AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2016 - 33

SAVING AIRPORTS

'Truly special' airport
Fullerton airport day set for May 7
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R

NOT TOO LONG AGO,

Fullerton Airport
(FUL) in southern California was
much like many
neglected airports-
underfunded,
underutilized,
and underwhelming. Not so today.
"We've gone from
dormant to having
a whole great new
life," says Fullerton
Airport Pilots Association (FAPA)
President Jim Gandee.
Gandee says his association and its
cherished airport should be a role model
for other airports. "We have turned the
airport around and it is growing," he says,
noting that Fullerton went from a 30-percent vacancy rate to "people knocking on
our door." Gandee says Fullerton is so successful because the association "stepped up
to the plate," working with the city in the
search for a new airport manager; in fact,
the city asked a FAPA member to sit in on

Venice Airport has
'smashing' success
What was once a victim of "benign
neglect," according to its supporters,
is now a smashing success. Venice Municipal Airport (VNC) in Venice, Florida,
held a block-crushing ceremony to celebrate the recent completion of runway
safety improvements, which include the
use of crushable concrete that slows an
aircraft from overrunning the threshold
and, in this case, possibly entering the
Intracoastal Waterway. More than $25
million in airport improvement projects
have been completed since the Venice
Aviation Society was formed to save the
airport in 2010 (see "Benign Neglect,"
January 2014 AOPA Pilot). -JSW

GA advocate honored

the interview process. They work closely
with AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer Tom Mauss, hold monthly safety
seminars with guest speakers, and are
active in the community.
On May 7 the association and its members will host its annual Fullerton Airport
Day, when more than 6,000 area residents,
community members, pilots, and aviation
enthusiasts will descend on this "resurrected" airport in the Los Angeles Basin.
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

Ready, set, shoot

California general aviation advocate Elliott
Sanders is the 2015 winner of the Laurence P. Sharples Perpetual Award. The
award is presented annually to those who
have made the most significant contributions to the advancement of GA.
For more than a decade, Sanders,
AOPA's Airport Support Network volunteer at Van Nuys Airport, participated in
the effort to protect piston-aircraft pilots'
access to the airport while the growth of
other aviation segments was encroaching
on GA. Sanders also was instrumental in
developing The Park at Van Nuys, a 30acre propeller aircraft facility.
"For the past 10 years, Mr. Sanders
devoted significant time and resources
to ensuring that general aviation piston
aircraft would continue to have a home
on Van Nuys Airport," said AOPA Senior
Director of Government Affairs Dawn
Veatch.

Enter AOPA's 2016 photo contest
It's easy to participate. To give us your best shot, simply go online and
upload your photo (please make sure you actually took the photo or own
the rights to it). Submissions are being accepted from now until May 15,
2016, in three categories. A panel of judges in a smoky back room will
pick three finalists in each category. Those finalists will be voted on to
pick a winner in each of the categories-people, places, and aircraft.
In addition to the respect of the judges and the entire flying public,
winners will win a new Faro headset and a new bag from the AOPA Store.
Finalists will win an AOPA shirt and hat from the store. And all the finalists
and winners will be published in a future issue of AOPA Pilot. Visit the
website (www.aopa.org/photocontest) and upload your photo today.

AV I AT I O N H E A D S E T

Sponsored by FARO AVIATION

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 33
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2016
