by wifesaysno » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:54 am
The tower right here across the parking lot from WACO Classic at KBTL is closing as are 4 other Michigan towers including the Muskegon tower (KMKG). KMKG is the field I spent most of time at as a kid. The tower at the field my dad used to fly out of in the UP also is closing.
Oshkosh tower, Plant 42, Edwards AFB, and the tower servicing Sun N Fun are also closing.
The KBTL (W. K. Kellogg) tower closer is bad because the Air National Guard squadron here is losing their aircraft AND fire response team....so this means KBTL will no longer have a tower or fire response. To make that even better, the Western Michigan University College of Aviation here on-field has a very large number of flights per-day but the rumor is the school legally must use a field with a tower and a fire dept as its base of operations. In other words, the largest aviation school in Michigan is being put in a very tough spot and has no other field to base ops out of. Their fleet is over 2 dozen active aircraft plus a good sized maintenance school AND a ATC school!
We are all a little worried here. WACO does not need the tower or fire dept, but without the ANG and if the COA is forced out this field loses ~3/4 of its flight ops....which puts the field in jeopardy.
The really sad bits are that the tower could just drop ops to only day-light hours and all would be good. The ANG squadron here already lost the A-10s a few years ago and proposals to have military aircraft based here included C-27J Spartans, C-130s, and Predator/Reaper UAVs....all have been denied and "THEY" chose instead to ditch the Battle Creek ANG...never mind the Battle Creek ANG has been a part of the community for many decades.
My two cents, some towers yes can close without issue. Some though, should just cut back on hours.