Article: 8301 of rec.aviation.misc Path: newshost.ncd.com!ncd.com!decwrl!decwrl!sgi!cdp!corwin From: Corwin Nichols Newsgroups: rec.aviation.misc Date: 02 Feb 94 06:02 PST Subject: Moffett Field, still off limits Message-ID: <1728100009@cdp> Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway Lines: 44 Last night Tuesday, Feb. 1, the Palo Alto Pilot's Assoc. met and heard from Gary Thornton who is the Cheif of the Airport Management Office at Moffett Field. He spoke at length on the future of Moffett as it applies to use in general aviation. I might as well get thru the bad news first... it will remain closed for G.A. use. NASA is assuming management duties for the field as the Navy departs. By July 1, NASA will be fully at the reins, and by Oct. 1, the Navy will be completely gone. The plans include keeping some of the other existing tennants which include the Air National Guard, Navy Reserves, Air Force Reserves, some special contractors to the governemtn, and of course NASA themselves. We can expect that flight activity will decrease with time, and that since the reserve forces are more active on weekends, flight activity will be most active then. The plan is to try and encourage state and local government use of the facility to help offset the operating costs. The intention also is to establish an emergency relief office there, probably run by FEMA. The tower will remain active 16 hours/day (0700-2300), 7 days/week. The PAR (Navy's precesion approach) will be gone by 1 March, but plans are to have an ILS for 32R and localizer only to 14L. It may be permitted for general aviation users to fly a missed approach into Moffett, but that hasn't been decided. NASA also plans to implement a new aircraft position tracking system which was described in the Jan 23 (??) issue of Aviation Leak. I haven't seen this, but it was generally described as utilizing the mode C transponders and by using time differentials of the mode C signal being received at antennas scattered over the field, a very exact airplane fix is possible. This system may be functional by summer 95. As far as DGPS goes, no plans since it is not certified for approaches, but since NASA is under contract to the governement, we can expect early implementation there once certification occurs. The TACAN will remain as is. The flying club there will be gone by the end of March. An ASOS will be active in about 90 days, reachable by phone only for now, with possible VHF transmitter in the near future, but that it not firm. There, probably more than you wanted to know. Your trusty reporter, Corwin Nichols Colt N4973Z