[crnakfls]

My grandfather ran one of these airports:

https://airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanBernardino_...

The stories he would tell of that place. Drug runners landing in the night and him chasing them off with a shotgun. People constantly coming around to try and steal things. The people that would fly in to say hello. He had a real community out there. There were some sad circumstances around the end of his life that meant he couldn't run it the way it should have been run and it fell into decay. My family sold it after his passing as the cost and complexity to run such an airport so far from everything was too much (on top of none of us being pilots). It was a sad event. These days I think it's a solar farm.

[ryandrake]

It's too bad, because once these small GA airports go away, they are never coming back. Too expensive to rehab, and nobody is building new ones anymore. So ideally they should be preserved, but nobody wants to do it.

The tiny GA airfield in my home town went up for sale some time back, and the price they were asking was less than what a medium-sized Bay Area home cost. I was so tempted to find a way to make it work (equity partner?) and retire my tech job to become an airport manager. But alas, I chickened out, and some doofus bought it and is probably going to destroy it to build something stupid there. Unlikely it will remain an airport, and unlikely it will ever be sold again as a feasible rehab project.

[bombcar]

Small GA airports out in the middle of nowhere can come into being, but it's rare, and the whole GA field is aging out and disappearing (both the pilots, planes, and people).

[Ancapistani]

A big part of that is the regulatory environment. For example - I have the interest and means to get my PPL. I'd love to do so, but the FAA considers ADHD to be a disqualifying medical condition.

[mrhottakes]

The cost is a much bigger factor for most

[bombcar]

It's both expensive and not that expensive; roughly the cost "all-in" of getting a good motorcycle.

If I were to do it again I'd save up and take time off and do all the training in a month or two. Half the cash I burned was relearning the shit I forgot since the last lesson.

[bombcar]

https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen_certificati... implies there may be a path (depending on what "special issuance" means).

[ryandrake]

Yea, going the Special Issuance route is tough and lengthy, and you still cannot be currently relying on medication to manage the condition. The FAA's "mental health" requirements for flying are rooted in good intentions, but too coarse. You don't want someone suffering from schizophrenia, severe depression or bipolar mania to be flying airplanes, but on the other hand, someone who was once had mild anxiety or ADHD 30 years ago should not be disqualified. The FAA treats these cases similarly.

[bombcar]

Sport pilot or "perpetual student" may be other options - https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen_certificati...

(Perpetual student - you can be in control of a plane but not PIC without a medical or anything, so you can literally pay an instructor to be PIC whilst you do the flybits.)

[mothballed]

Ultralight and sport (no medical clearance) can still land on airfields, no?

[cucumber3732842]

No, they can't, because the people in somewhere won't let you build an airport in the middle of nowhere without abiding by the rules they wrote for somewhere.

[mc32]

Yeah, that's the problem: once they close down and the land gets sold, it will typically get developed and once that happens the land isn't coming back unless you have a Detroit situation. It's not like suburbs have lots of empty space for an approach and a strip. Even if there were, NIMBYs would prevent one from happening.

[colechristensen]

I wonder what the future will be like given that "flying cars" are now more or less a reality.

[jagged-chisel]

they exist. but fuel, inflation ...

The future looks much like it does now.

[bombcar]

I landed at that airport, it must have been soon after your grandfather passed - it wasn't NOTAM'd as closed, but the phone number had a recording that the owner had passed and it was closed - I relocated to the larger 29 Palms airport, farther from my destination. My condolences on your loss.