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There is still HOPE !


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The day after I bought my first Mooney, A friend and I flew it from Denver to Oshkosh at night. I had about 5 hours in Mooneys with no training. I had it pretty well figured out by the time I got home. Anyway, we got tired of Oshkosh after a day or two and decided to fly to Chicago. We landed at Miggs. It was the fourth place I landed in my new Mooney. Somewhere I have a picture of me with the plane and the Chicago skyline in the background. I will have to dig it up, it is in a box somewhere. That was '84

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To me, having Meigs Field always made sense, and still does.  Such a unique and special airport situation it was!  As remote as it may seem, at least someone is providing hope for creating the field again.  That too, is quite unique! 
 
As our once beloved AOPA GA Airport advocate Bill Dunn [Bulldog] once said to me, his greatest regret was loosing Meigs [my opinion only, but I suspect he might have similar feelings about Santa Monica].
 
As passionate as we are about our personal aircraft, we've got to offer that same passion/support for our airports.  Once they are gone, they are GONE, and can be easily forgotten.   There may be some young folks here that have no idea about Meigs.  Or Meadowlark, or Simi Valley, or Ojai, etc. and the list goes on. 
 
Who can possibly forget that horrible infamous photo we saw of the large X's dug in the Meigs runway!
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4 hours ago, rbridges said:

What was the reason Daly used to shut down the airport?  Security?

That was one of the reasons stated, but he had been trying to get rid of it for years before 9/11.

Basically, he was just a dick flexing his political muscle.

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I grew up in Chicago, the night the city reported they were closing the airport I had the bright idea to fly down and be the last guy to take off before she officially closed, (me and a hundred other guys). Beautiful summer night, flew the VFR corridor down to Meigs, the tower was great provided me clearance for a low pass to a downwind for 18. Landed and taxied over to the ramp, aircraft kept coming in. As it got later some aldermen and press were on site arguing for both the airfield and closing the airfield. They were telling us we had to leave by midnight or risk having our aircraft impounded and trucked off the field. We all refused, then they offered a "lottery" to see who would be last off the field.

Just about 12:05 I called tower and requested take off clearance, taxied out and asked for one more low pass, granted. I took off on 18, turned out over the lake and turned base over Navy Pier, pushed the nose over and screamed down the runway pulling up in a left turn and north up the Chicago lake front past the ORD Class B to the north and back west to my home base at DPA. I thanked the tower and wished them the best.

The next day the press reported that the FAA issued an injunction to the city on closing the airport. The airport remained open for a few more months until that scumbag criminal Daly sent heavy equipment onto the field in the middle of the night and gouged up the RWY with big X's. (great if someone needed to declare an emergency in the middle of the night the over lake).

What my sources told me about the closing:

Unadvertised but scheduled, United Express DID have a scheduled flight out of Meigs to Springfield IL. the B1900 service was negotiated by a Republican lawmaker with United (headquartered in Chicago at the time). The lawmakers would fly back and forth between Chicago and the capital. Daly and his brother purchased and owned a lot of land on the cites far south side, they planned on building another airport there (they also tried letting MDW atrophy so they could close it), in addition Daly was trying to get riverboat gambling on the lakefront and both projects were deep sixed by the republican lawmakers. As part of his revenge he closed Meigs (even though he did take federal money and agreed to a bond to keep it open for at least another decade).  I don't know why he wasn't held accountable for his actions. But then again it's Chicago, best politicians money can buy. 

Edited by Air pirate
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