X Meigs Field Closed X

[flywithastick]

Reminds me of an old saying... If you can't do it right, do it at night!

 

[azpilot]

From AOPA

AOPA members react angrily to Meigs closure

City of Chicago suddenly tears up the Meigs
Field runway, stranding some 16 aircraft.

Mar. 31 — News of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's ambush closure of Merrill C. Meigs Field had hardly broken this morning before AOPA began hearing from its members.

In calls and e-mails to the Aviation Services hotline and AOPA President Phil Boyer, members expressed shock and dismay.

"If this action is allowed to stand without protest," wrote one member, "I then can only conclude that General Aviation is truly dying in America .... If this is allowed to stand, I may as well sell my plane, cancel all my CFI training, and hang up my goggles."

Several members' e-mails likened Daley's overnight actions to those of a terrorist or a dictator. "I am starting to feel that I too live in Iraq with dictators changing the rules in the middle of the night," wrote one member. Another pilot, responding all the way from the United Kingdom, said, "Is he employed by the citizens of [Chicago] or by Saddam Hussein? This sort of action just does the terrorist's work for him."

Others raised safety concerns. "What is especially bad for pilots is the lack of contact with the controlling agencies," said one member. Another, commenting on the tentative plan to use the taxiway to get the 16 stranded aircraft out of the airport, said, "I wouldn't. Its not safe at all."

One pilot told AOPA he plans to boycott Chicago until Meigs is reopened. "I will not do business in Chicago. I will not stay in Chicago's hotels or dine at Chicago's restaurants. I will not fly on a commercial flight that terminates or transfers through Chicago." He concludes, "There may be no legal ground to prevent the closure, but we can certainly make it as painful as possible for the Mayor's administration ...."

To express your sentiments regarding the closure and destruction of Meigs Field, contact Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley at [email protected] or Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich at [email protected].

 

[corp_da20_guy]

Made my opinions known

I called Senator Lott's office and gave my opinion of that a$$ hole Daley! I hope somehow he get's "creamed". I hope everyone else will call and voice their opinion!

Happy FLying!

 

[cjh]

I'd like to run a picture in their daily paper. Nice picture of Hitler, Mussolini, Sadaam, Osama, and in the middle of the pack, Daley. What a piece of sh|t he is.

 

[U-I pilot]

Never got the chance to fly there and now i never will What a bombshell to drop on GA across the country. Where is FS gonna base now? Hopefully they will keep CGX for memories of the lucky ones who got to fly in....

 

[FearlessFreep]

Ok, if pilots as a group are so good at remembering things and can somehow stick together to persecute scabs then I suggest this:

To All Pilots:

Do not allow Mayor Daley access to ANY aircraft. Airline Pilots, can you back all of us up on this? Do not fly him or his family members anywhere! Period. Make this a lifetime restriction. Make it that he will have to take a fine Chicago cab to wherever he might want to go.

I am really serious about this. Boycott this jack*ss dictitorial moron.

NO ONE SHOULD FLY THIS MAN
ANYWHERE.

Pass this around, get the word out!

Daley should just get used to walking to where he wants to be.

 

[bunnyfufu]

i hope a terrorist crashes a cessna into his office. maybe i'm a little immature, but oh well...

 

[T-Gates]

Daley is a worthless motherf*cker. I hope he rots in hell.

 

[dmspilot00]

DICK-TATOR DALEY

Imagine landing that day and all you wanted to do is spend the night...needless to say you'd be spending a lot longer time there than you had anticipated!

Dictator Daley should be forced to pay for a new runway out of his pocket.

 

[A1FlyBoy]

For those of you who aren't in Chicago -

The 15 or so stranded aircraft.... Daley wanted them to depart from the taxi way and if that couldn't be done... would work out some other method of 'returning the aircraft to the owner'...

Insted of using "X" markings on the runway, the bulldozers literally ripped into the concrete... the rubble looks like a war zone and is approximatly 6 feet high....

 

[GuppyPuppy]

Absolutely unbelieveable. I don't even have the words to convey how angry I am about his dictator-like tactics.

I would have loved to have an incident or accident there so I could sue his a$$.

If I ever find out that he is on one of my flights I will either refuse to fly or "get violently ill" until he gets his sorry hide off of the airplane.

Unfortuneately I do have to fly into ORD once in a while. However, I WILL NOT rent any more cars in Chicago or pay any money to local hotels. If I do have a layover in Chicago, I will bring my own food and will not eat in any local restaurant.

Daley...you are one sorry a$$ son-of-a-b!tch, dirty, rotten conniving, evil jacka$$.

GP

 

[Frank Bama]

His no fly zone is a joke.
What an ignorant idiot!

 

[Iceman21]

Daley commented that in order to keep people safe from terrorist attacks ALL aircraft should be on an IFR flight plane, all flights should be schedualed in advance, and have a predefined operating time.

Gee let's think about that plan logically for a minute. Wheren't the 3 planes that hit the WTC towers and Pentagon on an IFR flight plan, schedualed months in advance, and all three had predefined operating times.

This makes me want to move out of Chicago, seriously.

 

[daedaepilot]

very sad indeed

i myself being a born and raised south sider of 23+ years this is a sad day indeed for this great city. My first flight in a general aviation aircraft was out of Meigs Fields. I was participating in a program for inner city youth interested in a career in aviation. I still remember that flight like it was yesterday...buzzing along the lakeshore and in awe of the magnificent skyline below. A lot of young people like myself had the opportunity to see the city from above for the first time. Now that the airport is closed these kids wont have the opportunity to experience what i had the great opportunity to experience some years ago....this is sad indeed. i hope there is something that can be done to reverse this action.

 

[Timebuilder]

The calls I made today included Senator Lott's office, the White House, the Attorney General Contact line, the FBI, and AOPA. I think there is a very good case for the "willful destruction of federal property, i.e.: the runway.

In addition, I sent the following email to the Mayor's office:

I am one of many, Mr. Mayor..

...one of the many thousands of pilots who will not fly into, stay in, do business in, nor recommend to anyone the transaction of business in Chicago.

I feel that the action you have taken to sneak onto Meigs Field like an IRA terrorist in the dead of night is reprehensible at best. I have contacted the US Attorneys General office and reported that you have directed the destruction of federal property, and I have spoken to the office of the White House ********(who sometimes rides on my airplane) and the FBI and suggested that a federal indictment be brought against you.

I predict that you will look back on this undertaking as the end of your political career, and perhaps the most farcical and ill conceived decision of your official life.

My condolences on the departure of your common sense.

 

[tarp]

Thank goodness I had already experienced the joy of landing at Meigs.

I used all my breath writing a letter to the mayors office. I wonder how they are doing over there considering the mayors phone and email lines are completely tied up.

I hope the feds prosecute the mayor, the city engineers and make them pay to pave the thing and keep it operational till 2026 like they promised. If they don't rebuild Meigs, then the Feds should withhold the funds for ORD and Midway and let Chicago suffer a slow death of infrastructure ruin. I know I'm not buying anything in that city anymore! We should add the whole da_n city to ALPA's boycott list.

 

[bunnyfufu]

i just realized how much it feels like the airport was attacked by terrorists. daley is a f**king terrorist. i'll be flying by meigs to see ground zero on friday...

 

[Iceman21]

i'll be flying by meigs to see ground zero on friday...

You too huh!!!

 

[azpilot]

Ok, let's not boycott Chicago folks! Kick the d*mn mayor out, but our city still rocks!!!

If we boycott the citizens of Chicago will get pissed and can form a recall petition. This is democracy in action unlike what Daley believes in.

 

[Flying Illini]

FlyChicaga,

Sorry, but supporting the city of Chicago is equal to supporting Mayor Daley. The city is a great city and I will return to conducting business to the city as soon as Daley is gone.
Daley's bit on "National Security" cracks me up...we all saw what a GA airplane can do to a building when that student crashed his cessna into the bank building in Tampa. If he is concerned about national security and the lives of all Chicagoans then maybe he should close down Midway (seems to me runway 4 points right at the city) and O'Hare. Those are the aircraft that are capable of destruction. BTW~ what exactly could the TFR stop anyway...by the time it was determined that an aircraft was no longer following its flightplan it could be buried in downtown Chicago.
Daley needs to THINK things though!!!! His logic doesn't make sense even if you are trying to support him!

Possible protest:
All available pilots each take their plane to Meigs and fly the pattern...no landings, just low approaches all day long. Immature? Yes. But it would be a very visible form of protest. If we can't do that, then flaming bags of dog doo on his doorstep would make me feel a little better!

Wouldn't it have been funny if a NetJets aircraft had gotten trapped there? Man, Warren Buffet is not a man I would want on my a$$.

 

[bunnyfufu]

so umm... is the class d airspace that surrounds meigs just gone now? so aircraft dont need to be in contact with meigs to enter the airspace around downtown chicago? so aircraft flying towards chicago now look less suspicious than they would have when they had to call meigs but didn't?

 

[Delta3]

What pilot is going to take off on a taxiway with a G-V?

Jus leave the plane there and ask the city to pay for it.

 

[dispatchguy]

so umm... is the class d airspace that surrounds meigs just gone now? so aircraft dont need to be in contact with meigs to enter the airspace around downtown chicago? so aircraft flying towards chicago now look less suspicious than they would have when they had to call meigs but didn't?

Yep - no tower, no class D - now all that airspace under the Class B over LSD, Michigan Ave, is all uncontrolled airspace - that really helps out the homeland security.

Good job mayor - you stupid a-s-s

 

[jdru25]

Now that Meigs is closed a friend of mine will be losing his job. He WAS a controller there. C-172's are just so dangerous with the 50 gallons of fuel they hold. I was planning a trip to Meigs in the near future and those plans have just fell through. Hopefully AOPA steps up to the plate and puts Daley in his place.

 

[Northern Lights]

Insted of using "X" markings on the runway, the bulldozers literally ripped into the concrete... the rubble looks like a war zone and is approximatly 6 feet high....

Seriously!! Would it have been so difficult to paint a couple of big X's on the runway instead? Talk about overkill. And, how much did this stunt cost the taxpayers of Chicago?!?

Just sad.

 

[bunnyfufu]

Seriously!! Would it have been so difficult to paint a couple of big X's on the runway instead? Talk about overkill. And, how much did this stunt cost the taxpayers of Chicago?!?

Just sad.

that would've allowed for the possibility of civil debate about it.. you know.. democracy

i guess daley is just completely against that

 

[cl-65link]

How much will it cost the taxpayers of Chicago? We'll see, Daley has opened a BIG can of worms with his actions. There will probably be, at the very least, a fine levied against the city by the FAA for failure to notify them of the closing. Let the fun begin.

 

[bunnyfufu]

i want daley to repave it with his own money and then get raped in prison for the rest of his life..

edit: i'm going to fly down to meigs tomorrow if my club has an airplane available. should i just monitor its unicom frequency or what? i guess ill see if they're still broadcasting an ATIS..

 

[abatista]

The only thing I can do is the following.

1) I am wrighting letters to every Goverment Person I can think of.
2) I will not be goind any time soon to Chicago.
3) I will stop getting anything from Chicago. And if I fly an Airline that goes through Chicago I will change it.
4) I Will keep helping AOPA, EAA.ORG and any other organization that will keep are GA Airports protected.
5) I have setup a schedule fax every hour to fax Mr. Daley. I plan on taxing there fax machine as must as posible.
6) I have started posting in as many sites as I can.

Lets all get out the word and lets see if we can make some one notice this. Public Networks Media needs to get as many notices as posible. We need them to be on our side. Lets get them flooded with emails, Faxes and phone calls. We need to be civil in all our writings with them. We need to play there game, and win!

 

[CaptainRon]

I think we should tear up every road into or out of Chicago at the Chicago city line. After all, trucks are known terrorist tools, aren't they?

Would it be possible to sell Chicago to Canada?