We received this email from one of our viewers and this story is just too good to not share! Enjoy!
I was once stationed at El Toro as a Marine, flying out of there...
After leaving the Marine Corps, I stayed in aviation - there was a hiatus for a while, but I use my airplane for transportation much as you would use a car. Unfortunately, as much a thriving industry as aviation can and does present, I was sad to see El Toro shut down and be cannibalized by Nimby's.
Fast forward to last month. My airplane recently had its engine rebuilt by a mechanic in Corona. Usually, airplane engines are torn down and rebuilt after so many hundreds of hours and have a use limit, much differently than cars. My airplane had been sitting a loooong time. One of the mechanics had flown the airplane with me to return it to service on 3 separate occasions for 15 minutes each, so we felt comfortable that the airplane could be returned to service. After some work and refueling at Chino Airport, I embarked on my way to my home base at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA.
I flew over the hills without incident. There were a number of airliners coming into SNA, so I deviated slightly to the left as I was busy minding the engine instruments ensuring everything looked kosher after the rebuild. As I was abeam El Toro, suddenly my engine began to quit. There is no more deafening a sound in one's ears than having your engine come to a complete stop. Can you imagine what it would be like trying to land on a freeway with cars around, let alone a residential neighborhood and coming in close contact with a building?
I had been talking with Air Traffic Control all along the way as they will often provide separation services between airplanes, and is required prior to landing at John Wayne. As the engine stopped, I let them know that I had a problem and I would be landing. The controller seemed a little clueless and unresponsive - no matter, I was more concerned about safely making it to the ground and not hurting anyone or anything, including me. My heartrate was up, my eyes were fairly wide, and...El Toro! There it was. I was roughly 1 mile abeam El Toro, but 9 miles away from John Wayne. Trying to fly a 3000 lb glider from El Toro to John Wayne would never work - I was only at 3500', so El Toro was my only option to land - the last thing I wanted to do was delay landings at SNA by landing short, let alone create a larger emergency for other air traffic.
El Toro is fortunate enough to have several runways, and while a little aged, they're still plenty serviceable. At first, I looked at lining up on one on the left next to the balloon - but....rats! There were now hundreds of RV's lined up and I didn't want to land long and destroy someone elses's property. Luckily, the adjacent runway didn't have the same problem.
However, that runway is presently occupied by concrete barriers (no purpose they can serve, from what I see) and other obstacles that would make a landing awkward.
I still had enough airspeed to bleed some, so I managed to land between two of the many obstructions that litter the closed runways today. Fortunately, I landed without any incident.
It didn't take longer than 5 minutes for the Irvine Police, who's apparently paid to patrol the Lennar property, to come and check in. After exchanging some pleasantries, the Police Service Officer realized I had just completed an emergency landing and became a bit more friendly. Before long, a number of other officers came to check in on the situation.
The Sergeant in charge at El Toro, an Irvine Police Department Officer, was efficient and focused. Within 5 minutes, the FAA (who had already been notified by me in the air and on the ground) was contacted by the police, along with the NTSB and a number of other entities. As the police continued alerting everyone, I reached out to my mechanic and engine rebuilder to let them know what just occurred. The problem for the mechanic and rebuilder is actually more substantial, as their license is at stake for rebuilding or installing an engine and deeming it airworthy only to have a problem such as this take place.
After speaking to the FAA, they were satisfied that landing at an "off field" location (it doesn't matter that this is an airport with 12,000' runways, now closed) was not as a result of negligence, no deaths or injuries took place, and no property was damaged. With that, the NTSB sent me on my way, only to have me follow up with the FAA inspectors to get to the bottom of the failure, as they do with every one that takes place they're made aware of.
After cordoning off the airplane, my mechanics and I agreed on the plan of action. Saturday would be tough; we would have to come back on Monday to see what was up.
That's when the fun began.
I had a chance to meet with Kim Mahon, a secretary type / management "analyst" who works for El Toro (but also has a Lennar email address). Along with her, Tom Ohara, their "aviation specialist", came along. Tom is a consultant.
Tom Ohara, the gentleman in charge of "Aviation" at "The Great Park" informed me that he keeps a Stearman airplane and an SNJ at the airport hangars. He represented them as his own, though reading the article below it appears that Larry Agran and others approved the purchase of both airplanes for Tom's restoration - must be nice. Tom has to approve my departure from the airport as a consultant. I wonder what Colonel Ohara is paid to do as a consultant, or how much? Restore airplanes that are part of his personal collection, or those he chooses to display as his personal hobby, on behalf of the citizens of Irvine? There are no requests or donations for Marine RF4's, which were the backbone of what flew out of this air station, or A6's, C130's, let alone F18's, or CH53's, or CH46's. Come to think of it, I don't think a Stearman or SNJ ever flew out of this base...but I don't remember.
Can I get a consulting gig rebuilding my favorite airplanes at El Toro? I have some *great* friends in aviation with millions of dollars in tools who rebuild airplanes for a living...could probably move things a little faster than Colonel Tom (just kidding...maybe) and get them to donate effort. Tom did mention the recent small private airshow that was held, with nary a complaint from the neighbors. Kim, who pays the colonel's consulting paycheck, had a rather curious frown as Tom spoke of the airshow; I guess there's talk of preserving one of the runways for these types of "special events" as well as possibly retaining the control tower and some hangars on that side. If you can't do much with $20M remaining in the budget to rebuild the park, just spin...
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/park-258267-aircraft-great.html
Kim seemed offended at the premise of my landing at El Toro.
"Why did you land here?" "Well, Kim, it's better to land on a closed airport field than a residential neighborhood, don't you think?"
"This isn't an airport - it's Lennar's property". "I understand, Kim - but when a pilot has an emergency, it's a good place to land".
"Are you an airport proponent, Kim, or were you for the closure of El Toro?" "I think this should be a park - we have no use for an airport here. It's noisy."
"What about you, Tom? What do you think of an airport at El Toro?" "Well, we just held an airshow here not long ago, and the neighbors posed no complaints - isn't that right, Kim?" (passive aggressive nod)...
That Monday, the mechanics checked out the airplane nose to tail. Apparently, even though we had drained the tanks of any moisture, there had been water in one of the gas tanks. Comfortable and convinced with the inspector, mechanic and engine rebuilder's assessment, since the FAA supervisor knew all of the men, he was content to release the airplane for a departure. A quick conversation with Scott McClellan from Irvine PD confirmed he only needed a few minutes notice to close the field and let the airplane take off.
"Not so fast, Lloyd. This needs "coordination". You can't just take off from here. The FAA needs to know!" said Kim.
"Kim, the FAA has released the airplane. They're comfortable with the airplane departing."
"Well, we're not."
Interesting - Kim Mahon felt like more of an expert on engines, airplanes, airworthiness enough to know better than the feds. The concern was that at night, vandals, could cause damage to the airplane, steal instruments, etc. On any given night, one could walk directly onto the runways with no supervision or concern.
It turns out this would be one of many hoops Kim would make us intentionally jump through. Kim demanded $1M in insurance - which most airplanes typically carry.
"Great, Kim - whose name should the certificate be made out to?" "The City of Irvine". "Great, Kim - what's the address?" "You can get it from my assistant".
From this point, each and every step of the way presented a new requirement that would delay the takeoff from El Toro. No, it wasn't the City of Irvine. It was the City and the Great Park. No, it needed to include the different addresses. At first, a certificate of insurance would be sufficient. Then they needed an endorsement. When that wasn't enough, it became their desire to be primary policy holders. Lastly, they didn't want a certificate or endorsement - they needed the actual endorsement to the policy by the carrier, which typically takes 30-45 days to produce according to the broker.
"Well, Lloyd, you can always just truck the airplane out of here, Lloyd". I was now held hostage by Tom Bokosky, the Risk Manager for Lennar / City of Irvine. For reference, unrivetting the wings and disassembling the plane for transport is a multithousand dollar destructive process, only to suit the arrogance of the Lennar Staff paid for by the City of Irvine.
The FAA was aghast. The inspectors had been asked specifically by Kim and the city of Irvine to take a personal interest on this. Apparently, my airplane registration was "suspended" or "not valid". Kim and Tom, diligently spending City of Irvine resources, needed to make sure I was "legal".
Registrations in airplanes don't expire. :) When the feds don't receive a mailer sent to your home every 3 years, they "flag" the registration. Nothing more. The feds were already aware, as a new address had been submitted - they had not yet updated their records.
"He's not registered to fly", Kim insisted to the FAA inspector, as if grasping for another hoop to keep us from leaving. "No, we're OK with him departing, Kim". "Have you looked at his logbooks in the airplane? You need to look at his logs!" Viet Tran, a very affable FAA inspector, reviewed the logbooks completely. "They logbooks are good, and so's the registration and pilot's license, Kim."
But we had to wait until the actual endorsement of the original policy naming The City of irvine and the Great Park as primary insureds was received.
"Well, we also have to have permission from CalDot for a departure" said Tom, the Aviation Expert / "Museum Curator".
Through all this, I heard that there had been an intention in keeping one of the runways open: Runway 16/34 by the Great Park / City of Irvine.
At last, the certificate came. Without great fanfare, we did our best to get out of there as quickly as we could. My partner took photos of the event as I departed and flew over the airport.
"Why does he have to fly over the airport?" Kim said. My partner said: well, you have to circle over an airport in the event that anything happens. It's a safety thing." Kim didn't appreciate my woman taking pictures. "You have to stay back". "OK"...."In the event the engine has a problem again, you wouldn't want the airplane crashing into homes, would you?" Kim sneered, and huffed off to sit in her car, arms crossed.
Enjoy.
