My runways have been around for half a century or longer but were never registered as an airport. I went to the FAA's website, downloaded the paperwork and instructions, filled everything out and mailed it off. This was back in January.

When DeltaRomeo told me he got his registered in two months by calling the Ft Worth Texas ADO I figured I’d better check on mine since it had been six months. I called the Alaska office. They did not have my paperwork. Six months wasted.

At least now I had the name, phone number, and email of the person in charge. Fortunately I’d saved copies of all the paperwork so I emailed it to him. All fine except the form on their website is an outdated one so I had to fill out the new one. Done. 45 days he says.

If you find yourself wanting to register your airport don’t waste your time mailing anything, give your local office a call and get the persons contact info who is responsible.

Barnstormer wrote:My runways have been around for half a century or longer but were never registered as an airport. I went to the FAA's website, downloaded the paperwork and instructions, filled everything out and mailed it off. This was back in January.

When DeltaRomeo told me he got his registered in two months by calling the Ft Worth Texas ADO I figured I’d better check on mine since it had been six months. I called the Alaska office. They did not have my paperwork. Six months wasted.

At least now I had the name, phone number, and email of the person in charge. Fortunately I’d saved copies of all the paperwork so I emailed it to him. All fine except the form on their website is an outdated one so I had to fill out the new one. Done. 45 days he says.

If you find yourself wanting to register your airport don’t waste your time mailing anything, give your local office a call and get the persons contact info who is responsible.

This was my experience as well. It was actually quite pleasant once I got the right guy, and he literally took the whole thing over and pushed it through for me, even correcting a small typo that would have charted my strip somewhere in the pacific

Take care, Rob

When I went to register mine I called the local FSDO and was instructed to fill out one of two forms and send it to a guy in Oklahoma. Two weeks later, when he returned from vacation, he told me no, I had to start by filling out a different form with my local FSDO. So I got a hold of another guy locally and sent him a copy of the form I had already filled out plus filed out this other form. Both forms were very similar and asked a lot of the same questions. He eventually sent me a aerial picture of my property and I drew a border of the runway.

Weeks later he told me to fill out the form that I had originally sent him and I reminded him of that and had to resend the form as it was lost. At that time I asked when it would be displayed on the sectional and he said some other department would determine if it would be shown at all and most likely wouldn't. WTH?

I kept waiting and 6 months more went by when I got an email from the same guy telling me if I would just send in the same form I had sent in twice already, he could finish the process. I told him I already had and resent the old email, he responded thanks I'll finish this up. Two weeks later I got a final notification of the registration and the last sectional shows the airstrip. About 14 months start to finish.

Rob wrote:...This was my experience as well. It was actually quite pleasant once I got the right guy, and he literally took the whole thing over and pushed it through for me, even correcting a small typo that would have charted my strip somewhere in the pacific

Wow with your fleet that would have been a pretty penny outfitting all with floats.

SkyLarkin wrote:..About 14 months start to finish.

I’m feeling your pain.

I downloaded the forms and filled them out and sent them in per the instructions. 5 months later contacted by an engineer at Fort Worth ADO via email. Never talked on the phone once. Showed up on Sectional 6 months later.

Naturally once I got my identifier ATC kept saying it wasn't any good as it was in their system as a hospital heliport in Houston (800 miles away). Apparently the FAA recycles airport identifiers. Months after ForeFlight, Garmin, iFly and the rest had the identifier correct on the chart my local approach controllers still showed it in Houston. Go figure the FAA itself would have data more obsolete than the private sector. I even talked to ATC when I was over top of my strip so they could mark it on their chart.

jliltd wrote:I downloaded the forms and filled them out and sent them in per the instructions. 5 months later contacted by an engineer at Fort Worth ADO via email. Never talked on the phone once. Showed up on Sectional 6 months later.

Naturally once I got my identifier ATC kept saying it wasn't any good as it was in their system as a hospital heliport in Houston (800 miles away). Apparently the FAA recycles airport identifiers. Months after ForeFlight, Garmin, iFly and the rest had the identifier correct on the chart my local approach controllers still showed it in Houston. Go figure the FAA itself would have data more obsolete than the private sector. I even talked to ATC when I was over top of my strip so they could mark it on their chart.

Something similar exists with the La Garita Ranch airstrip. It is a recycled identifier from a couple of years ago or so, so older charts will show 5CO6 somewhere else, but current FAA sectionals show it where it is. When I flew there 2 weeks ago, I was using flight following and miraculously stayed on Denver Center's radar well into the San Luis Valley. To make it simple, when I first asked for flight following right after taking off from KGXY, I just said I was flying to Alamosa via Pueblo and GOSIP, then over La Veta Pass to Alamosa. So when ATC said that there was no traffic visible between where I was and Alamosa and to squawk VFR, I told her that I was actually going to 5CO6, roughly 30 miles northwest of Alamosa. She couldn't find it on their charts at Center at all. I stayed with her, and about 12 miles from 5CO6, a male voice came on and said that there was no traffic between me and La Garita and to squawk VFR, so I gathered that in the interim, they'd found it.

In any event, it's apparent that ATC doesn't always have all of the lesser known airports on their charts--maybe we should have a GPS approach created for La Garita to guarantee it would be on their charts!

Cary

GA News recently carried an accident report where an ATC controller directed a guy with an engine failure in IMC to a closed airport. The site was occupied by a business park. Evidently maintaining current information on the ATC scopes isn't a priority in the FAA. Here's a news report of that fatal accident. http://abc7ny.com/news/ntsb-controller-sent-pilot-who-died-in-long-island-plane-crash-to-closed-airport/954905/