[BC] FCC response to complaint about incorrect tower registration information

[richardbrianjohnson at verizon.net]

 When I lived in Beverly Massachusetts, I kept my airplane at Beverly Airport. I noted that a new town water tank was being installed on a hilltop right off the end of runaway 9/27. It was about 1 mile from the threshold, was 85 feet high, and set on a hilltop about 200 feet above the airport elevation.  Clearly, it needed to be marked and lighted. Instead, it was painted tree-green to the tree-tops and sky-blue to its top. This was to appease the neighbors who wanted it to blend into the environment.

I contacted the water department and brought them a copy of the regulations. They claimed that it didn't apply to them because they were a public utility. Many pilots contacted the FAA and they refused to do anything until they called a public hearing. At the hearing, the water department claimed that there was an abandoned cable-TV tower on the site that they took for back taxes when the cable-TV company went out-of-business. The old tower "grandfathered" the site as a "known obstruction" so it didn't need to be marked and lighted.

The local FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) took this all down and scheduled another hearing. This made me very angry. I wrote a detailed letter to Senator Kennedy and, within days, the tower was repainted with red and white checker-board squares with illumination installed at its top.

The tower was thereafter called the "Johnson Tower" by the tower crew when being pointed out to VFR pilots. Sometimes you need to rattle the cage.
 
 Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
http://www.AbominableFirebug.com
 
On 11/05/13, Mike McCarthy<towers at mre.com> wrote:
 
If the tower has tenants or other FCC licensees or permittees, ***they***
should be concerned. It's ultimately on them to make sure the structure
is compliant.