steps to be taken. Those include:
Creating procedures for each type of user, so they know what to expect of the other craft
Finding out whether it is legal to land outside the airport
Updating the airport ordinance, which is already in the works
A possible redesign of the airport traffic pattern, and
Figuring out communication in real time for all parties
“This is not going to be a quick fix,” Shaffer said, but with continued input from both sides it will happen.
“We have the airspace we have, and we have different users,” Shaffer said. “… We’re here to solve a safety issue and it’s clear that the rules allow the paragliders to fly through here, so how do we come up with procedures to make it safe? That’s our focus. That’s my task now.”
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