Venting....3....2....1....

I've been out of the navy going on 24 years and thought I was immune to anything the navy could do. I was wrong.

Here in San Diego there are a number of navy bases and one of them is North Island. North Island is where the carriers are berthed and it also has an airfield. The airfield host not only naval aviation but also a small flying club of general aviation planes. Yours truly happens to have a Cessna 172 on leaseback to the club in the vain hope of making money (another story in itself - how do you make a million in aviation? start with two million).

This afternoon I get a call: "The club has been shut down by the CO (Commanding Officer of the base) and you need to get your plane out of here by this evening or else it will be stuck here for some time. Oh and the insurance on it will end at midnight tonight". Great. I have no way to get on base, and even if I did, I'm behind on my FAA requirements to legally fly the plane out of North Island. Fortunately the remaining members of the club management found someone to fly the plane out of North Island to the airport I work at. Unfortunately this happened too late today so we are planning on doing this tomorrow. Now I just have to arrange insurance tomorrow morning, have evidence of said insurance faxed to me, and then fax this evidence to North Island which North Island needs prior to allowing the pilot to fly out. No problem at all with that.

Thankyou navy, maybe I'll complain to someone in congress and torpedo someone else's career.

 

So you were basically given a few hours notice that this was happening? How does a facility get shut down that fast???

 

After I received the call I only had about two and a half hours to do something - which wasn't enough time at all. The club was shut down that fast because the CO so ordered. The CO of a base or ship is a demigod and does have the power and authority to do stuff like this. In this case the club has had problems for at least a year and I'm under the impression that the command was just waiting for one more issue to justify closing the club. As the story goes someone had concerns about the club and could not be satisfied at the club level, so these concerns were passed up the chain of command. When the CO heard about them he dropped the axe then and there. Now this is heresay and there is far more to the story than what I'm aware of but this is the gist of things.

This is not a calamity for me since my plane didn't make much money, it's just a big hassle to now arrange insurance to get the plane flown out of the base. If I was given an earlier notice then there would have been time to have the plane flown out while still on club insurance. I'm also not sure of the legal ramifications of this. The navy has the right to close the club but I also have a contract with the navy and closing the club may be in violation of my contract.

The real victims are, of course, the club members - especially the student pilots. They not only have to now join another club (which may be considerablly farther away) to continue flying but the students will also now have to find new instructors - unless they can get their old ones to join a new club also. It's just a big mess that was not handled well at all.

 

They did the same with motorcycles (harleys) Something about protecting our well being (##$@%%) in an accident. I guess the old man didn't like the noise, or was it the freedom of expression. Which ever we got canned in FLA.

 

Simply amazing that you can maintain and wield weapons that can kill half the population of a continent yet can't ride a Harley on base. Or can't drink until you are 21 years old in some states.

This morning and at lunch I tried finding someone to insure a one time flight. Unfortunately the companies that I talked to would only issue an annual policy. Since I'm considering selling the plane in the next month or two I'm most certainly not interested in buying a policy good for a year. Didn't ask how much an annual policy would cost but based on the last one I had the policy will be over a $1000. Did have one agent recommend that I buy a policy, do the flight, and then cancel the policy right afterwards. Thought about this already but am not sure what cancellation fees are involved. But if things get bad I'll try the early cancellation ploy.

 

You should park it up in the high dessert near Edwards AFB for a while. there are a couple dirt ball airports out there. and since property is cheap out there you may not get shafted too hard. I wouldn't even worry about insurance to fly it. but if your gonna park it for a couple years then yes do it, otherwise sell it on ebay and run!

If I owned a plane I would probaly buy several acres out there and just pave a dirt runway, could do it for about $100,000

 

I can keep the plane at my work since my shop has tie down spaces available. And if I park the plane in some remote spot that nobody would ever use, the shop manager won't even charge me for the space.

If I keep the plane for a while but don't intend on flying it then I would cancel the insurance. But if I or a friend fly it then I most definitely will keep it insured. As an insurance agent told me - an accident with no insurance and you might as well move out of the country. Besides, the navy will require insurance before allowing the plane to be flown off the base. I talked to an agent today and plan on buying insurance from him tomorrow.

Having your own little airfield is neat but...... what happens when it rains and your field is nothing but mud? What happens when your plane breaks down (and it will break down) and it can't be flown to a maintenance shop? What about fuel? How about liability insurance for your field? You never know if someone else will crack up landing there or maybe a kid gets killed participating in a drag race down the runway. High desert property may be cheap now but what kind of taxes will you be looking at after developing the land with an airfield? There's a lot to be had for basing an airplane at an established public airport. Now if I really had a lot of money I would move into an airpark and have the advantages of both private and public airports.

Buying a plane off Ebay is even more risky than buying a car. Think about a problem with an Ebay car and what it would cost. For the same problem with an airplane you can multiply the cost by ten. Scary, isn't it? The good news is that airplane values, like homes, are down - way down. So now is a great time to buy a plane. Just remember - multiply by ten.

 

In case anyone cares the plane was returned late this afternoon. Insurance for a year was cheaper than I thought - figured on $1200 - 1400 and it was only a little over $900.