Quoted:
....I also could care less about Meigs Field and the fact that wealthy Babyboomers have nowhere to land their toys in Downtown Chicago (Meigs served no true purpose). If the City of Chicago wanted to pay me to destroy something in that hell hole, I would gladly....
|
Mr. Patriot,
I beg to differ on your assessment of CGX (Meigs Field). I worked at CGX for over three years as an air traffic controller for the FAA. Matter of fact, I was the last FAA controller out the door when the airport first closed in 1996 (when it re-opened in 1997, there was a private contractor providing ATC service).
CGX was NOT the playground of "wealthy Babyboomers." The airport was a major player (believe it or not) in the air traffic system serving Chicago. During conventions at McCormick Place, the airport would handle hundreds of corporate jets that would otherwise have to land at Midway or O'Hare. People do not realize that, large or small, an aircraft takes up a certain amount of space in the air traffic system. So, all of those corporate aircraft that land at CGX are freeing up space for arrivals and departures into ORD and MDW. Another function of CGX was the separation of the numerous aircraft that transited daily up and down the Chicago shoreline. It must be noted that we were not allowed to count the traffic we worked through the CGX Class D airspace (at other FAA facilities, if it flies thru your airspace, it gets counted). If this traffic were counted, CGX would be a lot busier than most would believe. One thing to note is that the City of Chicago wanted to run the airport into the ground. The City continually cites "lower numbers of operations" at the airport each year. This is because they tried to discourage use of CGX. The landing fees where outrageous (I cannot remember the exact amount) and for years, they refused to invest in a viable instrument approach (the City later allowed an instrument approach).
With good planning, the City of Chicago could have turned CGX into the premier downtown airport of the US, with a first class airport, parkland, and the harbor. Instead, they chose to grind it up and turn it into a 10000 seat concert venue (in direct conflict w/ Dailey's assertions that the land was need for more park space for Chicago's citizenry).
I miss working at CGX, it was the best view in the FAA.