ATC Expert Backs Opponents To Texas Airport

The Jetport West Airport project proposed for the city of Fulshear (TX) "presents an irreconcilable conflict with several local airports, making it fundamentally unsafe and a hazard to navigable airspace."

So says an aviation consultant hired by the town, in an affidavit filed with the FAA Tuesday. Donald Hensley, a former controller and commercial pilot, believes building an airport when there are already six inside a five-mile radius will cause insurmountable problems throughout the area.

But Rick Asper, who speaks for Florida-based Aviation Professionals Group, says the airport his company wants to build won't cause any problems at all.

"It should be noted that there are literally hundreds of airports that are far closer to equivalent airstrips than these are, and that these airports and airstrips have coexisted for decades without incident," Asper said in an interview with the Katy (TX) Times.

Hensley, however, says there are already enough potential problems in that small area. Quoting FAA rules, he writes in the affidavit, "The traffic pattern airspace associated with an airport proposal may not overlap the traffic pattern of an adjacent airport."

But Asper says the FAA has already made an exception in that area. "Two of the airstrips to which they refer overlap each other, and in some people's definition of air traffic, have coexisted for 30 years without incident," Asper said.

The proximity of the proposed jetport to five other strips isn't Hensley's only concern. He says there are at least two obstructions just south of the 525-acre site pose a "hazard to air navigation."

Again, however, Asper says his company is addressing those obstructions -- and other concerns about the 7,000-foot jetport runway. "We are proposing a control tower. We will at our expense, fully man and operate a control tower. This is actually an increase in airspace safety."

FMI: www.aviation-professionals.com