Well, back to living at the country's least expensive airparks. It is currently 108* but thankfully 10% humidity so the swamp cooler has the home at 73* and 76% humidity at noon as I type. The nearest town to the 3 airparks is Columbus, NM at just 3 miles to the south. A much larger town is Palomas, Mexico which is another 3 miles south over the border. Here is a picture of Palomas with the Pink Store (2 story building) in the background.





Celebrating a birthday at the Pink Store, a lot of hours among these pilots.


The Pink Store is an arts and crafts store, restaurant and bar. Clientele are the rich gringos, but only rich by local standards as a fully decked cheeseburger is $6.50 and beer $1.25. I get my prescription drugs (without the need of a doctor's prescription) for much less than CVS in the States. Cigarettes are $8.00 per carton unlike the almost $8.00 per pack in the States.

But in all honesty I do miss living in California. I still have a vacation home there that I have on the market. Next week I have a mediation meeting to attend and depending on the outcome I might either keep my vacation residence, buy another or if things don't go as hoped at mediation keep it on the market. As much as I enjoy living in this airpark, there are very few year around residents and it is almost deserted in the hot summer months. I would sure like to see more pilots move here so that it is a more social community.

Dang DO, at 108*F I can't blame them for leaving in the summer. I still plan to look you up but right now I am in the same situation with my mom as you were with your dad. In fact, 1300 miles from the plane. Maybe this fall/winter.

Bumping an old thread. This was a good read for a newb. Hoping things are still going well.

My parents are in an Airpark in NC. About 20 years now. Love that place. Someday......

Dave, guessing Lake Norman. Is that lake floatplane friendly?

North Carolina here as well. Unusual on this forum. Good to see.

180Marty wrote:Dave, guessing Lake Norman. Is that lake floatplane friendly?

Close! Miller Air Park. I learned to fly there. I used to fly a Baron out of Lake Norman for a guy that built Hooters restaurants. That was an interesting gig.... lol..

And it was float friendly 15 years ago. I am guessing it still is but not certain. I took lessons out there from a friend of my fathers in a J4 on straight floats. I was about to take my checkride and got a job in St. Augustine and moved. Should have finished it then. Dumb dumb dumb....

airscooter wrote:North Carolina here as well. Unusual on this forum. Good to see.

Ha! Twin Lakes is right up the road from us. Used to be a pretty good avionics guy there if I remember correctly.

Yes the good avionics guy is still there. Twin Lakes is changing, rent has gone up twice since the first of the year. I am looking for a new place to hangar.

Where are you based and what are you flying.

Miller Air Park is 20 minutes from my place. I usually go to the flyin they have when it doesn't conflict with one that I go to Georgia for in the Fall. Nice place, good folks. If I can swing it, that is where I want to end up living. However that doesn't fall into the air park living on the cheap category.

airscooter wrote:Yes the good avionics guy is still there. Twin Lakes is changing, rent has gone up twice since the first of the year. I am looking for a new place to hangar.

Where are you based and what are you flying.

Miller Air Park is 20 minutes from my place. I usually go to the flyin they have when it doesn't conflict with one that I go to Georgia for in the Fall. Nice place, good folks. If I can swing it, that is where I want to end up living. However that doesn't fall into the air park living on the cheap category.

We just bought a C180 and are keeping it at Miller. My Dad had a PA-18 and C170 years ago out there.

I'm in Concord flying a Falcon 50 out of CLT. But, uh, it's not mine.....

And yeah, I will agree on not living on the cheap.

For anyone interested in a nice airpark in the Pacific Northwest with rental income.

19719 Cougar Mountain Airport Rd SE

https://m.estately.com/listings/info/19 ... t-rd-se--1

Any updates Deck Officer? Hope life is treating you well and your business stuff in California went smooth. Need some updates in the dead of Winter

I guess it's time to resurrect this thread again. I get emails every once in a while asking me if I would sell an acre or two on my airport and I finally broke down. My airpark with NO HOA FEES is very attractive to most owners and the family I'm selling the first 6 acres to tomorrow is coming from an airpark in my area which is raising their HOA fees to $600 A MONTH

When their HOA is raising the monthly fees every year and half of their runway looks like a mud pit, plus they have to warn pilots to use the radio because you can't see the other end of the runway and there could be a plane taking off from the other end, they concluded it's time to move. I understand them perfectly. Why would I want to pay a lot of monthly fees for the HOA to be having monthly parties instead of taking care of the most important part of the airpark, the runway !

I just spent $40k on an irrigation system, $20k on a new mower and a new solar runway light system for my flat, smooth, nicely maintained grass runway with over 2000' of clear approaches on both ends. Even though it looks 300% better than that other runway, I want it to be the best looking runway in Texas. I even spread rye grass seeds in winter, while the Bermuda is dormant, so my runway is green all year long.

None of these expenses are being passed on to the new neighbors when they buy here. I also don't believe there's a need for all those monthly fees if all we want is to live on a nice well maintained runway. If I want to have a party every month, I'll do it and invite my neighbors, but I wouldn't want to have to pay so much to an HOA so they can have parties every month and I'm away working and can't participate in any of them.

I forgot to add that since I already have an agriculture tax exemption on my property, when they buy those 6 acres they're only going to pay property taxes on 1 acre (with a big homeowner's exemption) for their house & hangar, and then pay about $15 a year for the other 5 acres !! Plus they don't even have to mow the other 5 acres because we already have someone who does it for free to use the hay for his cows. Oh and with my price per acre you can buy 6 acres here for what you'll only get about 2 acres at other airparks (plus no agriculture exemptions on that 2 acre property).

If anyone wants more info on how to really live on an airpark on the cheap, go look for my Barnstormers ad or contact me directly. https://www.barnstormers.com/classified ... atid=16174

This is what Flying Magazine said about my little piece of heaven in East Texas:
https://www.flyingmag.com/vaca-moo-airp ... zed-heart/