[TowerTalk] FAA & Private Airstrips

[john@kk9a.com]

Hi Bill

It will be great to have your back on the air, Your AA6TT/0 contest station did quite well.

FCC part 97 states the following:
(a) Owners of certain antenna structures more than 60.96 meters (200 feet) above ground level at the site or located near or at a public
use airport must notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register with the Commission as required by part 17 of this chapter.

This does not address private airstrips.  I seem to recall a regulation allowing a tower height slope of 50:1 when near small airports which in your case calculates as a 366' tower.  Obviously you should research and calculate this yourself, but it seems to me that you do not need to do anything special.

John KK9A


To:  towertalk at contesting.com 
Subject:  [TowerTalk] FAA & Private Airstrips 
From:  William Hein <bill.aa7xt at gmail.com> 
Date:  Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:56:36 -0700 
List-post:  <towertalk at contesting.com">mailto:towertalk at contesting.com> 

My family and I recently moved to a wonderful house in beautiful Glade Park CO 
(on the other side of Colorado National Monument from Grand Junction.  The 
house itself is an ultra-energy efficient Earthship (Google "Glade Park 
Earthship" for more info).  We have 35 rural acres of land around our house in 
a low population density rural area.  All in all it's going to be a great place 
for ham radio.

I've had stations in Malibu CA (as KC6EDP and AA6TT), Tiffany CO (as AA6TT/0) 
and Topsham VT (AA6TT/1 and NT1Y) so I have some idea of what works and what 
doesn't with regard to terrain, RF and the ionosphere.  In this regard my new 
location is superb with great 'shots' to EU and JA and elsewhere and is 
confirmed by the success the other ham who lives up here - Jerry K0DU - has in 
contests and pileups.  I'm counting the days until the ground thaws and tower 
construction can start in earnest - I've been off the air due to a heavy 
workload for several years and I'm dying to be back on the air.

Since moving in I've noticed a small private plane passing overhead fairly low 
(I'd say 100 feet or less) on a regular basis and landing nearby.  Checking 
Google Maps aerial photos I discovered a small grass airstrip with a windsock - 
"Pinyon Airport" - on what I believe is private land a little over 5 km SE of 
me (5.586 km per Google).  The runway is not pointed towards my house 
nevertheless seeing the plane flyover directly overhead so low motivate me to 
Google FAA, airports and towers.  Here is a picture from Google Maps of my 
house with a line drawn to the closest point on the airstrip:

        http://www.aa7xt.com/ 

if you want to take a gander at my place on Google Maps yourself:

          39.013949 N
        -108.744371 W

        479 South 16 1/2 Road
        Glade Park CO 81523

The FAA Website TOWAIR indicated that "Structure does not require 
registration"after I plugged in my coordinates along with elevation (6840-ft 
ASL approx.). There are no airports within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the 
coordinates you provided."  TOWAIR went on to caution "TOWAIR's findings are 
not definitive or binding".  Since "Pinyon Airport" (a rather pretentious 
designation for a grass airstrip with a windsock) is 5.5 km away I am guess it 
is either not registered with the FAA or somehow doesn't count as a real 
airport.

I have a 142-foot Big Bertha tower which I previously had installed in Vermont 
which I intend to reinstall here along with at least one other 100-ft + tower 
and a few smaller structures.  For many reasons I'd hate to see a airplane run 
into Bertha.

So what should I do now?  Contact the FAA for an opinion?  Find out who owns 
the airstrip and give them a verbal or written heads up on my tower plans and 
also request they avoid flying low over my house?  Something else?

73
Bill

-----
William Hein, AA7XT
(ex-AA4XT, NT1Y, AA6TT, KC6EDP)