Fences surround airports; maybe you&#;ve noticed this trend over the past 10, 15, maybe even 20 years. As we as a population become more aware of security and potential threats, physical barriers are added to life in the name of protecting us. Some people view these security measures as unnecessary barriers and headaches, while other accept the measures and deal with them.
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You can put me in the category of wanting to go through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening at the big airport. Yeah, you read that right&#; I know the process is flawed and there are issues, but if you have the ability to add a layer of safety, why wouldn&#;t you? Exactly&#;
Anyways, back to general aviation and airport fences&#; I remember as a young kid my father would take me to different airports to watch planes (usually Norwood, MA or Taunton, MA) taking off and landing. I&#;ll bet if you asked him after paying for my private pilot license if he would have skipped the airport a couple times when I was very young he might say so, but I&#;m glad we made all those trips on our explorations.
While all those years ago we would sit and watch planes and often there was either no fence or there would be a fence but it would be a short 4-foot fence, just to prevent children (like me) from running out onto the ramp and into a place where we could be in danger. Fast-forward more than 20 years and now almost every airport is surrounded by 8-10 foot fences with three strands of barbed wire strung at the top. Are we at an airport or a prison you might ask&#; If your airport doesn&#;t have a fence, it wouldn&#;t shock me if one was in the plans or on the way during the next few years.
Growing up working at a general aviation airport (Mansfield Municipal, 1B9) I took the fences for granted, they were there and there wasn&#;t anything you could do about it&#; But that doesn&#;t stop a lot of pilots from complaining about the &#;unnecessary&#;, &#;pointless&#; & &#;useless&#; waste of money that an airfield fence is. Keep in mind I say this as a fellow pilot, not someone working in airport management, GET OVER IT!
Seriously, the fences are here to stay, deal with it. If all you have to complain about is the fence protecting your airport and your airplane then I think you have it good enough to not need to complain. If you don&#;t fall into that group then I&#;m sure there is something more important that you could spend your time concerned with besides a fence protecting your airplane! Here are three reasons why general aviation pilots should find something else to complain about:
- Fences serve as a barrier to protect the airfield assets.
Fences keep honest people honest&#; If a person has real nefarious intentions then it is highly likely a chain-link fence will only serve to slow them down. But, that means that it will take longer to complete whatever nefarious activity they set out to commit. As a result, there is a greater chance they will get caught or possibly even &#;spooked&#; away.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Airport Fencing.
Moreover, fences provide enough of a barrier to stop individuals who are aimless and don&#;t have nefarious intentions but have a lack of motivation to go elsewhere to cause trouble. Essentially dealing with the fence and barbed wire is too much of a hassle for these individuals looking for the &#;low hanging fruit&#; type of trouble to cause. It&#;s much easier to go tip over some trash containers into a yard than to get through a security fence and trash an airplane at the local airport.
On another note, as I highlighted earlier, the fence will keep those who don&#;t know any better out of the Airport Operations Area (AOA). This means everyone from nosey tourists to children who could inadvertently walk into/break a pitot tube, rudder, etc&#; At an extreme level, the fence will prevent children from running into a spinning propeller, which would be the worst possible scenario.
- Fences make aviation prestigious.*
Many pilots complain that the fence keep people away are correct. If someone sees a fence then they are likely to turn away as they will likely not want to be seen as doing something wrong by trying to get inside the fence incorrectly&#; This is something that we are getting wrong in aviation. Look at neighborhoods and communities. Gated communities are viewed as desirable and prestigious. Airports can do the same thing, it&#;s literally the positioning that we have wrong as an industry. The airport is a really &#;neat&#; place where exciting things are happening and that deserves to be exclusive!
If aviation wants to be successful we need to embrace this feeling. Naysayers will say this is similar to trying to be a country club and being &#;snooty&#;&#; Well yes, and no. Why do you think the country club has nice plush green fairways while the public course has fairways that could be mistaken for sand traps at the private course? If we educate the public that the uniqueness of an airport requires a fence and that is the same reason why they should come and be a part of the airport then we can use the security fence to our advantage. Imagine that, by thinking slightly differently we can take something we now consider a disadvantage and a barrier keeping people away from aviation and turn the fence into our advantage!
- Fences keep wildlife away.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly these fences do have a role in protecting our level of safety while flying. A good fence will keep wildlife, specifically deer and coyotes away from the runways and taxiways. Have you ever seen a car after it hits a deer on a highway? The deer usually loses that battle, but I&#;d have a hard time saying the car is the winner very often&#; Keep in mind cars are designed to be able to run into things, or at least provide a level of safety when they do (or when things hit them). Airplanes on the other hand are designed to fly as effectively and efficiently as possible, not (specifically) to withstand a major wildlife strike.
The same physical barrier that keeps the individual with malicious intentions in the parking lot and not on the ramp keeps deer in the forest and out of the AOA. Again, pilots will say deer have always existed. Again, these naysayers about the airport fence are correct, kind of&#; The deer population has been skyrocketing throughout the &#;s and since. The population of deer has continued a distinct increase over the past 20 years. Thus, there may not have been a lot of deer issues years ago before airports were completely fenced in, but there are a lot more deer now, which means the chances are a lot higher of wildlife strikes than they would have been before.
To wrap this up I&#;ll just say that I understand fences cause people to avoid the airport, but that isn&#;t because fences have a bad wrap&#; Ever notice how many people willingly install fences in their own yards? The reason airfield fences keep people away from aviation is the reputation WE give them. The FAA has invested a lot of money in them and I don&#;t expect them to spend a lot more to rip them down and remove them. So let&#;s embrace the fences and go out and try to actually use them to our advantage. It&#;s a challenge, sure; can you handle it? Lastly, change is a reality, and the only thing that doesn&#;t change is the fact that change is a constant. So, just because fences didn&#;t use to exist, doesn&#;t mean we should not have them now&#;
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tankmaker
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Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
kyleb
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My home field has a fence around most of the public facing perimeter. Overall, about 40% of the perimeter is fenced.
Security theater at its best.
KVPC
Lowflynjack
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Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
We had a partial fence, but the feds just paid to add more last year. It's a big thing with them to spend money that isn't needed. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fence that doesn't even go all the way around the airport, and we don't have any automatic gates, so all it does is force cars to go through where the cameras are.
And when you get a government contract, you have to use materials made in the U.S. so this made it more expensive. The company putting it up decided to save a few dollars and use some posts from China. They didn't count on the inspector checking each one. He did and they had to replace a lot of poles!
And to answer your original question, yes. I fly into a lot of airports that don't have a fence. Texas has a lot of airports.
midwestpa24
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Our airport has a fence...a wildlife fence. It is there to help keep out deer. I occasionally remind TSA of that fact.
flyingron
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As of the last time I was there VKX (even post 9/11) didn't have a fence. We had a fence at Culpeper, but the pedestrian gate wasn't locked. For the longest time at HEF there was a fence but it was only about 3' high and had a gap. They came by and started building a tall fence. I was amused that it went down past the hangars I was operating out of and ended at a locked gate. I mean the fence ended. If you didn't know how to unlock the gate, take two steps to the left and walk around it. They eventually finished the fence. It was still years later (and may still be) that all the gate locks have the factory default combination which makes it easy getting in. I do remember the Manassas police guarding the control tower for months after 9/11. I always wonder how much of a disruption the loss of the tower would cause on the US transportation system (probably would have improved things).
chemgeek
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The FAA has established a priority of providing additional security at airports by funding fencing. It's hard to get funds for other airport improvements until you meet their security requirements. FWIW the fencing has deterred deer ingress and the casual stupid stuff like new car owners using the airport as a test track and parents using the runway to teach their children how to drive. In the daytime during flight ops. (I kid you not.)
wrbix
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At KCDK just within last 3-4yrs a 3&#; fence went up - did decrease the frequency of people running their golf carts, walking their dogs, an jogging/bicycling on the runway.....but if someone still had the urge to get on here&#;s the view from the road at arrival end of 23
Last edited: Dec 6,
SoonerAviator
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Hefner-Easley (H68) in Wagoner,OK has no fence, neither does Haskell, OK (2K9). Those are pretty sleepy rural airports though. H68 is city-owned, 2K9 is private now but was city/county owned a while back.
lancie00
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Lots of smaller airports in the Midwest don't have security fences. Just enough fences to keep the general public from snooping around but not enough to stop someone if they wanted in. Just walk a couple hundred feet around the end.
tawood
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At D95 (my home field) we only have a fence at the parking lot...about 75 feet of fence total.
eman
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Bro do you even lift
I read the title fast and thought it said airport feces....
the place I trained at had a fence around it, you know, the one you can hop right over....prob more for wildlife than anything. the place I'm based out of has a security fence and I'm glad they do. keep the riff raff out. that's right, I'm talkin to you, @TRocket !
Zeldman
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Pretty much every airport I went to in Alaska has no fence except Anchorage and Fairbanks.
I have been to several in the lower 48 that has no fence or just a partial fence.
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I can think of a couple I&#;ve been to that don&#;t, 43A and 28A. Was on final for 4 at 28A during a training flight and had a white pickup truck driving towards us on the runway... trying to find the video.
cgrab
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I was a member of the flying club at Redstone Army Airfield and the whole base had a fence and limited access but the Feds required that the airport also have a fence so now I can't visit because the clubhouse is outside the fence and if I go I can't get back to my plane.
Polarisguy
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Twin Lakes Airport, 8A7. Advance NC. There&#;s a partial fence but incomplete and maybe 4 feet tall where it exists. Don&#;t think TSA even knows it&#;s here
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flyingron
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No fence at 26NC. You can walk straight from my porch onto the runway.
James331
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A couple, that said in some areas it more to try to keep critters off the airport than security.
flyingron
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Problem with those fences is the "critters" don't know what side they're supposed to be on.
midwestpa24
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The FAA has established a priority of providing additional security at airports by funding fencing. It's hard to get funds for other airport improvements until you meet their security requirements. FWIW the fencing has deterred deer ingress and the casual stupid stuff like new car owners using the airport as a test track and parents using the runway to teach their children how to drive. In the daytime during flight ops. (I kid you not.)
The FAA doesn't have much in the way of security requirements for airports, that is TSA. The only FAA regulation for airports is FAR Part 139, and only applies to certificated commercial airports like the one I work at. If the FAA is funding a fence, 9 times out of 10 it is for wildlife control. Even then, there has to be a documented need through actual wildlife strikes and/or an official wildlife assessment.
Besides, fences only keep out honest people. From security standpoint, a fence is only a layer, and one that is easily breached. You need continuous monitoring to ensure any type of real security. Even then that doesn't always work. JFK made headlines a few years ago. A jet skier broke down near their perimeter fence and floated ashore. He managed to climb their fence, walk across a mile of open airfield, and approach a gate agent working a flight and was never detected by JFK's multi-million dollar security system which consisted of hundreds of cameras and motion sensors around the perimeter.
TRocket
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I read the title fast and thought it said airport feces....
the place I trained at had a fence around it, you know, the one you can hop right over....prob more for wildlife than anything. the place I'm based out of has a security fence and I'm glad they do. keep the riff raff out. that's right, I'm talkin to you, @TRocket !
Too bad those fences dont do much to keep out folks that can just fly in right over them. Guess in that regard you could say the fences ain't worth feces
Half Fast
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My home drome, X04, has no fence.
Clip4
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Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
There are a lot of county owned airports without fences. Heck I have hunted pheasants on some of them.
Tom-D
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Just curious how many of you have flown into city or county owned airports that have no fences.
Every little airport I've been to has had a 6 foot chain link fence for security except for the one
I trained at. KMEZ Mena, AR. (think American Made).Thanks
OKH = no fence
TheBoatDude
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There&#;s no fence for the 30 approach at KSQL but that&#;s coz it&#;s against the water, I assume...at KPAO the parking lot had a high security 4 ft fence, until recently....
frfly172
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ron keating
Have been into many airports with partial,or no fences. Not going to post identifiers.
chemgeek
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chemgeek
The FAA doesn't have much in the way of security requirements for airports, that is TSA. The only FAA regulation for airports is FAR Part 139, and only applies to certificated commercial airports like the one I work at. If the FAA is funding a fence, 9 times out of 10 it is for wildlife control. Even then, there has to be a documented need through actual wildlife strikes and/or an official wildlife assessment.
Besides, fences only keep out honest people. From security standpoint, a fence is only a layer, and one that is easily breached. You need continuous monitoring to ensure any type of real security. Even then that doesn't always work. JFK made headlines a few years ago. A jet skier broke down near their perimeter fence and floated ashore. He managed to climb their fence, walk across a mile of open airfield, and approach a gate agent working a flight and was never detected by JFK's multi-million dollar security system which consisted of hundreds of cameras and motion sensors around the perimeter.
The FAA controls the purse. They informed our airport they would not be inclined to fund other airport improvements until we addressed the security issues first. That included fencing and security cameras.
midwestpa24
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The FAA controls the purse. They informed our airport they would not be inclined to fund other airport improvements until we addressed the security issues first. That included fencing and security cameras.
I'd be curious to know more about the airport, and which FAA region they are dealing with. Our region hasn't shown interest in security improvements. Our fence was only funded as a wildlife fence, and they didn't participate in our surveillance systems. The only thing that takes #1 priority is pavement condition. They won't fund anything unless the pavement is in good condition and maintained.
Katamarino
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Pretty much every airport I went to in Alaska has no fence except Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Pretty much every airport in southeast Alaska was fully fenced, even places like Kake and Gustavus. Made it quite an unwelcoming place to fly when combined with the general lack of other private pilots and FBOs!
tankmaker
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I guess it isn't as uncommon as I thought. I've only been to about 15 airports here in western Arkansas and eastern Ok but they have all had fences and coded gates.. Thanks for the insight.
Shepherd
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GBR (Great Barrington) has no fence of any kind.
Neither does Kline-Kill or Green Acres. Both are grass strips.
OOOPS. They are all privately owned.
Lindberg
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Vast majority of airports around here have the sort of fence you might see around a playground. Last weekend I saw a couple of girls drove out on to the ramp, jump out of their car, and take a photo next to a 172. But haven't seen any terrorists. I think we'll be ok.
SoonerAviator
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There are a lot of county owned airports without fences. Heck I have hunted pheasants on some of them.
Which Cessna was a Pheasant? Was that slang for Skyhawk?
Clip4
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Which Cessna was a Pheasant? Was that slang for Skyhawk?
Actually the only plane on the airport was mine. I don&#;t believe another plane had landed the in months.
JD318
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JD
No fence at my home airport...well, except for a split rail vinyl fence between the Airport office and 2 hangars.
k9medic
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ATP-H, CMEL, CSEL, CFI/CFII Airplanes and Helicopters
I went down to Lantana a few months ago to look at an airplane I was thinking of buying. To my surprise, there is no fence, no gate, no real FBO to even walk through to slow your entry onto the airport.
I was able to drive right onto the ramp and right up to the plane that I was interested in. Nobody even thought differently.
midwestpa24
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I went down to Lantana a few months ago to look at an airplane I was thinking of buying. To my surprise, there is no fence, no gate, no real FBO to even walk through to slow your entry onto the airport.
I was able to drive right onto the ramp and right up to the plane that I was interested in. Nobody even thought differently.
Airport that small, probably wasn't anybody there TO think differently.
weilke
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The federal government just likes fences. This is a map of the Fargo Veterans Administration hospital campus. A couple of years ago, someone decided that the veterans needed to be protected against I guess marauding violent demonstrators with a 10ft aluminum spike fence. To make it look pretty, it has nice masonry pillars at the end. The fence is about 2 blocks long, has two vehicle gates and ran somewhere north of a million dollars.
Below is a picture of the place where the Taj Mahal of federal fences joins with conventional 4ft PVC panel fence that covers the north perimeter of the campus. The rear side of the campus from the dyke along the river isn't fenced at all....
DesertNomad
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My home field (KRNO - Class C) has a 6' fence around it. We just went to an airport meeting and they are converting it to a 10' with barbed wire. However, because it's the government, there needs to be a study, committee meetings and paperwork that will take a year... they can't just "do it".
k9medic
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Airport that small, probably wasn't anybody there TO think differently.
That&#;s a pretty big and very active Airport in West Palm Beach which is what surprised me.
It&#;s the only airport that I have ever come across that is still unfenced.
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