N941WR

N941WR

Legacy Member
It is every pilots dream to live with their airplane and my wife and I are looking at buying a lot on an airpark with a 3000 foot grass strip and limited homeowner?s covenants. Oh, and it has lake access.

I would like to hear from those of you have lived or are currently living on an airpark about the pro?s and con's.

Just trying to get an idea of what I?m getting into.

Thanks!
 
Rich and I have been residents at Air Troy Estates (WI69), (near East Troy, 57C) for going on 12 years now and just love it. We have a 1700 ft. grass strip shared by 22 neighbors. The costs are minimal for upkeep and insurance. The average assessment has been about $120.00 a year per lot owner. We cut grass every Thursday, snowblow in winter as necessary, have an annual meeting and banquet, and sometimes a summer or fall picnic. It is a great opportunity to live with your airplane. We built our home in 1994 with an attached hangar/garage and a 500 sq. ft. shop in the basement with access up to the hangar via a 6 foot wide stairwell and double doors. I built two planes out here so far. A SeaRey and my 7A. If you get a chance, do it!!!

Roberta

This is livin'

house22ws.jpg
 
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Goodbye Cruel World

Geez Roberta! I thought those pics of your plane made me jealous, but the photos of your home are just too much to take. I live in Southern Cal and, while the weather here is usually pretty great, a house like that would cost millions. You are very fortunate and seem like you're well aware of it. Congrats on such a beautiful home and airplane.

Steve Zicree
RV4 finishing
 
Bill,

I looked at Long Island after coming back from Miller's as well :) A few lots left.. hmmm.. I gotta say.. I'm tempted.. but I got other things to worry about now..

I say do it :)
 
Roberta,

Great looking house, hanger, and pool! Do you rent rooms? ;)

Radomir,

Come out and buy a lot with us! There are actually more available then the web site states. The question is to get one on the strip or not. Either way the roads are zoned as taxi ways. How cool is that?
 
Twin Lakes 2OK2

I live in a prive airpark community. It's the coolest thing to have your airplane 20' from your house in your own hanger. Our runway is 30' X 2700' concrete & lighted. Currently, there's 16 owners, we share the maintenance cost & just have a mowing party when needed. One of the neatest things is, & it happened just last night, my daughter wanted to go flying. So we just got the airplane out & went. Didn't have to go to the airport or schedule an ariplane. We just went. :)
I invite anyone traveling through the OKC area to stop in.

Marshall Alexander
RV10 wings
 
Hi,
I also live in an airpark in Oregon (Skydive Oregon, identifier Ol05). The airport itself is privately held by the skydiving business. Homes surrounding it have access to use the paved runway for taxi, takeoff, and landing purposes. There are actually a few homes and lots for sale at this point on this airport. The lot sizes are either 1.5 or 5 acre parcels.

Another good resource for determining airport home availability might be the 'Living With Your Plane' association. It can be found here: http://www.livingwithyourplane.com/

All in all, for aircraft owners and pilots, this is optimal way to own/fly airplanes and gives you tons of flexibility. Flying or working on your aircraft requires only walking to the hanger. I also find that the hanger also is a very inviting living area in your home where family and friends can meet, talk, work, eat, etc.... a very different way of life...! :)
Good Luck!

Joe Blank
RV-6
N6810B
 
Sorry, Radomir! No rooms to rent. Anyway you can get property with runway access is a good thing. We happen to be on the end of our runway and that is convienient, but taxiways are cool. I love parking my SLK350 behind my RV-7A every night. You're less likely to neglect your plane, 'cause it's so easy to access for that impromptu flight.


Roberta :)
 
Next question

The airport has a lighted 3000' foot grass strip with 2 acer lots +/-. Should I go for a lot on the strip or one block off? Yes, the roads are zoned as taxie ways and aircraft have the right of way.

The lots are about the same size but the price different is around $60K. I'm not sure being on the runway is worth the extra cash.

What are your thoughts?
 
Hey, Bill. Go for the lot a block away and save the 60K for the house and plane. As long as you have free access you're still as good as any airport. It's kinda nice to look out the window and see airplanes take off and land, but may or may not be worth 60K.

We built a hangar home with the garage and hangar attached to the house. Here are some more shots for ideas.

Roberta

house14gb.jpg


This is a shot of the streetside of our home. It has a three car garage in front.

house38lc.jpg


This back with dining and kitchen down and bedrooms up.

house42qn.jpg


This is a shot inside the hangar. The railing is for the stairwell into my shop in the basement. Notice the Madrid Red hangar floor.
 
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Very nice House!

Roberta,

I really like your house! The airpark we are looking at has some interesting covenents. Minimum house size is 1800 sq ft. Which is good because I want a smaller house! as I don't use three of the rooms in this place as is.

I like the idea you park your cars in the hanger and don't have a seperate garage. On the way home tonight I was day dreaming about putting a lift for the car in the hanger to make maintenance easier.

Who knows what I'm going to do at this point. I'm kind of pissed off at Charlotte right now. They are about to raise our property tax (again) and are now talking about adding a city income tax. All this right after they just said Charlotte was the 11 most taxed area of the country. Who knew? Maybe it is just time we move out of state.

Do the idiot politicians who add/increase these taxes actually pay them or do they write an exclusion clause in to them?

(Just venting!)
 
Bill:
I live on "the other side of the street" from the runway. My house doesn't back up to the runway, but the street is a taxi way & cars do yield to airplanes. A city police officer lives across the street from me & has had to wait several times for me to pass, he doesn't even fly. :) Lots on my side of the street were 2-3k cheaper.
It's kind of interesting, to see folks out on a Sunday drive, drive by the house when the hanger door is open. They see the airplane in there & take a long look & even back up to double check to see if they really saw an airplane. We don't have any signs indicating we're an airport & the runway is kind of hidden by the trees, as you can see if you look at us (2OK2) on airnav. My house is actually in the lower left corner of the photo.

Marshall Alexander
 
Thanks, Bill. Our home is about 2000 sq. ft. on the main and upper levels with another 600 in the finished family room in the basement and another 500 in my shop. It's way more than I want to clean.

Roberta
 
Roberta---have first flown and flown off time on my 7---now in paint shop---very happy with aircraft---I have lived in air park for 20 years---still love it--still miss Sea Rey ---may build another sea plane Roy
 
Airpark Costs

Now that I've got my airplane sitting in the garage with a wing on it I'm starting to see the appeal of having my finished plane live with me. I never really thought much about it until now. I open the door from my kitchen and there's a freakin' airplane sitting there!! ME LIKEE. Does an airpark home cost more or less than a non-airpark home, and by what percentage? I know there are a zillion variables, but overall what is the premium for airpark living. Any info is much appreciated.

Steve Zicree
RV4 finishing
 
Location!!

Steve ... many variables, and mainly "location, location, location!!!"

This site gives lots of info where you can find airpark homes..

http://www.airporthomes.com/airpkdir.htm

Western states here...

http://www.airporthomes.com/viewhomeswest.htm

You are right though, it's nice to walk out to your own hangar. At La Cholla Airpark here in Tucson all of the lots are 7+ acres, and our lot is 1000 ft by 300 ft, so I have a 100 yards walk to my hangar. Other homes have attached hangars.

I just spoke to our Real Estate lady at the airpark Christmas party, and she said sales are slowing due to high prices.... $950K to $5.2M!!! I'm glad I bought 6 years ago, selling our 'shack' in Los Angeles for a ridiculous price...:)....

Her page is here...

http://www.tucsonairparks.com/airparks.html

good luck in your search... gil in Tucson at 57AZ

PS I took the runway photo hanging out of the door of a Citabria...
 
airparks

Steve,

I agree with Gil. It is the location that is important. There seems to be a very wide range. A couple of RV guys who live in Orlando bought 5 acres each at an airpark in rural Tennessee for about 50k each. One of the lots is on the runway.
 
Crazy market

I live at Stellar airpark in Chandler AZ (P19). I have a new home and have been here 3.5 years. My home has doubled in price. In the older section that has homes that date back to the late 60's they are getting 600K plus. My hangar is 1800 sq. ft. My house is a semi custom, 2600 sq. ft. Our street is all semi customs. Everything north is custom ranging from 1.5 mil to many million. We call our street the "south side." One guy in the custom area has a 10,000 sq. ft. house with 6700 sq. ft. hangar.

This is an extremely unique airpark in that it is very urban. Within 5 minutes we have a major shopping mall, every restaurant known to man and freeway access.

It was very affordable 3 years ago until the market went nuts. About the only affordable airpark homes (250k-500k) are in the middle of BFE!!!!

Happy to have made the decision when I did and I feel blessed to be here. Yes it is very nice to walk out of house and into the hangar. Most importantly we are a true neighborhood, where everyone knows everyone.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
 
Darwin's airpark is Saweet! Even my wife said she would be willing to live there... that's a huge step. I am determined to live in one someday... until then, I will dream.

The only problem with Darwin's is apparently they have some sort of bird problem... flamingos was it Darwin??? ;) :D
 
airpark costs

Steve,
We just bought an acre in a soon-to-be airpark community near us in middle Georgia. Here's what we found out so far: There is a pretty strict covenant to adhere to for example, minimum sq. ft. home, hangar can be attached or detached but of the same construction as the house, landscape, etc.. There will be a annual maintenance fee for the airstrip ($350). The square ft. cost of the hangar is added to the house but the bank needs to do some comps in order to get an accurate appraisal and with nothing else in the area to compare such a house to, it will be a hurdle.
I anticipate a higher homeowners insurance cost also. For us, a modest 4 bedroom home with attached hangar will be at least 300k. We got lucky because the development was just getting underway as I was looking for just such an opportunity.

Bruce
RV9 soon complete

P.S. Lots are still available in beautiful Peach County Georgia!
 
Fuel...

Steve ... one more consideration is the availability of fuel.

At our airpark, we have a 10,000 gallon tank and sell 100LL (presently $2.90) to homeowners and associate members, but a lot of airparks don't sell fuel.

Have not to stop off at another airport when leaving for a trip is really convenient.

gil in Tucson
 
szicree said:
Now that I've got my airplane sitting in the garage with a wing on it I'm starting to see the appeal of having my finished plane live with me. I never really thought much about it until now. I open the door from my kitchen and there's a freakin' airplane sitting there!! ME LIKEE. Does an airpark home cost more or less than a non-airpark home, and by what percentage? I know there are a zillion variables, but overall what is the premium for airpark living. Any info is much appreciated.

Steve Zicree
RV4 finishing
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Steve,
We bought a lot in the Mazatzal Mountain Air Park in Payson, AZ. We haven't built on it yet and, as mentioned previously, there are Codes and Covenants relative to minimum home size and max hangarsize etc. here as well but the appealing thing to us was the location (we both love AZ).
Also, this airpark has no private strip. It has taxiway access to Payson municipal airport (KPAN). The residential streets were constructed with aircraft traffic in mind and no onstreet parking is allowed in consideration of the plane traffic.

-Mike
 
I've been considering to live in an airpark, before, during or after finishing my RV. The only downside I can see is the noise. Is there another?

What do I have to pay attention when choosing the airpark?

Thanks again.
 
Homeowners association

Over here in the USA, airparks usually have a homeowners association that meet regularly and decide on rule regulations and bylaws. They also have a yearly fee for upkeep and can run anywhere from several hundred dollars and up. We are also looking and often times you meet some real buttholes who don't fly but live there so it can get "interesting".

Ask some of the homeowners there how they like it, would they do it again, what don't they like and so on.

Regards,
 
Unfortunately, in the US HOA's are a fact of life, whether airparks or not. Things can get more contentious in Airparks because the number of home owners is relatively small (speaking only of my experience) so not alot of numbers to drown out the loud ones.

I don't consider noise to be much of an issue because the number of aircraft is small.

The main thing to consider is how it is set-up, restrictions, by-laws and such. Make sure protections are in place to keep it open and operating in the future.
 
Not noisy at all!!

There are 27 properties on our airpark and over thirty airplanes. While there is the occasional take off and ground operations, there is less noise from aircraft here than when I lived five miles from a GA airport.
We are lucky and our Airpark is one of the nicest you will find. Many of us are friends, we have frequent gatherings, lots of help and advice on projects, just a really great experience that I would not trade.
However, as Pierre has noted, there are some really bad ones out there, or so I have heard. Things change and if your airpark starts to get away from aviation, it would not be a good place to be.
 
Noise??????

That is MUSIC dude.

The biggest issues I have seen in the almost two years I have lived in an airpark, (o61) is in the realm of local politics, and dealing with urban encroachment on the airport. When this place was first developed, it appears that there was not a lot of thought given to protecting the airport in the future.

In addition to looking for a nice place to live, look into how the place is run, and what is likely to happen in the next 25 years.

That said, my wife and I absolutely love it here.
 
Watch out for....

I, too, have been looking into airpark living. The biggest problems my research has turned up are:

1- Non-pilot residents. Try to find an airpark that doesn't allow them.

2- Outdoor pets. They don't mix well with runways and taxiways. Obviously you can't do much about the native ones.

3- Instrument approaches are rare with residential airparks, but with the new GPS approaches, this shouldn't be a problem too much longer, but still a consideration.
 
Mike S said:
Noise??????

That is MUSIC dude.

The biggest issues I have seen in the almost two years I have lived in an airpark, (o61) is in the realm of local politics, and dealing with urban encroachment on the airport. When this place was first developed, it appears that there was not a lot of thought given to protecting the airport in the future.

In addition to looking for a nice place to live, look into how the place is run, and what is likely to happen in the next 25 years.

That said, my wife and I absolutely love it here.
Click to expand...

Cameron Park, huh? I've never flown in there, but up until about 3 months ago I was based at the Nut Tree.
 
We have a new one going in here in East TN. I forget the name. You must at least have a Sport Pilots rating to buy.

Downside? Minimum $230,000 for the lot only!
Tons of restrictions which will push the homes up into the 1 to 3 million dollar range.

Since the housing market crash and the credit crunch on mortgages, my bet is the developer has this way overpriced.
 
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What noise?

Im moving to an airpark spring of 2008 where my borther lives and most of my pilot friends. I love the prop sound early in the AM!!! I see no down side.:)
 
hydroguy2 said:
Hey! I know that skypark. And is the reason I sold it and bought where all owners must hold a Private license or above.
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I looked briefly into skypark living, and it's still in the cards in the future when the nest gets emptied. The issue I came upon had more to do with the quality of the schools around the particular park I was looking at (Spruce Creek in FL). I assume that would be due to the sparseness of the school age children population around skyparks (a nice way to say that the overwhelming mayority of the residents are of retirement age).

I have an 8th and a 10th grader, so I look forward to resuming my drooling over a skypark home in a few years.

In any case, Spruce Creek has a requirement that you be a pilot, have a valid medical, and own an airplane in order to buy there. That should cut down on the "butthole" factor. I hate (and that is no understatement) people who buy homes around an airport and then turn around and complain about the noise. Hey, you didn't hear the planes flying overhead when you visited your prospective house?

Anyway, enough ranting. Later.
 
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Great place

Spruce Creek is a great place! I have a friend there who owns a Cirrus and the daily routine is to gather at the big ol' oak tree late in the afternoon, margaritas, or whatever, in hand and watch airplanes take off and land....critiqueing them all while sipping bubbly. Bunch of expensive iron: SX 300's RV's galore, P-51, F 86, T-6's ....whooohoo. Mark Martin Realty...

Regards,
 
the_other_dougreeves said:
Not to be picky, but do you need a current medical too? No Sport Pilots?

TODR
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No, They just want owners to be pilots or previously been pilots. I'm certain they will even accept Sport Pilots since it is a FAA cert.

Heck, it's not like SportPilots' knuckles drag on the ground, they really are pilots:D

Here's a pic. Our lot is in the lower right quadrant, between the culd'sac and the intersecting taxiway. 2.5acres. gotta finishing building the RV, before she wants me to start building the loghome.

runway.jpg
 
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Is there any question?

Speaking as someone who's always dreamed of being able to live in an airpark, I can't believe there's any question about whether or not it would be a good move. Makes me want to start a poll:


How awesome would it be to live in an airpark?

A. So awesome
B. Both A & B​


mcb

P.S. Too bad there aren't any airparks around here... you lucky dogs...
 
Speaking from my experience the last 2.5 yrs living at an airpark, non-pilot neighbors is not always a bad thing. Alot of the off-runway residents here are pilots or retired pilots, but there are about an equal number who are not. Haven't had any issues with any of them. I have 3 yrd old twins and it is nice to have young kids in the neighborhood (also makes my non-pilot wife happy:)).

I guess our airpark is unique with both an entire home owner HOA and a runway HOA.

The only real problems here are a bad water company (hopefully new ownship has fixed that) and deer on/near the runway at night. Oh yeah, the biggest problem is living on the runway and not having enough $$ to build my hanger yet. Got to get those kids in school and my wife back to work.:D
 
Residential airparks good or bad idea?

Guys i've thought about trying to find a house at a residential airpark community. Funny thing is i can't **** for information on them. Can anyone shed some light for me. Does anyone live on one that could tell me if the cost outweighs the benefits?
thanks in advance
 
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