Talk:Meadowlark Airport

Untitled
Meadowlark was about 2,000 feet long for take off. You're incorrect to say it was marginal for higher performance retractable aircraft. My Bonanza was based there and most based pilots flew there day or night even though it did not have runway lights. There were a few twin engine aircraft based there includeing a D-18 Beechcraft with the Volpar conversion.

If you learned to fly at Meadowlark, you could fly into any airport. Meadowlark did have runway lights - they just didnt have them working all the time. I bought them from Art when he closed the place - they are now on a private airstrip in Northern Nevada. Cmmguy (talk) 03:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Article issues
There is a proposed deletion tag on this article. I have subsequently added some references, a link from another article, removed the trivia section, and edited out some of the original research. More references can be found given more time. This is a significant historical location in Huntington Beach and the article should be retained. Alanraywiki (talk) 15:24, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Neither reference contains any discussion of its operation as an airport, merely the site's post-airport status & development. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 16:15, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Excessive unsourced material moved from article
(Until it can be sourced. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:41, 26 June 2009 (UTC) )

History
Meadowlark first opened in the early 1950s, and was originally listed on the San Diego Sectional aeronautical chart as "East Long Beach." At the time, several other small airfields were listed nearby, including Huntington Beach Airport, an 1800 ft strip approximately 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Newport Harbor. On some 1950s sectional charts, Meadowlark was officially called Sunset Beach, after a small ocean strand community bracketing Huntington Harbour, about two miles (3 km) northwest of the airport.

As American general aviation reached its heyday in the 1960s, new aircraft and new pilots found themselves competing for traffic pattern space and takeoff clearances. Flight training and light aircraft operations made Long Beach Municipal Airport, five miles (8 km) west of Meadowlark, the United States' second busiest airport and many pilots sought out an alternative experience. The field was uncontrolled; arriving and departing planes merely made their positions known on a common traffic advisory frequency, CTAF.

At various times, Meadowlark hosted a number of different businesses, including the Meadowlark Cafe, Harbor Aviation, Sunset Aviation, Bassee Aviation, Sky Ad, Joe Hughes Air Shows and various small shops and agricultural businesses.

By the mid-1970s, urban Huntington Beach was beginning to encroach upon Meadowlark and with it came anti-airport sentiments. Occasional accidents at the airport fueled opposition from the city council. There were repeated calls for Meadowlark's closure, but in the end the airfield succumbed not to city pressure, but skyrocketing land values. Land in Huntington Beach had become so valuablethat Nerio finally informed the owners of Meadowlark-based aircraft and businesses [...]

Runways
The actual length of Meadowlark's primary runway 19/01 has been the subject of some controversy. All three early runways were listed as 2400 ft in length, but by the mid-1950s the longest runway, then oiled dirt and gravel, was 2050 ft. By 1963, the AOPA Airport Directory listed runway 19 as 1900 ft long, but the 1963 sectional chart depicted the runway as only being 1800 ft in length.

Some local pilots claimed runway 19 was never more than 1700 ft long. As the city of Huntington Beach grew up around Meadowlark, a displaced threshold was added for noise abatement purposes, placing aircraft higher on final approach and yielding as little as 1,500 feet of runway for landing, depending upon the source cited.

Runway length was an issue because, while Meadowlark's single paved strip was adequate for older and smaller lightplanes, the runway was marginal for higher-performance retractable singles and twins.

In later years, many Meadowlark pilots were unaware that the airport had a short, unpaved crosswind runway that ran roughly southwest/northeast. This runway was infrequently used by owners of older, slower tailwheel aircraft, and also by pilots picking up and dropping off aerial banners.

Meadowlark today
The park features playground equipment and a picnic area, adjacent to a eucalyptus grove and a butterfly mural attracting Monarch butterfly spotters. Airplane spotters visiting the park will note a plaque commemorating Dick Nerio and Meadowlark Airport.

[End of unsourced material. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:41, 26 June 2009 (UTC) ]

Note to Alanraywiki
Editor-uploaded files are NOT a WP:RS. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:43, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

I would further note that the image offers no evidence whatsoever of "playground equipment and a picnic area, adjacent to a eucalyptus grove and a butterfly mural attracting Monarch butterfly spotters". HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:45, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I have photos of the eucalyptus grove and the butterfly mural. I will be happy to upload them, and that is encouraged under WP:OI, but is this section really that controversial?  Alanraywiki (talk) 03:24, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * (i) See my first comment -- these images are not a WP:RS. (ii) An excessive number of images from after the site ceased to be an airport (particularly those unrelated to its former use as one) would be WP:UNDUE. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 03:33, 26 June 2009 (UTC)