By day, San Jose resident Peter Learmonth is a computer systems engineer, but he moonlights as a volunteer command pilot for Angel Flight West, a network of around 3,000 volunteers who provide free medical transportation to people in need to 12 Western U.S. states.
Since 2020, Learmonth has been flying for Angel Flight West, frequently starting his missions by renting a plane at Reid-Hillview Airport — built in 1939, bought by the county in 1961 — and flying to another airport to pick up his passengers. In 2018, the county stopped accepting grants from the Federal Aviation Administration, making 2031 the earliest possible year for the airport’s potential closure once their 10-year grant obligations end.
Although the county hasn’t formally petitioned for the airport to close, supervisors decided to explore different options if Reid-Hillview were to stop service, including moving operations to San Martin Airport or San Jose Mineta International Airport.
Although the question of whether or not the airport may close remains unanswered, Learmonth said the effect of a potential closure was simple: “I may not be able to do Angel Flights, at least in the short term.”
Several pilots based out of Reid-Hillview agreed, saying the airport’s closure would be a loss for emergency services and could make general aviation in Silicon Valley’s biggest city less safe.
The airport was integral to the state’s response to the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, when pilots from Reid-Hillview Airport flew 125 tons of earthquake relief supplies to Watsonville Municipal Airport over 300 flights after roads and bridges into Santa Cruz were damaged, according to a U.S. Geological Survey paper about lifelines in the quake’s aftermath.
Reid-Hillview is still a preferred base for many pilots in the South Bay. Santa Clara resident Louise Mateos flew with the Civil Air Patrol in 2020. That nonprofit volunteer organization supports the U.S. Air Force by doing search and rescue missions, disaster response and aiding in counterdrug operations.
Louise Mateos, a pilot who flew with Angel Flight West and Reid-Hillview Disaster Airlift Response Team (RHV-DART), at Reid-Hillview Airport on Aug. 5, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
With a camera mounted on her plane, Mateos flew from Reid-Hillview in a precise pattern while the pod took photos to record damage from the SCU Lightning Complex and CZU Lightning Complex fires for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I feel happy that I can give back and I can support these, (what) I think are important efforts with the skills that I have,” Mateos said.
County Airports Director Eric Peterson said that airports are not seen as standalone objects, but as part of the National Airspace System, so the FAA would have to evaluate if Reid-Hillview’s closure would be a net benefit to the overall system.
Several emergency response teams use the airport as a base of operations, like the California Disaster Airlift Response Team, abbreviated as CalDART, a nonprofit organization that organizes aviation responses for transportation in disasters.
CalDART comes together at Reid-Hillview Airport once or twice a year for disaster preparation …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
