ORIGINAL: highK
i don't understand what you mean by no formal declaration. if the faa contacted the city and asked for a immediate revocation of the club permit, do you not think they would get it? they can - according to the regional airspace division - have the offending party arrested. i don't see any need for the FAA to flew their muscle on this one, but to politely remind the modeling community that the consequences for violating the airspace are both real and permanent. the faa could care less about the danger posed to the public by the city's decision to allow modeling to take place in the park, that's not their jurisdiction. nor does it serve any purpose to attempt to redirect the issue to electrics when the sole issue is the altitude of TD ships. i grew up in pasadena and flew at the rose bowl in the seventies when we could do that..and i love saiplanes...but we have to accept that so california is not a hospitable environment for gliders, and that the FAA has been patient and helpful in their efforts.
The club does not have a permit so it's real hard to pull something that isn't. The sole issue is the migration of ex-power only flyers to Fairview and their two year quest to take the park over for their own use. This means finding a means to kick out the sailplane flyers. For the last 35 years there has been no problem with the FAA. For the last 35 years there has only been one injury to a pedestrian and that was from a tow line. The power only flyers are ignoring the AMA review of the first of this year where they were told in a letter (published in the HSS news letter) that the park was not the place to be flying power as it is too public -- can't control the power flying area as the city will not let them close the ped trails.
The 24 hour overflight sample that the FAA used was where the local city police chopper was chasing homeless out of the part AT NIGHT. Take away all the hours but the morning till two in the afternoon and all but two of the less than 1,000 feet over flights go away. Those two over flights were the police chopper. This was as rigged as was the survey the power flyers did to support their quest.
The reasons behind this are more than obvious -- unless it matches your agenda.