Category: Airport

The trees around the College Park airport were trimmed or topped in 2014, but they had grown sufficiently so as to once again encroach on the airport’s approach and departure safety areas. This was noted at the most recent Annual Inspection of the airport the State agency Maryland Aviation Administration- MAA.

In addition, trees bordering those areas, not previously a problem, had grown so as to require trimming. M-NCPPC and the MAA have been negotiating on the extent of the project and have finalized the project’s scope.

College Park Airport performed a study and has concluded which trees at College Park Airport and in properties near the Airport are an obstruction to air navigation. The airport said they will work with the community to ensure trees that are an existing airport hazard do not grow any higher.

The representatives from the M-NCPPC / the Airport will be at this week’s meeting. They include Stephen Edgin, College Park Assistant Airport Manager, Chanda Washington, Division Chief Public Affairs, Laura Connelly, Acting Park Planning Supervisor, Rae Wallace, NHRD Outreach and Communications Coordinator Lee Sommer of College Park Airport Manager. The representatives will brief the City Council about the tree trimming and tree replanting program around the College Park Airport.

At tonight’s meeting, the City Council will consider approving a letter to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission expressing the City’s support proposed revisions to the Operating Rules and Regulations of the College Park Airport.

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, in February 2002, new FAA and TSA rules took effect that were particularly onerous to the College Park airport because of its proximity to Washington, DC. Over the ensuing years, the FAA and TSA gradually relaxed some rules, but many still found them burdensome. M-NCPPC established a committee to revise the airport rules to accommodate the current operating restrictions and are intended to make the airport a more viable economic entity while maintaining good community relations.

For the last two years, members of the College Park Airport Authority have participated in this effort and made a few recommendations, which are reflected in the City’s letter.

In general, the changes made encourage an increase in recreational flight operations while maintaining safety by doing two things (a) Allow student (primary) training to originate and terminate at the airport. (b) Allow highly regulated non-profit IRS 501(c)(3) flying clubs to operate at the airport and to allow flight training in their aircraft.

College Park Aviation Museum is part of an article in the New York Times Travel section this weekend! The story is also online now here.

Please read under “A Cradle of Aviation”…

The unsung history of College Park starts, appropriately, with a Wright brother. Wilbur Wright went there in 1909 to train America’s first military pilots. The world’s first commercial airline pilot, Tony Jannus, started training there the next year. College Park also claims the first military pilot to join, in 1912, the Mile High club (no, not a pioneer among aerial Casanovas; he flew a mile high); the country’s first regular airmail service, in 1918; and several innovative flights “on instruments” (achievements that Leslie Nielsen honors with a brief musical interlude in the movie “Airplane!” which still inspires a good third of the jokes I hear in the 747’s cockpit). I believe that almost every single pilot has seen that movie before graduating from their aviation class. Those who enjoy taking a flight every now and then should do it whenever they can, there’s nothing more relaxing than being up in the air. If you don’t own a plane then you can rent one out to fly whenever you’d like, but make sure to stay on top of your payments or else you’re going to need an airplane repo attorney to help you recover it.

The College Park museum is friendly, quiet and beautifully designed by the same firm that did the National Air and Space Museum. Under the vast wall of windows facing the still-active runway are exhibits on the airport’s history, as well as a fine collection of vintage aircraft and reproductions. My favorite is the 1916 Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny.” You may recognize it from that famous 1918 run of misprinted postage stamps (one of which Richard Pryor buys, then mails, in “Brewster’s Millions”). America’s first mass-production airplanes, JN-4s (called the Model Ts of the heavens) were pivotal to the military, airmail and the halcyon days of barnstorming that introduced so many Americans to the wonder of flight. http://Collegeparkaviationmuseum.com ; admission, $4.