YNG Blog

Great blog on YNG today. It amazes me how similar we are. Read this, but keep in mind this is YNG that they are talking about not ORH:

Local Airplanes Not Housed at YNG

While I was looking for other information to contribute to this blog, I was searching websites and came accross the FAA website and found something interesting. At http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry There are 379 aircraft registered in the two counties that own our Airport. For agrument sake, we can throw about 79 of those out and end up with 300.

Of the other 300, only 40 or so are at Youngstown Warren Regional. WHY? Some of those are private jets in private hangars, some are for the flight schools, some belong to the FBOs, and some are corporate jets renting space from the Airport or the FBOs. What about the rest?Well, we called three of the owners from Mahoning County and three more from Trumbull County and asked them a series of questions to find out. They were all very helpful and may start even reading this blog. Here is what we found out.

First, none of the six were at Youngstown. One was at Warren "Skeets" Airport. Four were in Pennsylvania at small airports, and one was at Salem Airport. When asked "Why?" we got several answers that were repeated by almost all of the people. All stated that YNG needs more "T-Hangars" for small aircraft. Currently, there are only 12 T Hangars at YNG that the owners say are in poor condition for such a nice airport. One owner from Poland pointed out that there are more T-Hangars at Haski Avaition in New Castle then there are registered owners in that county. He said the same goes for Grove City and Greenville.

Next, they stated that the cost of maintenance and aviation gas at YNG has always been too high compared to that of other airports including "Skeets", Greenville, Grove City, New Castle, Ashtabula, and others. They pointed out that the prices are a little better in the last two years because the new FBO and the old FBO are fighting for business, but that the difference is enough to still go elsewhere. Some said that about five years ago, the price was almost $1.00 per gallon higher at Winner Air in YNG than at Franklin, PA.

They also pointed out that YNG needs a restaurant on the field and free parking for those who want to go to it. Many again pointed to Franklin Airport in PA. That airport has a thriving restaurant and the airport gets aircraft largely because of the cost of hangars, the restaurant, and the cost of fuel. Some airports even offer self service to the pilots to save even more money.

Lastly, the owners pointed out that the administration of YNG has not always seemed receptive to single engine aircraft owners. Many have said that they have not gotten the warmest feeling from YNG and felt like they were bothering the administration and the FBO with trying to hangar their planes at Youngstown. According to many of those asked, YNG may not even have "tie downs" any more for securing parked aircraft.