District Council has ignored existing airport business like Lake Central Air Services, aviation and airport experts, facts from Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board, Environment Canada, the latest and earlier consultants, airline and local pilots.
All to close a perfectly usable runway to benefit a single mystery new business who prefers to build on top of a runway instead of beside it.
Why is District Council ignoring pilots? Because we are very negative about the airport plan and we are.not paid by the District.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/697070170/3f38340a73
No one expects council to have aviation competence but I think most people expect them to at least listen to those that do. Not here, not in Muskoka.
Why close the most valuable runway that is into the wind most often?
Because “We’re all going to helicopters… we don’t need runways any more”. Ridiculous. Totally false statement along with many others.
https://vimeo.com/705060402/0d39bbf646
Council did NOT approve the Airport Plan which called for closing the grass runway with an alternate only in the distant future if needed.. Council only ACCEPTED the airport plan. Totally different.
The airport plan did NOT appeal to pilots as Harding knows.
09-27 is the prevailing wind grass runway. Aligned with the wind the majority of the time so most valuable to an airport.
Runways aren’t going away.
The Airport Plan is NOT the best short, medium and long term way to develop the airport. Not true at all.
“We all agreed a year ago to go with Option 2.” Absolutely NOT true at all.
A year ago council just ACCEPTED the Airport Plan. Not ADOPT the Airport Plan.
In fact, council unanimously voted to consider other options that are NOT in the Airport Plan including reopening the grass runway 09-27. That’s what the meeting was about.
$1 million is NOT a little more than $600,000. How incompetent was the original design and $600K?
Don’t be surprised the next guesstimate is $2 million+ or whatever it takes to make Council eliminate the alternate 12-30. I believe the alternate is just a ruse to close the grass runway.
“They ALL can be expanded. They ALL can be paved.” 12-30 and 09-27 are NOT the same. ONLY 09-27 can be expanded to 6000 ft for jets. Clearly Harding has not been listening to pilots.
Totally false statements like this from councillors as well as many, many documented totally false statements from the airport CEO and board likely swayed some other councillors to make a massive mistake.
Notice Harding has totally flip flopped from a year ago when airport management claimed they asked for an exemption to reopen the grass runway.
“Others, like Harding, had a different assessment of the situation. “I guess I’m very much in support of this resolution if Transport Canada and the powers that be will relax their rules a little bit, I think we add another option for those pilots that are in the air,” he said. “What I’ve heard consistently is emergency landings, strong winds east-west is the prevailing [condition]and that airplanes sometimes need to land. I would far rather see them land on a less-than-perfect grass runway than having to move a little bit north and use Hwy 118, if you will, to land that airplane…”
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/district-council-to-apply-for-aviation-standards-exemption-to-open-grass-runway-at-the-airport-this-summer/
In fact, according to Transport Canada ” I will say that the Airport has never asked for an exemption against their Safety Management System or emergency response plan.”
Are all District Council decisions based on false information?
What a sorry, inconsistent dysfunctional group.
Not all of them, just the majority.
A vote based on false information is an uninformed, invalid vote.
Muskoka residents need to vote against the 13 councillors who have chosen to destroy the present and future of our airport at the next election.
A previous council understood the value of the grass runway and voted to preserve it. This council thinks they know better.
The majority of council was fooled into making a massive mistake. Not everyone, just the majority.
Here are factual comments from a councillor that actually read the latest report.
https://vimeo.com/708203468/7fff8f5f08
It’s much cheaper to simply build beside the grass runway and preserve the future of the airport.
Yet the majority of council ignored facts from the latest report as well.
Aviation experts and others have spent many hours writing letters to the editor, letters to council, delegations to council, detailed powerpoints and even two in-flight videos to voice the opposition.
Here is the first video link (12/30): https://youtu.be/XeaTdJ-eId8
Here is the second video link (09/27): https://youtu.be/YEFfD4xTDrs
We have contacted Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board and Environment Canada to get the facts that debunk the false information presented to council from airport management.
All ignored.
Muskoka residents deserve much better.
Pilots, including myself, should be using the grass runway right now. There never was a valid reason to close it and there is no valid reason it’s closed right now.
John Whitty
Muskoka pilot and retired Professional Engineer
Don’t miss out on Doppler!Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
Is District Council big, smart and strong enough?
“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.- John C. Maxwell”
Following are more links to video clips showing how dysfunctional District Council is.
The Mar 21 meeting should have been a lot shorter, the grass runway 09-27 preserved and $1 million of taxpayer money saved if council had simply approved the least expensive plan presented by the latest consultant.
It was discussed then ignored.
Airport management has resorted to fiction to convince councillors to close a runway.
Why resort to fiction?
1. Because it works. At least in Muskoka.
2. Because the facts do not support airport management’s desperate desire to close a runway.
You might think airport management would be promoting maintaining and lengthening runways like many other nearby airports.
Not here, not in Muskoka.
Not all councillors are gullible. Some have caught on to the fiction.
3 retired Air Canada pilots told Councillor Lacroix 09-27 is a necessity for the airport for safety.
Somehow this council thinks they know better.
See Councillor Lacroix’s comments from the meeting in the link below.
https://vimeo.com/709610680/51265375bb
The only reason the grass runway 09-27 was not used much in 2019 is because it hasn’t been properly maintained. True.
“20 years ago this runway was used quite extensively.” Also true.
Maintaining runways is actually a requirement of airport management.
They haven’t been doing their job in order to claim “the runway isn’t used much so council should close it.”
Just another ruse.
And gullible council fell for it.
Not everyone, just the majority.
The least expensive, best long term airport solution was discussed then ignored by the Dysfunctional District.
According to the latest consultant, TetraTech, overall long term costs favour strategy 2.
Maintain grass runway 09-27.
Simply put development beside the runway instead of on top of it.
Obviously an airport needs to follow best long term plans and maintain and improve major infrastructure assets like runways.
12-30 is not an east-west runway.
09-27 is not a crosswind runway.
It is the direction into the wind most of the time so most valuable to an airport.
12-30 will likely be cancelled because of increased cost, the fact expanding it goes through a wetland, expansion requires relocating Gravenhurst Parkway and airport management prefers it is not built.
12-30 is not comparable at all to existing 09-27.
Wrong direction, shorter, narrower and can’t easily/inexpensively be expanded like 09-27.
I believe 12-30 was always just another ruse to get council to close 09-27.
09-27 is closed right now without a valid reason.
Assuming 12-30 is ever built it likely won’t be maintained just like 09-27 hasn’t been maintained.
Then airport management will likely ask council to close it to put development on top of it because it’s not used much.
Once again.
Simply put development beside the existing hangars on the west side (green area near the end of the following video.) Instead of on top of a runway.
See TetraTech’s presentation of the correct, least expensive solution in the follow link.
https://vimeo.com/709871769/1b1a27b637
After all this time, the majority of council mistakenly believes the only choice is new development OR the grass runway.
It can be BOTH. That was clearly stated in the meeting Mar 21. And it’s the least expensive plan.
Pilots are NOT against development at the airport.
We welcome the new business, income and jobs it creates following the least expensive plan for Muskoka.
Any competent aviation business knows not to build on top of a runway that is into the wind most of the time.
Unlike current airport management.
It is documented they have demonstrated a dangerous lack of aviation competence and that safety is NOT the top priority.
Muskoka residents deserve much, much better from their councillors.
Again, not all councillors have been fooled into making a massive, expensive, unsafe mistake based on fiction.
Just the majority.
Dysfunctional.