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An airplane lands at Renton at 10:15 tonight
I was surprised to see the Mayor issue a statement tonight defending the Airport Director’s actions at the airport. In my blog entries on the topic, I had not mentioned the Mayor, but his statement shows that a lack of knowledge of aviation goes all the way up to the Mayor’s office.
I immediately spotted many errors in the Mayor’s statement, and I don’t have time to respond to all of them right now. I will point out a very obvious one for starters.
The Mayor’s statement includes this question and answer:
2. Will Renton Municipal Airport be opened up to 24/7 jet traffic?
No, any business operations will be subject to the air traffic control tower operation hours – from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM in winter; and 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM during summer.
But Renton residents under the flight path need to merely look up at night to see that our airport is open 24/7. When the tower is closed, pilots self-report their arrivals and departures.
Residents can confirm the airport’s hours on the City of Renton’s own website. Our airport is a 24/7 operation. Note paragraph 3 below says pilots can not be directed when or where to fly. Here is an excerpt.
After working for 33 years in aviation, with 28 years on City Council, I feel like this is a lop-sided debate.
Tomorrow I plan to address problems with the Mayor’s statement regarding the jet center, the RAAC, the lease policies, the current eviction, and the statement that the old control tower was scheduled for demolition in 2015.
The full Mayor’s statement can be found here.
Several subjects:
Rent:
I suspect the manufacturing tenant is in default. You gotta pay rent. Thems the rules. It will be interesting to see if the city can get them to vacate quickly, as many small landlords haven’t been able to evict tenants who turned to squatters for months now that King County Courts have a year-long backlog for evictions.
Tower:
The “Don’t worry yourself ’cause the tower is closed” isn’t correct. The airport is 24/7, and the tower is there for when it’s busier. No tower is needed at night because planes coordinate amongst themselves over the radio.
There are stricter rules for Commercial flights, but many jets aren’t flown under those rules, especially if the owner is a pilot.
Noise:
The FAA has required hush kits installed on business jets. The kits were so expensive that most of the crappy jets from 1960 were scrapped or sold to foreign countries.
The days of some shitty Lockheed JetStar waking everybody up are over.
There is the idea that business jets aren’t so bad anymore, and it’s mostly correct. However, there are still plenty of Gulfstream II planes that will wake up Downtown Renton and Mercer Island if they take off. Get one of those based in Renton, and we’ll all lose sleep.
Evidence of 24/7 business flight operations:
King County Search And Rescue operated from Renton. At night. As any perusal of Nextdoor will tell you.
“Helicopter hovering overhead wakey wakey my stepchild? Xir have ADHD!!1!!”
https://twitter.com/KCSOAirsupport/status/1499168541815107586/photo/1
The tenant is obviously a victim if the reported evidence is correct. The Mayor’s statement is a prefect example of an outpouring of defensive cover ups by he and his staff. The council seems in fear of his power. That is no way to run a government. I know something about that airport building. It is inside the security gate and had no access to the public, it has been there forever it seems and has a flat roof, prone to issues. Probably was run down when they moved in. The Gear Works probably got a deal on the lease because nobody would rent it. It seemed to be vacant for years before it was leased. The city helped in the beginning with repairs it’s said? wow, and the Gear Works must have done reasonable repairs and kept the historic tower landmark alive and run a business. By my estimation, and knowing the price to rent commercial property, I bet they brought in a million dollars to the City in the 10 years and contrubuted to the economy by x 4 that!! They have been there and paid a lot of rent. To argue over 6% of that in a disputed bill is beyond common sense. If I was the Gear Works I would tell my story to the Media and see how many votes Pavone gets in the next election………
I agree!!
I am in complete agreement!