Small Airports Like Sedona’s Mesa-Top Gem Need Our Support

Our rented 1962 Cessna 182 on top of the mesa at Sedona, Arizona’s air­port (KSEZ)

What can com­pare to landing your plane on top of a mesa, with gor­geous red rock for­ma­tions all around you? Sedona, Arizona’s air­port is known as “America’s Most Scenic Airport” for a good reason: it’s down­right beau­tiful there. While I have a spe­cial place in my heart for the vistas of the Minden-Tahoe air­port where I learned to fly, the Sedona air­port is undoubt­edly my next-favorite air­port. I’ve flown into the air­port and vis­ited by car. Each time the place has not failed to work its magic on me and who­ever I am with.

Sedona’s runway was first paved in 1957 and since then has not only become a pre­mier des­ti­na­tion for tourism (and the money it gen­er­ates) but also a valu­able resource for the com­mu­nity in terms of the trans­porta­tion and ser­vices it pro­vides. It’s a small, non-towered air­port and as such retains the small town friendly charm of which I and count­less other pilots are very fond. However, as is inevitable with growth and expan­sion, com­plaints arise from the com­mu­nity about noise or pol­lu­tion. Recently, Kristin Monday of Sedona has been com­plaining that the jet fumes are making her and her hus­band sick. Monday lives directly under the flight path of the air­port and wants the air­port moved or closed. See this story in the Sedona Red Rock News: “Woman works to close Sedona Airport.”

Stunning red rock for­ma­tions at Sedona, Arizona

It’s a familiar story with air­ports across the country: people move in next door to them, then raise com­plaints about noise when it was those people who chose to pur­chase a home near the air­port in the first place. The air­ports were estab­lished there long before­hand. As a pilot, I think living close to an air­port (or on an air­port!) would be fan­tastic, but I realize many people do not want the sound of planes and heli­copters in their imme­diate vicinity. But noise aside, surely people such as Monday would be grateful the air­port does exist in the case of a med­ical emer­gency, when the speed of a heli­copter ride to Phoenix could save a life? Airports are also invalu­able in fighting forest fires, serve as bases for search and rescue efforts, and so much more. The rev­enue to small com­mu­ni­ties that air­ports such as Sedona’s pro­vide is often a larger por­tion of the pie than most people realize. Would they rather take on the burden them­selves in the form of higher taxes? From air­craft fuel sales to the tourism dol­lars vis­i­tors spend in hotels and restau­rants, air­ports rack in the cash for places like Sedona.

There’s another ben­efit air­ports pro­vide to the com­mu­nity as well that I believe is very impor­tant: the moment when a child sees the wonder of a plane or heli­copter flying and is pos­i­tively influ­enced in that moment to become a pilot, mechanic, or engi­neer. Is that worth the sound of a jet flying over­head occasionally?

Sedona’s cur­rent con­flict is only one of many that happen across our country every year. Please take a moment to vote on the article’s web site that the “Airport is not a problem” so we might nip this instance in the bud. Whether you’re a pilot or just an avi­a­tion enthu­siast, talk up gen­eral avi­a­tion and your local air­port when­ever pos­sible. Take your friends and their chil­dren for air­plane rides. Finally, con­sider vol­un­teering for AOPA’s Airport Support Network, where you have the resources of the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) in your corner. They can assist you in pro­mo­tional efforts like air­port open house events, or defen­sively, should a threat present itself to your airport.

Our country’s air­ports are an incred­ible resource and make the USA the best, freest place to be a gen­eral avi­a­tion pilot in the world. Let’s all do a little some­thing to sup­port our small air­ports so we can keep gems like Sedona avail­able for everyone!

Panorama of the town of Sedona from the Airport Mesa