[TowerTalk] FAA & Private Airstrips

[K8RI]

On 12/30/2011 10:50 AM, Ed Haggerty wrote:
> Bill
>
> Unless you have a deep hatred for airplanes and people who fly them......please contact the owner/operator of the airstrip and inform them of the position and hight of your tower.
>
> 73  Ed  KB3TOX
>
> On 29 Dec, 2011, at 7:56 PM, William Hein wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
Yes it is a registered airport as I listed in an earlier post with the 
identifier CO43.  According to google if I enter your address, you are 
much closer than 5.5km to the closest end of the runway which is 
slightly less than 1.5 nautical miles or 2.48 km.  If the FAA site says 
you don't need to register the tower, you are probably in good shape.  
Now the National Park Service might be a different matter.

Here's the airport listing http://www.airnav.com/airport/CO43 on Airnav.

"It looks *to me*" like you can go 150 feet AGL, but that is only an 
opinion.

>>
>> 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?
Yes. They are most likely to just say, go ahead.
>>   Find out who owns the airstrip

Look at the link I included above for CO43. It has the names, address, 
and phone numbers for the airport and it's operators.

>>   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?
If the FAA is happy you are good.  Letting the airport manager know is a 
courtesy. (after you receive the FAA's blessings)<:-))  After all you do 
not want to surprise pilots with something new where they often fly, 
without warning.  You might be legal, but you might still be responsible 
for something new.

My tower is right on the centerline for the GPS 06 approach, just inside 
the Final Approach Fix (FAF) and just under 5 miles from the airport 
which puts the planes at over a 1000 feet up and my tower height 
limitation would be close to 190 feet As I only have one square acre or 
roughly 200 feet on a side, set back limits me to 100 feet.which I 
figure is a good height for 40 meters.  I need to get the 7L 6-meter 
yagi back to 115 feet as they are rewriting the zoning. The old rules 
were just for the tower. The ones under development include the 
antennas.  So if it's up there it's grandfathered in.

73 and good luck,

Roger (K8RI)
>> 73
>> Bill
>>