Oxnard Airport

* Re “Airport Is an Asset,” Ventura County editorial, Sept. 10.

Why carry out the legacy of an airport director who has resigned and an Oxnard city councilman who lost a high school to the airport when he was supposed to be minding the store, has shown his loyalty to the pro-airport special interests and who will be politically irrelevant after Nov. 7?

After damaging Oxnard and Somis, maybe the next necessary regional decision is a freeway to Ojai?

Newspaper editorials naturally reinforce their revenue source--the paid business ads. Politicians naturally act as the minions of their big-money, special-interest contributors. But the people--the ordinary thousands of us not out to profiteer but to simply live in a beautiful, clean, tranquil Ventura County--do not want yet another form of Los Angeles sprawl brought in on us.

Just say “no airliners here.”

DINEANE SPERSKE

Oxnard

* Have you ever done a roll? Or a loop? Have you ever played hopscotch with the clouds or felt the wind in your face in the front seat of an old Stearman? Have you ever flown formation or slashed around the pylons at Reno?

I have.

Have you ever gone on a flight out of Oxnard Airport? It’s almost like taking off from a carrier deck or flying off the edge of the world. The whole Pacific Ocean stretches out in front of you, and there is nothing on Earth to compare with that feeling. It is elation, it is joy, it is exhilaration.

It is also a realization of man’s greatest achievement: mastery of the skies, the ability to deny the forces of gravity.

I have had the opportunity to fly and shake hands with some of the finest pilots ever produced. And because of this relationship, I have come to appreciate the sound of an airplane flying over my head.

The Oxnard Airport was built 65 years ago and is an integral part of the Oxnard Plain, historic in significance. It is also a vital economic factor in the life of Ventura County. To shut it down would not only be foolhardy, it would be unfair to a large majority of people who don’t write letters to the editor, don’t attend City Council meetings and don’t have any complaints about the fact that there is an airport proximate to their dwelling. They know that it all comes with the territory.

My advice to those who have never experienced light aircraft flight would be to go out to Oxnard Airport and pay a small fee to take a flight around our beautiful county in an old Stearman, with the wind in your face, at sunset, during the fall or even the winter to find out what I’m talking about.

BUD MacNAIR

Ventura