Airport Location?

[Critical AOA]

I have a question for those who are members of squadrons with aircraft. 

Do you have a building or office on the airport, within a mile of the airport or nowhere near the airport?

[Garibaldi]

I have a question for those who are members of squadrons with aircraft. 

Do you have a building or office on the airport, within a mile of the airport or nowhere near the airport?

We actually have our own hangar, graciously donated by WalMart Aviation. They pay for the upkeep and we give them access whenever they want. Good trade-off in my book.

[PhotogPilot]

Wo

I have a question for those who are members of squadrons with aircraft. 

Do you have a building or office on the airport, within a mile of the airport or nowhere near the airport?

You will find all of the above. Currently my squadron holds meetings in the airport terminal conference room. The Group HQ is also on the airport, we keep squadron files there and use it as mission base during exercises. We rent a hanger for our assigned G1000, two other group assigned 172s are tied down. We have met in a church and other off airport locations.

[Pylon]

Our own set of 3 buildings on the airport grounds.  Though the hangar is on the other side of the ramp.

[SarDragon]

Our airplane is tied down at airport A. We meet in a flight school classroom at airport B. We also have a small comm trailer on the other side of airport B, where we also keep most of our files.

[PHall]

Squadron Headquarters is in the Airport Administration building.

[Flying Pig]

We (actually, they, since Im no longer in CAP) have a hangar donated by one of the FBOs but the Sq has office space at the local Army Guard facility about 2-3 miles away.

[Huey Driver]

My squadron operates from WWD, with two 5000ft runways including plenty of instrument approaches and a localizer. We have >5 active pilots at all times. We occupy the whole second floor of the airport terminal building - pretty spacious. Including fully equipped comm room, pilot ready room, briefing room, ground team storage closet...

Oh wait, we no longer have any aircraft based there, or within 30 minutes flying time.

[Garibaldi]

WIWAC, our facility was the jail beneath the juvenile detention center at the county sheriff's compound. Our supply room was an actual jail cell. We moved to a regular building in the same compound about a year after I joined, then a year before I left we moved to a youth group building behind a church. That was OK since the only pilot was my father and the plane he used was at an airport about 50 miles away.

[spacecommand]

We have our own building at the small general aviation airport we meet at.  Our aircraft has its own reserved tie-down space outside. 

[SarDragon]

My squadron operates from WWD, with two 5000ft runways including plenty of instrument approaches and a localizer. We have >5 active pilots at all times. We occupy the whole second floor of the airport terminal building - pretty spacious. Including fully equipped comm room, pilot ready room, briefing room, ground team storage closet...

Oh wait, we no longer have any aircraft based there, or within 30 minutes flying time.

Your squadron has always been one of the best supported units in NJ.

[RADIOMAN015]

Our squadron occupies 2 classrooms (1 very large that also has storage cabinets), 2 large offices, 3 smaller offices (within the larger offices) on the 2nd floor of a hanger on a military base.  The CAP aircraft is parked (currently outside) on the civilian side of the air field, about 3 miles away (one has to leave the military base and drive to the civilian side) .    Within our wing I think there's 6 squadrons that are right on the taxiway/flight line and at least three of those has an aircraft parked right next to the CAP building.      I personally like the idea of our plane being closer to the squadron (parked on the military side of the field) but there's some aircraft parked on the north ramp that are heading for the bone yard and lots of construction so that isn't possible at the present time.

Also I really like the ideal of CAP having facilities & meetings on airfields.  We are the Civil Air Patrol and it's good for the cadets & seniors to see our ties to aviation every time they come to a meeting.

RM   

[PHall]

We are the Civil Air Patrol and it's good for the cadets & seniors to see our ties to aviation every time they come to a meeting.

RM

Wait a minute, I thought you said we were the CIVIL Air Patrol.

[wuzafuzz]

My squadron has a hangar and storage shed provided by our local airport.  Our second plane is at another airport with a hangar provided by the airport.  (I'm not sure if we pay anything for that one.)  We do not have a building or offices of our own.  Instead we currently meet in space provided by the local university ROTC program.  That university space is almost 15 miles (driving) from the first airport, and 33 miles from the second airport.  Since we don't have any storage at the university all our files are maintained at members' homes or online.  We have changed homes a few times in the past when free space dried up.

We are saving our pennies to build a small communications trailer.  Ideally that will allow us to setup in style at exercises and airshows.  I stop short of calling it a command trailer, but it could serve that purpose as well.  Continually setting up comm in borrowed facilities is a pain.

In spite of the challenges presented by our gypsy-like nature, we are a highly effective and active squadron of 167 members.  I'm humbled to be a small part of such a great squadron.

[Critical AOA]

Thanks for all of the answers so far.  The reason I was asking is that our squadron normally has two aircraft assigned unless one is on loan to another squadron or in maintenance.  They are parked side-by-side at a local airport.  However our meeting place is about 12 miles away in a different town.  We have no space at all at the airport for an ops office, storage, etc.

We were previously meeting near the airport but moved to our current location because it was donated to us though how long we will have it is uncertain.  Still, it is a nice space and serves its purpose real well as a general meeting place and to do non-aviation activities and classroom training.

My thoughts are having at least a small office with a computer and storage area at the same airport where the aircraft is parked makes great sense.  It would be very helpful in many ways, including as an ops base when we fly real missions, a place for preflight briefings, a place to stage O-flights out of and a place to keep all of the aircraft logs, extra oil, handheld GPS units, headsets, etc.  Currently all of this stuff is just jammed in the baggage compartment of the aircraft.  Something I personally do not like to see.

Has anyone here personally been involved in negotiations with either the airport manager or local FBO to get either free or real cheap space at the airport?  What was your approach?  What benefits did you state would be realized by the airport or FBO? 

[bosshawk]

The Sq that I belonged to prior to my departure from CAP is located on a former AF base: multiple approaches and a 12,000 ft runway.  The Sq CC owns the FBO and we have use of a former fighter alert hangar at the departure end of the runway.  The Sq offices are in the FBO building and it has exclusive use of a sizeable facility.  Radios are in yet another room.  Pretty good facility.

Cadets have at least 50 acres of ramp to march on and have PT.

[PhotogPilot]

We are the Civil Air Patrol and it's good for the cadets & seniors to see our ties to aviation every time they come to a meeting.

RM

Wait a minute, I thought you said we were the CIVIL Air Patrol.

Or Civil Air Patrol

[rustyjeeper]

We are the Civil Air Patrol and it's good for the cadets & seniors to see our ties to aviation every time they come to a meeting.

RM

Wait a minute, I thought you said we were the CIVIL Air Patrol.

Possibly those of us on military bases should get our Civil corporate aircraft off of the military flightlines and park them on civil airfields( miles away).... just to make sure that no cadet or person gets the wrong idea about our having any military affiliation. I would hate for someone to get the wrong idea by seeing our aircraft where they DO NOT BELONG since we are not the military

[Thrashed]

Our squadron is about 30 minutes from the nearest airport and 90 minutes from the nearest CAP plane. 

[Woodsy]

We have a free standing building on the airport grounds with 2 large classrooms, 2 decent size offices (one converted to comms room and one is admin) and 2 large garages for storage.  There's also a full kitchen and a bathroom with a shower, though we never use the shower and have the water heater cut off to save power.  We do not have a hanger, but we have a tie down spot donated by the airport about a 5 minute walk from the building.  There's also parking down there too so we usually just drive down. 

We also have access to the airport administrative building conference room.  It's a very nice facility with a big table that can seat about 20 people, and another area where we can set up about 30 chairs.  We use this for senior meetings when we need to discuss business without the in-and-out disruptions that happen with the cadets in the squadron building, and PD courses. 

The building is owned by the airport and leased to us at no cost.  We do however pay the electric, water and internet, and the electric is not cheap in an uninsulated WWII era cinder block building. The airport is responsible for "major systems" maintenance like the air conditioning unit, plumbing and electrical,  and we are responsible for minor maintenance, upkeep, cosmetic stuff, etc.