Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport
What it is: A general aviation airport for private and corporate aircraft. It’s also home to Wright “B” Flyer, Inc., a non-profit organization that maintains a hangar museum honoring the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers and operates a growing fleet of “lookalike” reproductions.
History: Originally named the Montgomery County Airport, it was built by industrialist Charles F. Kettering in the 1950s to serve southern Montgomery County. It was purchased by the city of Dayton from the Kettering Foundation in 1974. It is still owned and operated by the city and serves as the reliever airport for Dayton International Airport.
Size and location: 527 acres along Ohio 741 approximately 12 miles south of Dayton in Miami Twp. and immediately north of Springboro.
Flights: About 15,000 operations annually, or about 20 aircraft takeoffs and landings per day.
Training: Aviation Sales Inc. trains about 60 pilots at the airport. About half are part of Sinclair Community College’s aviation program.
Sources: City of Dayton and Sinclair Community College
Chris Parsons of Springboro made a point of attending a meeting last week between aviation officials and homeowners living near Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport. Parsons had heard that Settlers Walk residents were going to ask that air traffic patterns be diverted away from their neighborhood to the other side of the airport.
For Parsons, who lives in the Hunter Springs development, the change would redirect air traffic over his own neighborhood.
“That’s not quite fair,” he said, moments before going into the closed meeting at Dayton International Airport. “That’s just moving the problem to somebody else’s backyard.”
In the early 1950s, when automotive pioneer Charles F. Kettering built what was then one of the first private corporate airports in the country, open farmland spread out from the facility as far as the eye could see. Today, after several decades of suburban growth, the airport is increasingly hemmed in by housing, shopping plazas and offices — all of which will get a boost after the nearby Austin Pike interchange on Interstate 75 opens in June.
Even before the April 1 plane crash on the airport grounds that killed pilot Tom Hausfeld and his daughter Kacie, complaints from neighbors about noise and low-flying aircraft had been on the rise, airport officials said, leading up to Wednesday’s closed-door meeting to discuss solutions.
But as Parson’s concern points out, finding a solution that works for everyone in the congested area won’t be easy.
“It doesn’t matter that the airport was there first for homeowners dealing with noise and safety issues,” said Chris Dancy, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the world’s largest civil aviation organization.
The best solution is prevention, Dancy said. That’s why the AOPA tries to work with local community leaders to devise zoning laws around airports that restrict residential and commercial uses and encourage low-density uses such as warehouses, golf courses and parks, he said.
But in the case of Dayton-Wright Brothers and hundreds of similar suburban airports around the country, density already is a fact of community life. “What we do then is to encourage pilots to reach out to the community,” Dancy said. “We tell them to practice ‘friendly flying’ — fly at the appropriate altitude and do as much as you can to improve safety and reduce noise.”
Pat Hoban, the assistant manager of the Monro Auto Service station just outside the airport’s southern fence, said he has witnessed flying that isn’t so friendly during his 18 months at the shop. Aircraft flying at uncomfortably low levels over his business “happens all the time,” he said, especially when student pilots are doing repeated “touch and go” maneuvers as they practice landing and taking off.
Hoban, a Coast Guard veteran, admits judging altitudes is difficult from the ground but says he has seen planes in their landing descents swoop as low as 400 feet over The Marketplace at Settlers Walk, the shopping plaza where his shop is located.
Federal Aviation Administration guidelines require that pilots maintain an altitude of at least 1,000 feet over developed areas like Settlers Walk, but lower altitudes are permitted when planes are landing and taking off, as long as the pilot is maintaining a constant, stable ascent or descent, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said.
During the last year, airport officials say they have heard complaints about low-flying planes from residents of Settlers Walk, a residential and commercial development south and east of the airport. But so far, FAA investigators have found no air safety violations, said airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes. FAA officials said they would need a formal records request to confirm that statement.
David Lee, a nearby resident of Washington Twp. and a pilot, believes it was a mistake for Sinclair Community College to move its pilot training program to the airport two years ago. Sinclair made the move after Delta Flight Academy pulled out of its contract to train Sinclair students at Dayton International Airport, said Kent Wingate, head of Sinclair’s aviation program.
Sinclair students account for about 30 of the 60 pilots now in training at Dayton-Wright Brothers by flight instructors at Aviation Sales Inc., Wingate said. Executives at Aviation Sales did not return phone calls for comment.
Lee said he is concerned not only that the airport is located in a congested area but also that it does not have a control tower to direct student pilots. Takeoffs and landings are “self-announced” by pilots, he said. At larger airports, control tower personnel are in close communication with pilots, giving them clearance for runways, setting safe altitudes and informing them of weather and wind conditions.
“I just don’t think a student pilot program is a good use for that airport,” Lee said.
Wingate said it is not unusual for pilot training to take place at an uncontrolled airport. In fact, he said, it makes learning to fly less stressful in the beginning if students aren’t also dealing with directives from the control tower.
“I can’t think of a better place” for Sinclair’s aviation program, he said. “This is not like driver’s education. Flight training is very carefully controlled by federal regulations. It’s not taken lightly at all.”
Dancy of the pilots association said most pilot training programs are located at airports without towers and that safety shouldn’t be an issue. Uncontrolled airports have clear conventions on how pilots must maneuver in their air space. “It’s much like a four-way stop at an intersection, only better because the pilots are talking to each other as they are flying,” he said.
But Dancy did concede that pilot training programs can add to the air traffic at airports. “It’s that much more important for pilots to be aware of what’s around them,” he said.
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