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Comment by Apocryphon | Hacker News Reader

Makes you wonder what earthquake emergency infrastructure has been shut down during cost cutting.

Santa Clara County is hell bent on closing Reid Hillview airport — how quickly they forget that in times of serious disaster, those airports are lifelines. Watsonville was cutoff during the 1989 earthquake and it was the relief flights from GA pilots that kept that town alive during that time. Disaster preparedness is a fundamental role of the state, especially a state like California where you have the potential for huge catastrophes mixed with difficult geography and lots of people.

I don't get it. What disaster preparedness role does RHV play that the much larger and extremely nearby SJC cannot play?

It gives you more loading zones and more approach/departure windows.

The idea that a bunch of GA misfits flying their mosquitos will be helpful in case of a major city being cut off by land is something only the AOPA could come up with. In that event they'll be landing C-5's and 744's full of potatoes at SJC. One flight of a 744 is worth 400 GA flights.

During peak hours, SJC has as much traffic as it can handle already. Why would you want to force more general aviation into that mix?

Also, 880, 101, and Coleman are all gridlocked during rush hours.

Doesn't the Civil Air Patrol still use Reid-Hillview?

> Santa Clara County is hell bent on closing Reid Hillview airport

It's already scheduled to be closed.

Some NIMBY found out that avgas is leaded, and it was game over. Nevermind the million single-occupant cars per day on the adjacent highways.

  It's already scheduled to be closed

It can't be closed without approval of the FAA.

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