Interesting local Jetport news : FAA news site

While browsing the local television station's site for the current weather radar signature, I happened to glance at the front page, and saw an interesting story regarding the ATC radar at KGSP, the closest jetport to me. I also found an article at the local newspaper's site as well. It seems that the trees are causing blind spots in the radar screen, causing aircraft to suddenly disappear and then reappear on the screen. According to the WSPA story, there was a close call with a near mid-air collision recently due to the problem. Doing a search, I haven't seen any other problems at other airfields in recent history due to trees blocking the radar.

It's kind of interesting to note that the chairman of the board at GSP is none other than Roger Milliken, the former CEO of Milliken & Company, the company I am employed. He's a huge supporter of the environment, and has an extrordinary love for anything relating to plant life. In fact, he has a staff horticulturist that looks after all plant life on his 70 or so manufacturing locations. That being said, I'm sure Roger is cringing a bit knowing that they are cutting down trees that he (probably) had planted many years ago.

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While doing my searches for relavent information regarding airport radar, I found a pretty interesting site that summarizes all FAA-related news that is current. Since the FAA is pretty much where it's at for all things aviation (at least here in the states), it seems to be a good place to find out what's going on. Check it out.