I had an encounter Monday afternoon with a ops. person and an security supervisor that left me dumbstruck. First a little history, the main runway was recently closed for repairs, this will last about 3 months which leaves only 1 runway for large aircraft, 4/22, at the approach end of 22 it has always been acceptable by Airport Police to watch/photograph aircraft as long as you park away from the perimeter fence. Plus there is a new greenway walk/bike trail just off the end of 22 which is good for spotting. So I started out there weeks back checking out the different areas along the trail and roadway, no issues, I noticed quite a few people viewing aircraft from the roadway so I started parking there with them, last Friday a total of 4 persons were there, APD drove by, waved and departed, another day earlier an Officer had stopped just to ask what I was doing and departed.
Monday a Operations 'agent' called me to the perimeter fence and asked if I was taking pictures, I stated I was, he asked if I get the tail number and what do I do with it, before I could answer fully he starts in with "you sell them to Airliners.net" I tried to tell him no one 'sells' photos to them, as far as I know, and tried to tell him that the APD is well aware of this area and my activities but he wouldn't even listen but before leaving he said something about there's an "angle" for why I'm there and he's gonna get to the bottom of it?. LOL give some one a badge and their gonna save the world!
20-30 minutes later I saw him talking to one of the airport security persons, he took off towards the main part of field and the security vehicle started rolling in my direction, I flagged it down and a lady who IDed herself as the Airport Security Supervisor stated I'm "tracking aircraft" and that is a security issue? She actually listened to everything I had to say but would not budge on her opinion, and that is all it is, an opinion! She couldn't back it up with any real ordinance or rule. Even when I told her about the top level of the parking garage being listed on the airports website as the official area for spotting, "still can't do it". So she asks me to leave, I told her no, I'm waiting on the Alaska Disney plane to come by. One thing I argued with her about was Google driving around documenting every fence, gate, and area of the perimeter and posting it, she wasn't aware of that, just my "tracking". I asked for her supervisors name which she provided and her business card so I could email her links to actual 'tracking sites' and sites like 'ordwatch' to try to show her everything she had told me is total BS and for her and the ops guy to "be careful" about making assuming accusations and violating peoples rights. She asked again if I would leave, again I told her no. About 20 minutes later APD comes out and shrugged his shoulders, said he had to come out because she called, talked to the other person that was eating dinner and watching planes then departed, no action.
Her supervisor is new here, according to the airports website he came from DFW/DAL, so I'm sure he is well aware of the hobby as DFW has Founders Plaza and I can't see someone like that coming here and implementing the mindset of these two. So a email went to him explaining what happened and I expressed concerns that some re-training for the two should be done and an apology is in order.
No answer from either email as of now, but I was out there in the same spot 4-1-14, same time. I saw 2 different Ops. vehicles drive by, didn't even look at me or slow done, same with APD. So who knows, maybe I'll show up one day and there will be "no parking" signs posted every where? I'll just go back to the greenway!:smile:
