CAA: GA News, "The independence of flight"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@cwnet.com>]

Sunday, April 30, 2000

The independence of flight
Aviators live in homes with airplane hangars out back and love the elevated
lifestyle at the Independence Airpark
By Cheryl Martinis, Correspondent, The Oregonian


INDEPENDENCE -- For amateur pilots who love to fly, living at the
Independence Airpark is heaven -- a place where backyard hangars open onto
taxiways and most of your neighbors share your passion.

"If we hear airplanes go off first thing at 7 a.m., it's music to our ears,"
said Mike Pongracz, 52, a property manager who started flying about 10 years
ago and fell in love with aviation.

Two years ago, Pongracz moved his family from one of Salem's upscale
neighborhoods to the Independence Airpark, the only substantial residential
community in Oregon that's located beside a state airport.

Pongracz moved so he can step out his back door and walk a short distance to
the hangar where his Hy-Tek Hurricane Ultra 103 and another ultralight are
parked.

And he has lots of company.

About 110 homes line streets with names like Cessna, Piper and Stinson. All
but about 10 of those houses have hangars out back that open onto taxiways,
the flying person's driveway. Even slightly good weather is cause for fliers
to celebrate. "I'll call up a neighbor and say, 'Hey, it's not too windy.' "
Pongracz said. " 'It's nice and sunny, let's go flying.' We push the button
on the hangar door and go commit aviation. It's so convenient."

Houses in the airpark range from 1,200-square-foot ranches that are about
the same size as their hangars to two-story houses with thousands of square
feet and a three-car garage. "You can spend a half-million for a house out
here or you can spend $150,000," Pongracz said.

Cathy McLean, a real estate agent and one of the few nonfliers to live in
the airpark, said appraisers have a tough time putting a value on properties
because "it really is one of a kind."

Subdivision blocked

And the residents intend to keep it that way. A few years back, airpark
residents succeeded in blocking a subdivision that would have placed 112
traditional houses just south of the airpark. In addition to concerns that
residents in the new subdivision might object to airport noise, they also
feared mixing small children, pets and propellers.

Instead, the city zoned the area as a residential, single-family airpark and
development was scaled back to 50 lots, all designed for airpark housing
with access to taxiways and hangars.

Recently, lots in that area were posted for sale with prices ranging from
$40,000 to $65,000. To the north, a different developer is preparing to sell
what will be the final 27 lots within airpark boundaries. Indepth
Construction Inc. will ask from $75,000 to $117,000 for its larger lots.
Some span a third of an acre.

Improvements planned

Residents pay $120 a year to the state for access to the runway and another
$100 to the homeowners' association to maintain taxiways. The airport is
beginning about $1.4 million worth of improvements in June. Workers will
resurface the runway and parallel taxiway and expand the apron, which is
often crowded now with planes parked while the occupants catch a bite at
Annie's at the Airport. The airport is also installing brighter runway
lights that pilots can activate from their cockpits.

The work will be mostly paid for by the federal government through taxes
paid on aviation fuel and passenger tickets.

Carole Gabel, president of the Independence Airpark Homeowners Association
and a pilot for more than a decade, is enthusiastic about the projected
improvements to the airport. She said the majority of residents own
single-engine planes.

Gabel is one of about eight women pilots who live in the airpark. She and
her husband, Rod, also a pilot, moved here 6 ½ years ago from Gladstone. "We
wanted to live with our airplane," she said.

"It's very relaxing to just get up and fly," she said. "When you're flying,
you forget the cares of the day. It's almost a spiritual experience."

Social gatherings held

She parks her four-place Cessna 172 in a hangar about 100 feet from her home
on property she leases from the state. That frees up the hangar at the back
of her house for social gatherings such as the Oregon Pilots Association's
monthly potluck. Polk County has one of the state's largest chapters. "We
have tables, chairs," she said. "I can set up within a half-hour or so for a
good 100 people in our hangar."

Apparently, when pilots aren't flying, they like getting together to talk
about flying. Gabel, 56, said it's impossible to walk across the airpark
without running into a friend. She said an open hangar door is like an
invitation to stop and visit.

"We all speak the language of aviation."

On Wednesday nights and weekends, members of the airport-based Experimental
Aircraft Association can be found inside one of the hangars, building 14
replicas of the Nieuport 11, a World War I biplane.

The planes will be seven-eighths as big as the originals. "We'll fly them,
powered by Volkswagen engines," Pongracz said.

Residents fly together

They like to fly together as well. On Memorial Day, there is a neighborhood
memorial fly-by with a missing-man formation to recognize military members
or pilots who died.

Airpark residents also relish the ability to avoid traffic jams and travel
quickly about the state. Andy Andersen, who became a pilot while attending
Oregon State University after World War II, flew to Aurora recently for a
meeting and was back by noon. Another day, he flew to Pacific City for
breakfast and returned home by 9:30 a.m.

"The typical pilot is always looking for the perfect, hundred-dollar
hamburger," said Pongracz, joking about the cost of flying across the state
for lunch.

Andersen is also a member of the airport's history committee. He said the
airport began as a grass seed field pressed into service as a landing strip
for Oregon's centennial celebration. Journalists flew in to cover the
arrival of the "On to Oregon Cavalcade," a wagon train traveling from
Independence, Mo., to Independence, Ore., in 1959.

Independence bought the airstrip and later donated it to the state. Today,
it is the "End of the Oregon Trail Airport."

State grants access

The Oregon Aeronautics Division granted the housing development access to
the runway in 1974 and the airpark took off.

Airpark pilots will share their enthusiasm for flying with local
schoolchildren on June 10. Many residents volunteer to take youngsters who
have permission for a half-hour ride through their Young Eagles program.
More than 60 youngsters will get a chance to feel the magic of being
airborne.

Pongracz's teen-age sons, Brian and Andrew, are fairly immune to the lure of
flying. Both of the 17-year-old South Salem High School seniors would rather
play golf. But they have grown accustomed to living in a community made up
mainly of people their parents' age.

"There's like maybe four people under the age of 30 out here," said Brian
Pongracz. But he has seen one advantage to living in the airpark.

"My dad's a happier person."


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