Flight Plan for Friendlier Skies : New Fullerton Airport Chief Steers for Harmony in Air, on Ground

FULLERTON —  As a homeowner living directly beneath the flight approach to Fullerton Municipal Airport, Roland Elder can empathize with his neighbors’ concerns about aircraft passing low overhead.

And as a veteran aviator with his own single-engine Beech Bonanza parked at the airport, Elder can also relate to the more than 500 private pilots who use the facility for business and pleasure.

So, with airport-area residents often at odds with pilots in recent years over noise and safety issues, Elder, who was appointed director of the airport a month ago, seems ideally suited for his job.

An Arkansas native and retired Air Force officer, Elder, 44, acknowledged that his new assignment will be a careful balancing act, but one he is confident of carrying off.

“My major goal is to make this airport an asset to the community,” Elder said recently on the anniversary of his first month at the helm of the only airport left in Orange County besides John Wayne Airport.

Elder filled the $60,000-a-year post after former director Rod Murphy resigned Sept. 1 to become director of Riverside Municipal Airport.

Appointed by City Manager William C. Winter after recommendations from a panel that interviewed about 30 candidates, Elder brings to the job a rich aviation background that began at age 16 when he made his first solo flight.

After attending college at the University of Arkansas and receiving a master’s degree from the University of Missouri, Elder served 30 months in Vietnam as an Air Force navigator aboard B-52 bombers.

“I lived,” Elder said simply of his wartime experience.

Returning stateside, Elder was made missile launch officer at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and went on to become deputy base commander of Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Elder retired from the Air Force in 1987 as a lieutenant colonel and went to work as a writer of flight manuals for the Northrop Corp.’s Pico Rivera plant.

While he worked with military aircraft much of his career, Elder said he always preferred the freedom of private planes.

But his new job at Fullerton Airport could be something of a hot seat. After 11 crashes since 1966 into the Buena Park neighborhoods just west of the airport--including a Sept. 13 accident in which a student pilot plowed into a residential street--some Buena Park residents have called for the 62-year-old facility to be shut down.

Concern over noise from low-flying planes and abnormally loud engines has also prompted a flurry of complaints, including a Dec. 15 letter from Buena Park Mayor Donald L. Bone asking the Federal Aviation Administration to study safety standards at the airport. The FAA has decided not to conduct such an investigation, Bone said Friday.

The pilots, too, have been in an uproar over escalating storage fees at the airport. The monthly fee to tie down planes at the airport, for instance, has risen from about $20 to $80 over the past two decades. Hangar fees and fuel costs have also gone up.

In Elder’s favor, though, is the fact that both the pilots and opponents of the airport see him as their advocate.

“We really do support the man,” said Bob McNutt, president of the Fullerton Airport Pilots Assn. “Roland’s enthusiasm for aviation is very refreshing. He’s new on the job and nobody has burst his bubble yet.”

Buena Park City Manager Kevin O’Rourke, an outspoken critic of the airport, was among the panel members who recommended that Elder be hired--an indication of Elder’s non-aviation support.

Elder went right to the safety issue in an interview. “Safety is our absolute No. 1 priority,” he said.

Elder promised to try and ensure better safety by such things as making sure all aircraft using the airport have undergone their annual FAA inspection and sponsoring FAA safety seminars for pilots. He also promised to continue monitoring noise complaints, as airport officials have been doing for the past four years.

Noise complaints have been dropping. Jim Brunner, administrative assistant to Elder, said the complaints four years ago averaged as many as a dozen per day, compared to as few as three per month now. Brunner said the complaints have diminished as more local residents go out to the airport and meet with pilots to discuss how they fly.

Elder said he will encourage more of this resident-pilot diplomacy, and he advocates “aviation science” classes in the schools.

“I think there is a real need in Orange County and this whole country to make people more aware of the technical aspects of aviation,” Elder said.

To foster more public interest in aviation, Elder contemplates putting in a miniature park alongside the Fullerton Airport’s runway so families can come out and watch planes land and take off.

A final challenge, Elder said, will be in attracting more aviation-related industry, especially after two of the airport’s five fixed-base operators--businesses which service airplanes--closed earlier this year.

Despite the airport’s problems, Elder does not see the facility’s closure on the horizon.

“There are still a lot of people learning to fly here,” Elder said. “There’s a lot going on.”

FULLERTON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT

Founders: William and Robert Dowling, Placentia citrus ranchers and pioneer aviators.

Opened: First flight Feb. 24, 1927. William Dowling, piloting a “Jenny” military training biplane, flew from Brea to make the first landing at the airport. Fullerton Airport officially dedicated April 21, 1928. Name changed to Fullerton Municipal Airport after the city took control in 1941.

RECORDS:

In 1949, the Sunkist Lady, a red and white plane, set an endurance record by staying aloft 1,008 hours and 2 minutes--a total of 42 days. The flight from Fullerton by pilots Dick Riedel and Bill Barris was their fourth attempt at breaking the 726-hour record set in 1939 by two Long Beach pilots. The Lady’s day in the sun was short-lived, however. Six months later, two Yuma pilots broke her record by staying up 1,142 hours.

In 1965, Hacienda Heights housewife Nancy Brissey landed a two-seat, single-engine plane at the airport after flying it 2,500 miles from Vero Beach, Fla.--the first solo flight of such duration by a student pilot.

NOTABLES:

Daredevil test pilot Johnny Angel created a sensation when he flew a fleet of surplus B-18 bombers from Downey to Fullerton after World War II for repairs. He then led the fleet to Venezuela where he ran a transport operation. With an 86-foot wing span, the bombers are the largest planes ever to land at the airport.

In 1929, Hollywood descended on the airport to film aerial sequences for the adventure movie “Hell’s Angels.”

Airport lore has it that millionaire recluse Howard Hughes also paid a typically mysterious visit, arriving at the field shortly before midnight one night to sign the agreement to purchase land for his Hughes Aircraft Ground Systems Group Facility in Fullerton.

MILESTONES:

1931: First air mail service launched.

1934: First industrial lease issued.

July, 1938: First night flights recorded.

January, 1941: Chamber of Commerce’s 14-year stewardship of the airport ended, with the City Council, at the urging of the chamber, voting to take direct control of the facility.

1948: By now the airport, equipped with such modern features as landing lights, was home base to more than 200 planes and was ranked as fourth-largest airport in the state.

1959: Federal Aviation Administration gave the city $300,000 for field improvements, which included addition of a control tower to the existing administration building. The tower was the first in Orange County.

1960: City used $101,000 in FAA and city funds for a number of needed improvements, including extending the runway to its present length of 3,120 feet.

1983: City Council approved $6.4-million renovation to attract business to the aging facility.

STATISTICS:

Size today: 80 acres.

Runway length: 3,120 feet.

Aircraft capacity: 600 planes.

Flight operations: 11,554 in October, 1989;

155,870 the preceding 12 months.

Highest traffic year: 1969, with 263,720

operations.

FAA tower: Opened 1959.

Elevation: 96 feet above sea level.

Motto: “Fly Friendly.”

Source: Fullerton Municipal Airport